Column: Miami men’s basketball’s strength of schedule no longer matters

COLUMN

In the past 80 years, only 21 men’s basketball teams have gone undefeated in the regular season. Of those 21, seven have gone on to win the national championship.

With an overtime win against Ohio University on March 6, the Miami University RedHawks men’s basketball team became the most recent team to attain a flawless regular season. At 31-0, Miami set a program and mid-american conference (MAC) record for wins in a season. However, time will tell if Miami goes on to March Madness success.

For some, time will tell if the RedHawks will go dancing at all.

Around the time Miami received its first national ranking in January, online conversations erupted with complaints about the RedHawks’ strength of schedule. Both casual fans and professional analysts have argued that Miami’s undefeated status has an asterisk next to it: The team hasn’t played any Power Four opponents this season.

Basketball is a game of metrics when it comes to deciding who qualifies for the NCAA tournament. The 10-person selection committee primarily relies on the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), an algorithm that uses team value index (TVI), which rewards teams for beating “quality” opponents, and an adjusted net efficiency.

A team’s NET score isn’t the sole determinant of their postseason aspirations, but it’s one that the selection committee weighs heavily on. Miami ranks 54th in the country based on NET score, mostly due to the opponents it faced this season. Furthermore, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) ranks Miami at 91st with a 6.5 BPI, meaning the RedHawks are expected to be 6.5 points or better than the average Division I team.

The NET uses a quadrant system that ranks a team’s wins and losses on impressiveness, for lack of a better word. It uses the strength of the opponent and the location of the game to determine whether a game is Quad 1 or Quad 2. The more Quad 1 wins a team collects, the higher NET ranking it will achieve.

Miami has played zero Quad 1 and two Quad 2 games this season (Wright State and Akron). A bulk of the RedHawks’ games have been in Quad 3 (11 games) and Quad 4 (15 games). Among those matchups include three non-Division I opponents.

All in all, Miami had one of the weakest strengths of schedules in the NCAA this season. For basketball fans and analysts, this is a huge factor in whether the team makes it to March Madness.

Opinions appear divided online. Some argue that the RedHawks have done enough to make it in the Field of 68 regardless of what happens in the MAC tournament. Others argue that they need to go far in the tournament to have a chance. Yet another group claims that the regular season resume means nothing, and that Miami needs to win the MAC championship for the automatic bid.

Regardless of any metric, statistic or formula, basketball fans have to admit: 31-0 is an unreal accomplishment.

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Ignore how many Quad 3 and Quad 4 games occupied Miami’s schedule this season. Ignore the fact that the RedHawks didn’t play any Power Four opponents (despite their best efforts to schedule them). Ignore how many games went into overtime or were decided by a handful of points.

The RedHawks won 31-straight games. They haven’t lost a collegiate basketball game since March 15, 2025.

No matter how you frame it, going 31-0 is an accomplishment. Once January hit and conference play began, the argument with strength of schedule should have fizzled out. Miami faced the standard slate of MAC opponents that it faces every year, and it won every game.

The RedHawks defeated the University of Akron, the reigning conference champions, as well as Kent State University, Ohio University and the University of Massachusetts, all of which were predicted to finish in the top five of the MAC before the season started.

When Miami looked like it would end its winning streak, like during the game against Western Michigan University, it somehow fought back and took the lead before the final buzzer. The RedHawks continuously find ways to win, and a perfect record in the MAC shouldn’t be ignored.

The March Madness Cinderella story is as important to basketball as the tournament itself. If 68 teams make it into the bracket, then a handful of them should be mid-majors and underappreciated teams.

The RedHawks have made a strong case for themselves, not only by joining the selective group of teams that have gone undefeated in the regular season, but by doing so with several overtime wins, close games and last-second points.

In an era where data analytics, formulas, algorithms and statistics largely determine which teams make it into the bracket, the selection committee would be mistaken to not include Miami, regardless of its strength of schedule.

@kethanbabu_04

babukc2@miamioh.edu