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Miami (Ohio) is currently the only college basketball team with a spotless record, but there’s still a chance they won’t make the NCAA Tournament despite starting the season at 30-0. The biggest liability on the RedHawks résumé is the weakness of their schedule, but the coach who helped put it together stressed it was the best he could do after bids to play dozens of stronger teams around the country failed to land.
There were 365 men’s basketball teams playing at the Division I level when the 2025-26 campaign kicked off, and there is only one that’s managed to remain undefeated with the end of the regular season on the immediate horizon: the Miami squad that’s based in the state of Ohio.
The RedHawks are 30-0 ahead of their regular season finale against Ohio on Friday night, and they currently sit at #19 in the AP‘s Top 25 and #20 in the coaches poll. You might think an invitation to March Madness would be a foregone conclusion, but it’s anything but a sure bet despite the fact that they can’t be sitting at anything worse than 30-2 when the bracket is revealed.
Miami’s critics are quick to point out they’ve gone undefeated with the help of the incredibly cushy non-conference schedule that ushered in the season.
Plenty of teams opt to play weaker opponents to tune up before conference play kicks off, but Miami had a list that was comprised almost entirely of cupcakes; most of the DI teams they faced off against are in the bottom 25% of the NET rankings, and five others play at a lower level.
If Miami loses to Ohio and fails to win the MAC conference tournament, there’s a non-zero chance they’ll be excluded from The Big Dance due to the weakness of their schedule, but an associate coach is prematurely campaigning for the powers that be to consider the circumstances surrounding it.
The Miami (Ohio) coach who scheduled their out-of-conference games says close to 100 teams rejected or ignored offers to play the RedHawks
RedHawks associate coach Jonathan Holmes was the man who was tasked with reaching out to other teams to arrange Miami’s non-MAC schedule.
Plenty of mid-majors will happily sign up for a showdown they know they’ll probably lose in exchange for the cash that comes with agreeing to a “buy game” with a bigger program, but those squads are also not going to fork over dough to an opponent that’s shown it has the talent to pull off an upset in enemy territory.
According to Yahoo Sports, Holmes found himself in an awkward spot while trying to pitch a team that was coming off a 25-9 season and had most of its key players returning for another ride. He told the outlet how many suitors either ignored his request or outright rejected it, saying,
“I was told no by probably 75 to 90 teams, from obviously all your power conferences to your A-10s, to your Mountain Wests. I guess you could say we were in scheduling no man’s land. We didn’t fit the profile of what anyone was looking for.”
Holmes declined to name names, but Matt Brown revealed a sizeable list in an Extra Points post, which included Kansas, Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio State.
Kevin Sweeney also noted Miami was powerless to control the fate of teams that seemed like they’d end up faring better than they did this season, as there was also some bad luck involved.
Underdiscussed angle re: Miami-OH scheduling is the teams they did play had surprisingly bad years.
UNCG and UNC Asheville had each won 20+ games in three straight years and bottomed out. EKU has consistently been near top of A-Sun and flopped. Maine, fresh off 20 wins, is now…
— Kevin Sweeney (@CBB_Central) March 5, 2026
This could essentially end up being a moot point if Miami wins out, but we’ll have to wait and see how the chips fall.