Nate Oats opens up on perceived death of Cinderella in March Madness

Nate Oats‘ first taste of March Madness magic came as true Cinderella when his 13th-seeded Buffalo Bulls upset fourth-seeded Arizona in the opening round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. While the clock struck midnight on Oats’ Cinderella run in a Round of 32 loss to fifth-seeded Kentucky that season, it was a moment the sixth-year Alabama head coach won’t ever forget.

Now, with every Sweet Sixteen team still dancing in the 2025 NCAA Tournament hailing from the Power Four ranks, Oats weighed in on the rumored end of college basketball’s Cinderellas.

“That’s a good question. When I was at Buffalo, we won a couple tournament games. We never made it to the Sweet 16, though. At that level, you’ve got to upset two teams really to get where you’re at … it’s hard,” Oats said Wednesday ahead of the second-seeded Crimson Tide’s Sweet 16 game vs. No. 6-seed BYU on Thursday. “There’s still obviously room for upsets. They’ve had upsets in (this year’s) tournament. You’re going to have upsets every year. My guess would be you’re still going to have some upsets. But I did see somebody made the point, like, anybody that gets really good at mid-major level, it seems like, there’s just a lot more rev share, NIL money up at the higher levels.

“(So) it’s going to be harder for — I don’t know that I would have been able to keep my whole team together at Buffalo in today’s day and age.”

Citing NIL and the transfer portal, longtime ESPN broadcasting icon Dick Vitale joined a chorus of college basketball voices bemoaning the end of true mid-major Cinderellas during a Tuesday appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.

Dick Vitale on Cinderellas: ‘Something has to be done, because you hate to see the little guy rubbed out’

“With (all) the big schools, I’ll tell you what else is happening: you don’t see any Cinderellas,” Vitale told McAfee. “You’re not going to see many Cinderellas any more because it’s all the schools that can pay the big dollars. The SEC has seven teams in the (Sweet Sixteen). Why? Because the SEC has gotten with the times, and the ACC hasn’t gotten with the times. So they’ve got one team, Duke. … Something has to be done, because you hate to see the little guy rubbed out.”

The only double-digit seed still dancing in this year’s March Madness is 10th-seeded Arkansas, hardly a Cinderella candidate coming out of the powerhouse SEC, while the next lowest seeds are sixth-seeded Ole Miss and BYU, neither of which can fit their feet into a glass slipper.

Despite Vitale’s concern, Oats found a silver lining in the reality that as Power Four programs rely more heavily on recruiting talented veterans out of the transfer portal, it allows mid-majors to recruit more talented high school players that could be passed over for more experienced talent.

“Those mid-major schools, they’re going to have to do a really good job of evaluating talent coming out of high school. Then you’re just going to have to do it with some younger guys, I think,” Oats added. “I think it’s still going to done, but might be a little bit harder. I think you’ll still see some Cinderellas coming through. But I haven’t put a lot of time into that. I’ve got a really good offensive team in BYU, I’ve had to put a lot of time in. That’s my two cents on something I haven’t thought too much about.”