'I Don't Want to Play Quad 4 Games': Nate Oats' Philosophy on Scheduling Mid-Majors

Alabama basketball head coach Nate Oats has never been shy when discussing his desire to play the best teams in America during nonconference play.

"I don't think playing 13 cupcakes prepares you for SEC play," Oats said at SEC Media Day on Oct. 14. "Whether we win or lose, I've never shied away from playing the best schedule in the country, we've had the number one strength of schedule for a number of years, had it last year, the year before, I believe. You play the best teams, you figure out where your weaknesses are, and you fix 'em immediately. You do it and you repeat it, you repeat it."

After finishing first in the country in each of the last two seasons in strength schedule, the Crimson Tide ranks No. 3 this year. Oats and company are the 4-seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and UA beat Hofstra 90-70 in the first round on Friday. Mid-majors like the Pride don't advance in March Madness very often, and the odds of disintegrated over the last couple of years due to the emergence of NIL.

But Oats has had the aforementioned philosophy for quite some time, regardless of his success in The Big Dance.

"When I was at Buffalo, and I know some of the mid-major coaches have said nobody would play them, I think if you try hard enough — the only mid-major schools we turned down are ones that aren't good enough," Oats said on Saturday in Tampa ahead of the Round of 32 against 5-seed Texas Tech. "When we look at our bye games, they need to be good enough because I don't want to be playing Quad 4 games. To me, I want to play really good ones.

"I think if you call around, some of the mid-major schools that we're talking about not being able to find games played multiple non-Division I games. I'm not sure how hard you tried if you're playing three non-Division I games."

"I think you have to play games in your non-conference to be ready to play these NCAA Tournament games. Like my last year at Buffalo, we won at West Virginia, we won at Syracuse, we played at Marquette when they had Howard who destroyed us but we lost. But we played at Southern Illinois who was really good, we played at St. Bonaventure.

"We played very good teams. We were ready to play in the NCAA — the year before, we lost at Syracuse. We played other high major teams, so when we get the Arizona game, we've already played some high-major teams."

Oats' philosophy came into full effect during his final season at Buffalo in 2018-19. The Bulls finished 32-4 and won the MAC regular season and tournament championship. Buffalo was sixth in the country in points per game, 24th in strength of record and 94th in strength of schedule, which helped it not only earn a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament, but UB advanced to the Round of 32 as well.

Fast forward to this season, 16 of Alabama's 31 regular-season opponents are competing in March Madness.

"I think you're going to have to do a great job evaluating young talent, you're going to have to play some high-major teams, and you can whine and complain about high-major teams not playing you on a neutral, they're not going to do it," Oats said. "It doesn't really work that way.

"When I was at Buffalo, I didn't complain about it, we'd just go play them, take the money, get bought, that's where you're going to play them. Play them, if you lose, you've at least got experience playing high-major teams that you're going to have to play in the NCAA Tournament if you want to beat them.

"I think it's going to happen. I think it's going to be harder for mid-major teams to make deep runs. It's going to be a mid-major like Buffalo to be a 6 seed, but I think there's still going to be upsets in this tournament."

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