Oklahoma Falls Short of Bid to NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

The Sooners generated plenty of magic over the last six weeks of the 2025-26 season, but it wasn’t enough to get them into the “Big Dance.”

Oklahoma was not selected for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s 68-team field, which the tourney selection committee released on Sunday. The Sooners were the first team out of the field, while SMU was the last team selected.

On CBS' Selection Show, NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee chairman Keith Gill weighed in on why SMU got the final spot over OU and other bubble squads.

"The quality of wins is what it came down to…" Gill said. "SMU was the last team selected into the field. They had wins, when these teams were at full strength, against North Carolina, Louisville and Texas A&M."

This marks the fourth time in coach Porter Moser’s tenure that the Sooners have fallen short of the tourney.

OU’s players, coaches and fans hoped that their recent surge would put them into the field.

The Sooners won six of their final eight regular-season games in a stretch that included victories over Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Missouri and Texas. Their only losses in that span came on the road against Tennessee and at home against Texas A&M.

After that, Oklahoma defeated South Carolina and Texas A&M in the first two rounds of the SEC Tournament in Nashville. The 11-seed Sooners’ run at the conference tourney came to an end on Friday, as they lost 82-79 to three-seed Arkansas, which eventually won the tournament.

What kept the Sooners out, though, was their dreadful start to SEC play.

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After taking down Ole Miss in their conference opener, the Sooners lost nine games in a row from Jan. 7 to Feb. 3. Though several of those losses came against tourney teams like Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M, OU dropped road games against South Carolina and Mississippi State, which lived at the bottom of the conference standings this year.

Oklahoma reached the tourney for the first time under Moser in 2024-25. They earned a nine-seed in last year’s tournament, but they bowed out in the First Round, losing 67-59 to eight-seed UConn.

The Sooners were listed as one of the first four teams out of the field for this year’s tournament, mimicking what happened in 2024. That year, Oklahoma was the first team out of the field.

Moser led Oklahoma to a National Invitational Tournament berth in his first year at the helm, 2021-22, before the Sooners regressed to 15-17 the next season.

In five years as Oklahoma’s coach, Moser has compiled a 93-74 record.

Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny confirmed on Saturday that Moser will return to the program next year.

“It’s on Coach Moser to make sure that our team’s performance continues to meet and exceed our resources for the program,” Denny said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “He’s done that and I’m confident he will continue to.”

At Oklahoma, we’ve had a long history of embodying an underdog spirit. And in men’s basketball, that mentality has often led to us outperforming our resources. It’s on Coach Moser to make sure that our team’s performance continues to meet and exceed our resources for the program.…
— Roger Denny (@Oklahoma_AD) March 14, 2026

It is currently unclear on whether or not the Sooners will choose to play in any other postseason tournaments this year.

OU played in the NIT in Moser’s first year, but the Sooners declined an invitation two years later. Fewer teams from power conferences have competed in the tournament in recent years, as only four participated in 2025.