NCAA Tournament 2026

[inthescoop]

looks like Miami (Ohio) is the lowest ranked team in that got in while not being an automatic qualifier.

Depends which ranking you're looking at - the committee also said Miami OH was not their last team in despite being ranked higher on their list at 44.

[LS71]

Whose team do you guys feel will do better, Calipari’s or Pitino’s?

[tdmass]

I know we haven't been to the NCAA's in a while but at least we didn't spend $32M!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/ ... 491&ei=100

[Sheck]

^
We spent $6.3 - highest in the MAC.

Akron spent $4 and Miami spent $1.9. Buffalo was next highest spender in the MAC at $4.5m.

Full list here.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

As I said in the other thread, those $ figures are for FY25, which I believe are for the 24-25 season. You can still draw comparisons to the MAC, of course.

[Juice Stand]

^ We won 12 games (11 D1 games) that season with a 223 NET, so it's actually worse.

[kdogg8173]

Whose team do you guys feel will do better, Calipari’s or Pitino’s?

I’ll go with Ark. They can shoot it

[LS71]

I know of three UMass connections in the Dance, Cal, Pitino and Garcia. Are there any others?

[Sheck]

Miami with a pretty convincing win over SMU.

[Steve81]

LS71, I'd count Jenny Dell, a former UMass Cheerleader. That was a great game and performance by Miami. We played those guys tight and beat them.
Hope they beat Tennessee, who knocked us out of our last Dance appearance.

[devildawg3010]

I know of three UMass connections in the Dance, Cal, Pitino and Garcia. Are there any others?

Bruiser, Chuck Martin, and Ricky Harris.

[inthescoop]

A great win for Miami OH tonight, basically had home court playing in Dayton. Was surprised they were +7.5

And a Miami OH win means more $$ for UMass

[Juice Stand]

Good for Miami. Say what you want about the First Four, but it's technically the tournament and they got a win against a NET 37 ACC school. They've at least proven that they belong in the field and can compete with power schools, which was the knock on them all year long.

And a Miami OH win means more $$ for UMass

Totally. I thought the payout value would be less for First Four games, but according to the Sports Business Journal, every win regardless of round is worth one unit, approximately $2 million paid over 6 years. So thanks to Miami, UMass just got $2 million richer. And thanks to UMass, who beat Miami and helped Akron get the auto-bid, the MAC has 2 schools in the dance with a chance to make even more money.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/A ... y-payouts/

[inthescoop]

^I believe the $2M is split.

Every conference distributes the money differently to its member institutions—some divide it equally, while others give more to schools that make the tournament. The MAC uses a hybrid approach: Payouts from base units are split evenly among the conference’s 13 schools, while money earned via additional units is distributed based on team success. Factors measuring success include the regular season championship, NCAA Tournament bids, NCAA Tournament wins, NIT bids, Quadrant 1 wins and finishing the season in the top 50 or top 100 in NET rating.

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/colleg ... 234887009/

Now Miami OH plays #6 Tennessee next who I believe will win easy. Deja vu of Tennessee vs UMass also a 11 vs 6 seed game.

[Juice Stand]

^Yes, thank you for correcting me on that.