The plight of first-year Auburn men’s basketball head coach Steven Pearl is, in many ways, the culmination of several narratives that have been building over prominent college athletics, and America at large, for some time.
One is the exhaustive push by college football (and now college basketball) power brokers and ESPN college football analysts to devalue wins and overvalue schedules, which benefits blueblood and Big Ten/SEC programs. It puts the onus on smaller and non-elite programs to overperform just to be considered for the postseason, and even then, perfection might not be enough because, y’know, nobody paid billions of dollars for CFP/NCAA Tournament rights to keep SEC schools out. Those smaller or non-traditional programs are humored and showered with praise, so long as they know their place and don’t screw up the narrative. If they do, they’re shamed and embarrassed.
Funnily enough, the same people who complain about participation trophies now prop up losing teams over winners just for participating.
That narrative is part of a larger cultural story being told in America these days about a class of people who “deserve” to be in powerful positions, while everyone else does not. It’s a story of nepotism, favoritism, money, and desperate grasps at power. It’s a large part of how we find ourselves in the situation we’re in with both politics and the media. If you or your daddy is in the club, you get the keys. If not, you’re not allowed in.
All of which brings us up to Saturday, when the Auburn Tigers’ 2025-2026 regular-season ended with an ugly, uncompetitive loss against the rival Alabama Crimson Tide. The loss dropped the Tigers to 16-15. One would think that, with a record like that, it would be embarrassing to publicly fight for a team’s inclusion in the NCAA Tournament. It would certainly be unthinkable for a program that wasn’t in one of the major conferences.
However, Pearl is not saddled with such embarrassment, as nepo-hires often aren’t. He believes Auburn still deserves a spot in March Madness, because of course he does.
Steven Pearl after Auburn falls to 16-15:
“We have the best win in college basketball at Florida. If you look at our quality wins and other teams on the bubble, I don’t think those teams get those wins… I think our resume stands up against anybody’s”pic.twitter.com/PqVTEdZKeb
— The Field of 68 (@TheFieldOf68) March 8, 2026
“We’ve put ourselves in, obviously, a difficult situation, but also a great situation,” Pearl said after the loss. “We play in the best league in college basketball. It’s the deepest league in college basketball. We have five of some of the best wins in the country. We have the best win in college basketball at Florida. If you look at our quality wins and you look at other teams in the bubble, I don’t think those teams get those wins. I just don’t.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position to be considered, and I think our resume stands up against anybody’s. I’m not sure what the number would be tonight after the game. I don’t know if anyone has KenPom pulled up, but I would imagine we finished one or two in the country in overall strength of schedule, which is what the committee asked us to do. We played against some of the best teams in college basketball. We went two-and-two against the conference champions of the SEC, the Big East, the Big Ten, and the Big 12. We didn’t play any of those games at home.”
Auburn does indeed have the second-best strength-of-schedule rating in KenPom, though it is 39th overall. And fortunately for Pearl and the Tigers, the modern college athletics power brokers do put a lot of faith in that over, you know, actually winning games. But there is a larger story that this 16-15 season is a part of.
Pearl was a nepotistic hire. Full stop. That’s not us saying it. That’s his daddy saying it. Bruce Pearl unabashedly admitted as such in a recent interview while defending himself over accusations of propping up his son’s team at the expense of the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, who finished the regular season undefeated. Such a thing is far from new in the coaching world, but you’re supposed to feel a little bit of embarrassment about it. Not the Pearls, apparently.
Despite never having coached anywhere but for his dad and without any head-coaching experience, Steven took over a program coming off a Final Four run and entered the season with Top-25 expectations (No. 17 per ESPN, No. 15 by Field of 68, No. 20 in the AP Poll). And while, as he said, they did have some highlights, they largely fell apart when the going got tough, finishing 7-11 in conference play and losing eight of their last 10 games. They look like a team that’s uninspired and just doesn’t have what it takes to compete in the postseason.
That hasn’t stopped many significant figures from defending Auburn (beyond the coach’s daddy). ESPN’s Rece Davis led the charge with the “schedule is more important than wins” line of thinking, which is likely to keep the door open for Auburn, especially if they can get a win or two in the SEC Tournament.
There was a time, it feels, where it would have been beneath everyone involved to politick for a spot in the postseason despite failing to win actual games when it mattered during the season. However, this is exactly the kind of situation our modern narratives and storytelling are made for. Ensuring the elite program gets the benefit of the doubt simply by existing.
Steven Pearl thinks Auburn deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament because it says so on paper. The guy whose daddy gave him the job is complaining that his mediocrity is not enough. And sadly, he may have lost just enough to get his way.
