Auburn is desperately trying to ride Florida's coattails to a March Madness bid

With Selection Sunday only a week away, the only mystery for Florida is whether it will be a No. 1 seed or a No. 2 seed. In the end, that is a good problem to have. Others are not so fortunate and are reduced to lobbying in the media for why their team should get in the tournament at all.

Some of these arguments hold merit, while others seem like desperate cries for help. In the case of Auburn, they seem to think one good game in Gainesville should override the other 30 games they have had this season, where they did not look like a team that should hear its name called next Sunday.

Auburn claims a win over Florida is all they need

Florida’s loss to Auburn in January was frustrating, but it was also a case where the Tigers put all the chips into a gameplan and looked like they revolved their entire year around beating the Gators. Auburn won that game and fair play to them, but since that afternoon, the Gators have won 11 games in a row and the regular-season SEC title. Auburn just ended their regular season 16-15 overall and is the 12th seed in the SEC Tournament after going 7-11 in league play.

But nepo baby Steven Pearl seems to think beating Florida is all that’s required to make the NCAA Tournament. After their loss to Alabama to close out the regular season, he made his case afterwards that:

"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."

It was a good win for Auburn, but this is a team that was also 3-11 in a Quad 1 game and has two losses from Quads 3 and 4. 

Auburn’s win over Florida shouldn’t override all the bad they had this season. It’s like saying because you hit a half-court shot that you had a good game, even though you went 4-13 in the game.

And it feels less genuine knowing that the Pearl family is trying their best to tip the scales. As we chronicled last week, his father, Bruce Pearl, has been openly campaigning for his son and wants to leave out a team like Miami (OH) to put a 16-15 Auburn squad in.

But it makes sense that Steven Pearl would think his team should get slotted into the NCAA Tournament without merit since he himself was slotted into the Auburn job without merit.

Whatever works for you, Auburn, whatever works.