LOOK: Dick Vitale reveals biggest NCAA Tournament snubs

Following the release of the NCAA Tournament bracket Sunday evening, ESPN analyst Dick Vitale shared his biggest snubs. Vitale believes that Texas A&M, SMU and Xavier all deserved bids, and also had issues with the seeding of conference champions Iowa and Tennessee.

Texas A&M finished the season with a 23-12 record after making a run through the SEC Tournament this past weekend. The Aggies took out No. 1 seed Auburn and No. 4 seed Arkansas before ultimately falling to Tennessee in the championship game. Despite its impressive showing over the past month, which included winning eight of its past 10 games, A&M was listed as one of the committee’s first four teams out.

Tennessee received a three seed, but Vitale said in his tweet he would have liked to see the Volunteers as a two. The ESPN analyst isn’t the only one to think so, as Kentucky coach John Calipari also vouched for Tennessee after losing to them in the SEC Tournament on Saturday.

Dick Vitale thinks Iowa is better than a 5 seed pic.twitter.com/xFEhnqmpI1

— I Love Iowa Basketball (@ILoveIowaBball) March 13, 2022

Iowa also won its conference tournament, defeating Purdue by a score of 75-66 on Sunday to claim the Big Ten crown. Sophomore forward Keegan Murray stole the show, averaging 25.8 points across the Hawkeyes’ four games. Murray’s 26 points in a quarterfinal game against Rutgers allowed him to surpass Luka Garza and become the school’s single-season leading scorer.

The Hawkeyes were given a five seed, much to the disappointment of Vitale. Based on their performance in the Big Ten Tournament and play of late, he would have liked to see them a bit higher. Instead they draw a matchup against 12th-seeded Richmond, which defeated Davidson to claim the Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship earlier Sunday.

Dick Vitale was also sad not to see Xavier in the NCAA Tournament. The Musketeers are typically a regular fixture in March Madness, but found themselves on the bubble following an 18-13 season. Vitale pointed to a nonconference wins against Ohio State and ACC champion Virginia Tech, as well as two wins against Creighton as the reason Xavier should be dancing. However, the Musketeers certainly didn’t help themselves down the stretch of the season, losing six of their last seven games.

Finally, Vitale stood up for SMU, which lost to Memphis in the semifinals of the AAC Tournament. The Mustangs had previously beaten the Tigers twice in the regular season, and also claimed a victory against five-seeded Houston.

Although it definitely would have been exciting to see some of the names Vitale mentioned in the tournament, the harsh reality for bubble teams is that there’s only so much room. If these squads would have performed slightly better during the regular season, they might have been dancing.

The NCAA Tournament is set to begin Tuesday when the play-in games begin at 6:30 p.m. ET.