Every single year, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee gets grief for the teams they put in and the teams they leave out.

I am one to usually withhold judgement because I understand the process and realize it is very difficult to find enough room when you are forced to put Conference Tournament Champions in the field even though they have no business playing on the same court as the higher seeds in most cases.

But, this years exclusion of SMU is one though that I just couldn't let pass.

Last week at this time, SMU was in the AP Top 25 poll. This week they're not in the NCAA Tournament.

Clearly the Committee was looking more at their last three regular season games which ended in losses above the entire season and body of work.

This Larry Brown led team has been stellar all year and one of the good stories in College Basketball this season.

SMU finished the season 23-9 and had an RPI of 53 entering Sunday's games. Plus with two wins over UConn and wins over Cincinnatti and Memphis, clearly they deserved a spot in the field.

For future reference, the NCAA Tournament Committee needs to look at making the conference champions from the lowest ranked conference play in the play in games, and force more of a onus on the entire body of work instead of what is in the most recent memory of those selecting the teams.

SMU got screwed, plain and simple.  They now must settle for the #1 overall seed in their first NIT Appearance since 2000.

** YOU CAN EMAIL JEFF THURN AT JT@ESPN991.COM & FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @JTESPN991

 

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