The writing had been on the wall, but Selection Sunday was a reality check for the Oklahoma Sooners that they still didn't do enough this season despite a late revival to get on the NCAA Tournament bubble. But the real reality is that the Texas Longhorns didn't either and had no business getting in over their Red River rival.
The bracket and entire 68-team field for the 2026 NCAA Tournament was revealed on Sunday, but OU was once again nowhere to be found for the fourth time in five years under head coach Porter Moser. The Sooners were ultimately the first team left out of the tournament, according to the CBS Sports broadcast, after winning eight of their last 11 games to even have hope in March. It was the third time under Moser that OU was one of the first four teams out.
Sooners considered first team out of NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday
Miami (OH), which was undefeated until suffering an upset to UMass in the quarterfinal of the MAC Tournament, was ultimately the last team to earn an at-large bid right ahead of the Sooners. However, even with that 31-1 record, Miami (OH) was still 16 spots below OU in the NET rankings and had zero Quad 1 games compared to the Sooners going 4-10 in Quad 1 matchups.
In that case, quantity obviously outweighed quality. It's still hard to fault the selection committee for putting a 31-1 team in the NCAA Tournament, though. If OU fans really want a complaint, it's with Texas.
The other last four teams in included NC State, Texas and SMU. The Sooners beat Texas 88-85 in overtime in Austin just a week and a day before Selection Sunday to split the Red River Rivalry series for the season. The Longhorns have two more Quad 1 wins than OU with six, but that head-to-head win for the Sooners just last week should have carried more weight than any others in this comparison. OU also finished the season with one more total win at 19-15 compared to Texas at 18-14.
The Longhorns were then bounced in the first round of the SEC Tournament by 15-seed Ole Miss and will enter the NCAA Tournament on a three-game losing streak. Meanwhile, as the selection committee prefers teams playing their best basketball in March, the Sooners had two blowout wins in the SEC Tournament before narrowly falling to eventual champion Arkansas in the quarterfinal on Friday. That loss ended the Sooners' six-game winning streak and likely would have been the difference in OU getting its name called on Selection Sunday.
Ultimately, the Sooners paid for their nine-game losing streak early on in SEC play before turning things around. Regardless, though, if the choice came down between the Red River Rivalry, the decision had already been made on the court only eight days ago.