Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Sayler called out Bruce Pearl, a CBS and TNT college basketball analyst, on social media and ESPN Radio after Pearl questioned the RedHawks’ NCAA Tournament at-large case on multiple television programs.
Pearl made comments about Miami (Ohio), the nation’s only remaining unbeaten team, that proceeded to go viral over the weekend.
“Miami (Ohio), here’s the deal,” Pearl, a former longtime college basketball coach, said during TNT Sports studio coverage of Big East basketball on Saturday. “Are we selecting the 68 most deserving teams? Or are we going to select the 68 best teams? If we’re selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami (Ohio) is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion. Because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country. And that’s going to be a difficult choice for the committee to make.”
Pearl then doubled down on his Miami comments on Monday morning’s edition of the Barstool Sports and FS1 show Wake Up Barstool, questioning if the RedHawks would even avoid finishing in last place if they played in the Big East conference.
The former longtime Auburn head coach and father of current Auburn head coach, Steven Pearl, added, “There’s no nepotism involved here.”
On Monday, Sayler tagged Pearl on X and wrote, “[You] are flat out wrong about [Miami (Ohio)] when [you] say we would finish last in the Big East. The disrespect is awful and [you] should not be near a TV studio covering this sport when you show your true colors! Even slipped in a ‘we’ when talking about Auburn, nice work!”
@coachbrucepearl u are flat out wrong about @MiamiOH_BBall when u say we would finish last in the Big East. The disrespect is awful and u should not be near a TV studio covering this sport when u show your true colors! Even slipped in a “we” when talking about Auburn, nice work!
— David Sayler (@MiamiOH_DSayler) March 2, 2026
Later in the day, Sayler appeared on ESPN Radio’s Amber and Ian and elaborated on his thoughts about Pearl’s comments.
“I just don’t understand how somebody can make the comments he’s making and not put respect on what our student athletes are doing”. Miami University AD @MiamiOH_DSayler with @amberwsports and @Ianfitzespn, responding to Bruce Pearl’s opinion of their tournament worthiness. pic.twitter.com/VYyhhgeQY8
— ESPN Radio (@ESPNRadio) March 3, 2026
“Since 1985, only five teams have finished the season undefeated,” Sayler said. “That’s over 12,000 teams that had the chance to do just that, and only five have done it. If we get to that level of status, I just don’t understand how somebody can make the comments he’s making and not put respect on what our student-athletes are doing.
“And, so, I didn’t go into work today thinking I was going to put something out like I did. What really pushed me over the top was trying to say that we would finish in last place in the Big East, or towards the bottom. And then when he used the word ‘we’ in describing Auburn. Just the media bias and the stumping for something that is inappropriate, especially at the expense of our young men who have worked their tails off to be really in a historic place, and I think they deserve more respect.”
“This is about the magic of March Madness, this is about the heart and soul of college basketball, and I just feel that some of these people are trying to ruin it”. Miami University AD @MiamiOH_DSayler with @amberwsports and @Ianfitzespn. pic.twitter.com/ZKjtj7zqi1
— ESPN Radio (@ESPNRadio) March 3, 2026
“The bubble is just a fascinating thing,” Sayler continued. “Because it seems like some teams just never go off of it. Some of these teams are on the bubble, and they lose games to unranked teams, and they don’t move. They still sit there. And for a team like ours, we lose one game, and it’s going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh. They don’t belong.’ We’ve been ranked for a month now. We’re up to 19th in the country. It’s the highest we’ve been ranked since 1953. And this should be celebrated. This is about the magic of March Madness. This is about the heart and soul of college basketball.
“And I just feel that some of these people are trying to ruin it. And they just want ranked teams vs. ranked teams. Power four teams, power four teams. And I’m not here for it. It just should be celebrated, and have fun with it. Let’s roll with this thing. It’s March. And yet I’m dealing with hearing these kind of things. And I just don’t think it’s fair to the MAC and fair to anybody else who competes at the mid-major level.”
“I know for a fact Travis tried multiple times with multiple people trying to put this thing together and nobody wanted a part of the Red Hawks”. Miami University AD @MiamiOH_DSayler addressing the strength of schedule debate with @amberwsports and @Ianfitzespn. pic.twitter.com/j2EyOJ594y
— ESPN Radio (@ESPNRadio) March 3, 2026
“I walked down to [Miami head coach Travis Steele’s office] three different times after watching coaches give press conferences saying they couldn’t get anybody to play them, and we called them within an hour and were told, ‘Yeah, we’re not talking about you. We don’t want to play you guys,’” Sayler explained. “Because it’s turned into not just are you going to win or lose the game, it also matters how close the game is now. The metrics have gotten so detailed that if you come out and light them up and score a bunch of points, and they barely win, that’s not even good enough for the power four schools anymore.
“So, sometimes these coaches have egos, they have different situations, they just don’t want to find the games. I know for a fact Travis tried multiple times with multiple people, trying to put this thing together, and nobody wanted a part of the RedHawks. We won 25 games last year. That was a program record, what Travis accomplished last year. This isn’t some cute, fluky story this year about Miami basketball. Travis is doing it amazingly well, and people don’t want to play us. It’s the truth.”
Pearl was the Auburn head coach from 2014 to 2025 and was succeeded by his son, Steven, for the 2025-26 season. When Pearl stepped down as head coach, Auburn announced that he would “move into an ambassador’s role in the athletic department as special assistant to the athletics director.”
Auburn ranks No. 38 in the NET and is viewed as being on the NCAA Tournament bubble, but the Tigers have a record of 15-14 (6-10 in SEC play) and have lost seven of their last eight games.
Miami is 29-0 and comes in at No. 52 in the NET. While the RedHawks’ Ken Pomeroy rating is 87th in the country, that’s still above Big East programs Georgetown, Xavier, DePaul, and Marquette.
And while Miami is a MAC program that also has a non-conference schedule ranking 360th on KenPom, the aforementioned Big East schools all have Quad 3 or 4 losses. It’s an incredible feat to not slip up at least once or twice to this point in the season, no matter what a team’s schedule looks like.
Pearl joined CBS and TNT Sports as an analyst last October, and he’ll likely appear on TV plenty in the coming weeks as March Madness heats up.
