It is a 68 team field, not a 25 team field. Beating Gonzaga on the road and winning 28 games should be enough. Alabama lost to UCF at home, 15-17 Minnesota, and another bubble team, Texas, blew them out by 16 at home OOC. They also lost 15 fucking games. They lost 5 in a row two weeks ago and 6 of 8 overall, and 3 of those were by 19 points or more. They got a fucking BYE.
I don't give a shit about the resume distinctions of all of these 10-8 bubble teams, but St. Mary's is a team that should be in without even a discussion.
There are 4 teams out of 346 that have a better W/L record than St. Mary's, and they are seeded 1,1,1,2,3, and 4. St. Mary's schedule is rated 172 on KenPom which is the middle of the pack. Gonzaga's isn't even much higher at 127 and they got a 4 seed with one fewer loss than St. Mary's.