by MARK McCARTER, Columnist , Huntsville Times

"For me, it's the whole season," said Slive, the SEC commissioner and the chair of the NCAA men's basketball tournament selection committee. He noted that "November and December are not exhibitions. It's not an exhibition season. It's part of the body of work."

Which explains, in part, why Auburn will play a postseason game that looks like something off its pre-conference schedule.

Which explains that loud sound of a bubble popping in Lee County around 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Auburn hosts Tennessee-Martin on Wednesday in the NIT. It's a trinket of a consolation prize, with the Tigers having been left off the NCAA tournament guest list.

Don't buy the notion that Mississippi State knocked Auburn out of the NCAA by winning the SEC tournament. All Mississippi State did was save a little face for the SEC , which otherwise would have had two teams in the NCAA.

Looking at the other bubble teams, it's hard to believe Auburn was the next team in line when they ran out of places. You could make the case that St. Mary's, Creighton, San Diego State, Penn State and Virginia Tech had credentials equal to or better than Auburn's.

Using one piece of selection committee criteria, Auburn had an edge on most anyone. The NCAA rewards hot streaks. And Auburn's 9-2 finish was spectacular.

The worst part about the run? Those nine wins came against Southeastern Conference teams.

In one of his pleas for NCAA consideration, Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said that "they've just bashed the SEC this year. To me, that's not fair."

Sorry, but the SEC is fair game. It was sixth in conference RPI. Its greatest program, Kentucky, has gone downhill. Two-time national champion Florida has now been relegated to the NIT in consecutive years. It had few quality non-conference wins. The two biggest may have been upsets of Texas and Oklahoma by Arkansas, which wound up one of the two or three worst SEC teams. This is the weakest the SEC has been since its expansion.

Aside from its hot streak, Auburn obviously didn't impress the committee on other criteria, such as Auburn's RPI of 62. And its 5-7 record against teams with top 75 RPIs.

Then there was November and December. Alabama learned this painfully a few years ago when its lame non-conference schedule kept it out of the NCAA. Now it's Auburn's turn.

Missouri State, Bethune Cookman, Louisiana-Monroe, Tuskegee, Alabama State, Alabama A&M and Mercer do not impress the selectors. Auburn had only one non-conference win against an NCAA-bound team, that coming by five points against Alabama State, which is relegated to the play-in game. It lost at home to Mercer by four in November.

If there's a team that kept Auburn out of the NCAA, it was Arizona, the most controversial of the 34 at-large selections with only 19 wins. But the Wildcats beat Kansas, Gonzaga and San Diego State and played in a tougher conference. Arizona's non-conference strength-of-schedule rated 40th; Auburn's was 126th.

"We've been talking about this for several years, that nonconference games are important," Slive said.

All said and done, it wasn't Mississippi State and Arizona that kept Auburn out of the NCAA. It may have been Mercer that did it.

Contact Mark McCarter at mark.mccarter@htimes.com or visit his al.com blog at http://blog.al.com/mccarter

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