Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes dropped a quote on Selection Sunday that almost no one in college basketball agrees with.

If you’ve spent much time on social media over the past week or two, you’ve almost certainly seen former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl politicking for the Tigers to make the NCAA Tournament — despite their unsightly 17-16 record.

Pearl’s argument is that Auburn played an extremely difficult schedule.

Bruce Pearl: "Auburn beat 3 champions this year. They beat Florida, they beat St. John's, and they beat Arkansas. They played the toughest schedule in the country, don't know if they were rewarded for it." pic.twitter.com/8aUDmFRBo8

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 15, 2026

After Auburn was left out of the tournament on Sunday, Pearl took to Twitter to voice his frustration.

I asked the question and that was the answer the commissioner gave. Nobody got screwed here as it's always close but Auburn was better than SMU in 5 out of 7 metrics and the number and quality wins aren't even close. AU beat 3 Power 5 Conference Champs! SMU OOCSOS 191 AUBURN 16 https://t.co/eFQGBQYj1e

— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) March 15, 2026

It was bizarre that CBS Sports allowed Pearl to go on television and openly stump for the team coached by his son. But that’s exactly what went down over the last couple of weeks.

Rick Barnes is on Bruce Pearl’s side

Vols head coach Rick Barnes was asked Sunday after the NCAA Tournament field was announced whether he felt Auburn should’ve made the dance.

Barnes point blank said that he felt like they should’ve.

“I do,” said Barnes when asked about Auburn. “When you think about our league and how hard it is, and I think Ole Miss just proved it. They had lost how many games in a row, and they go there and make a run. And it is hard to come all the way through. But you think about it, teams like Ole Miss, Oklahoma, South Carolina, those teams, LSU, people have no idea. So yeah, and a lot of those teams dealt with injuries this year….This league is grueling. And so I think certainly they had a case. There’s no question about that.”

Barnes is always going to show a ton of respect to his SEC counterparts, so I understand where he’s coming from.

But Auburn was basically a .500 team this season. Sure, they played a tough schedule — but just showing up to play tough games doesn’t mean you should make the tournament after nearly finishing with a losing record.