NCAA Basketball’s March Madness tournament is arguably the most cutthroat championship series in American sports. There is no mercy. No matter if you’re a “high-major” state school with an enormous athletics budget or a tiny “mid-major” school in the middle of nowhere, college basketball does not discriminate. If you lose once, your season is over and there’s nothing you can do about it.

This one-and-done mentality had already begun for the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, a school in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The RedHawks are the final undefeated team in men’s college basketball this season, and despite that, there is a scenario where they don’t make the tournament. Ordinarily, the smaller mid-major conferences, which include Miami (Ohio)’s MAC, can only make the tournament by winning their conference tournament. However, there are “at-large” bids where teams that the selection committee believes have earned their ticket to the tournament are allowed to go without winning their conference tournaments. Bruce Pearl, a commentator at TNT and former head coach of the Auburn Tigers men’s basketball team, explained the issue that he has with Miami making the tournament. "If we're selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami (Ohio) is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion, because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country, and that's going to be a difficult choice for the committee."

This is a common talking point in the world of college sports. Not every team can play an equally difficult schedule, and the RedHawks are an example of that. Their schedule this season consisted almost entirely of other mid-majors, which many see as less impressive compared to a team with just a few losses that played against stronger teams. The RedHawks, however, had no choice but to use this schedule. Teams agree to play each other before seasons start, and no high-majors wanted to play the RedHawks. Risking a loss to a mid-major, no matter how good, will always outweigh the value a win against the same team brings to their resume. 

While Pearl’s claim is true — lacking wins against strong teams does weaken the case for an at-large bid — the RedHawks are not an example of this. It is physically impossible for the RedHawks to have finished with a better tournament resume. Even if they do lose in the conference tournament, it’s antithetical to the spirit of March Madness to exclude the wildest team in the country. The reason college basketball is such a compelling sport to watch is because of how unpredictable it is; when 361 teams are playing 30 or more games in a season, all in pursuit of the same trophy, madness will ensue no matter what. College basketball is worse when people are allowed to downplay one of the rarest team accomplishments in the sport by painting them as inferior for being a mid-major.

College basketball has already begun to slip from the amateurism that made it so much fun even before March Madness came around. Charles Bediako, a former Alabama Crimson Tide center who left after his sophomore year for the NBA’s G-League, was granted eligibility to come back to Tuscaloosa and play college basketball again in the middle of the season. The 22-year-old Bediako had every incentive to follow this path; he would likely be making far more money by going back to play for the Crimson Tide than he would by staying on his G-League salary. College basketball has become a professional league in a way, just with more rules governing player eligibility that are challenged constantly. College basketball fundamentally changes when players like Bediako are not only allowed to return, but would be seen as unwise if they chose not to go back to college. This is also a luxury only the high-major schools have access to, since most small athletics programs don’t have the budget to bankroll a former professional player to come back to college.

College basketball is naturally not as high-quality as the NBA. The players are limited to being college students with a finite amount of eligibility to play in the league, and if they are good enough, they can continue to a league of players who play the sport for a living. Focusing on bending the rules to remove the uncertainty and excitement of watching a basketball league built on strong emotions is missing the point. Trying to separate the mid-majors from high-majors, as we’re seeing right now, is an attempt to make college basketball something that it’s not solely for the benefit of the big schools. 

What makes college basketball uniquely interesting to follow is that it generates nostalgic moments unlike any other sport. When there are hundreds of teams each playing 30 games a season just to get the chance to play in the most unpredictable tournament in sports, the moments come naturally. There is nothing to reminisce about when undefeated teams are excluded from the tournament and professionals are allowed to restart their eligibility, especially when these decisions are made in pursuit of a goal that college basketball has never had. The RedHawks’ fate in the tournament will be determined on March 15, when the brackets for the NCAA tournament are selected ahead of its first game on March 17.