Not everybody deserves a participation ribbon in the NCAA. In a field of 68 college basketball teams, the line between No.'s 65, 66, 67 and 68 is sometimes tough to draw between No.'s 69, 70, 71 and 72.

And at some point, the voice of Jean-Luc Picard—captain of the Star Trek: Enterprise—resonates deep in the mind, screaming: “The line must be drawn here! This far! No further!”

But with an imperfect selection system, inevitably, come the snubs. The missed calls. Human error is the world's only guaranteed constant.

As such, in an annual tradition unlike any other, the 2021 NCAA Tournament slate has several teams missing from its form.

Belmont Bruins (26-4, Ohio Valley Conference, KenPom: 104, NET: 90)

For the past 24 hours, longtime ESPN analyst Dick Vitale has drummed up support in his “one big gripe” about the 2021 NCAA Tournament bracket, in that the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champion Belmont Bruins weren't part of the Field of 68 after a sensational 26-4 season.

Count me among those also a bit peeved about the glaring omission.

Sure, the OVC wasn't exactly one of the strongest leagues in the country this season—finishing 22nd of 31 in total RPI. Sure, the Bruins finished just 104 in the KenPom and 90 in the NET, which is typically on the outside looking in on two of the more important metrics in determining tournament résumés.

Regardless, 26 wins is 26 wins. There's only one other team in the country that can boast as many in this moment, and that's top-seed Gonzaga. From Dec. 8, 2020 until Feb. 20, 2021, Belmont won 21-straight before an injury to All-OVC center and NCAA Tournament veteran Nick Muszynski forced him out of a “Death Valley” trip, which resulted in a pair of road losses in 2021 OVC Tournament champion Morehead State and 2021 OVC Tournament semifinalist and Atlantic Sun bound Eastern Kentucky (both 20-plus win teams).

Muszynski, alongside elite guards in Grayson Murphy, Luke Smith and Ben Sheppard, was healthy in the championship game. However, a loss to the defensively-dominant Eagles must've just been too much to bear for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The Bruins were supposed to have a much more difficult non-conference schedule before COVID-19 protocols started shutting down unnecessary games, but they did nearly everything they could with what they had as one of only four teams with 10 or more road wins (joining Winthrop, UNC Greensboro and Bowling Green), one of 29 teams with four or more neutral court wins, and owned a 25-3 record against Quad 3 and 4 teams.

Belmont didn't even get the typical NIT automatic qualifier bid as a regular-season conference champion due to a reduced field, yet finished 16th in the country in scoring (81.3 ppg), fourth in assists per game (18.2), sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.52) and 18th in field-goal percentage (48.88) as one of the most gifted offenses in the NCAA.

Furthermore, Belmont went 1-1 in its last visit to the “Big Dance” in 2019, when the Bruins and the Ja Morant-led Murray State Racers surged in opening-round games. The Bruins lost that conference championship, too, before winning a play-in game against Temple and losing a heartbreaker against Maryland. So it's not like there hasn't been recent success.

If anything, Belmont passes the “eye test”—should such a thing actually exist.

Louisville Cardinals (13-7, Atlantic Coast Conference, KenPom: 54, NET: 56)

The first team out was considered by most metrics and analysts as a borderline-in squad with enough dudes to win a game or two in March Madness.

Instead, Chris Mack and Co. can only sit at home now and wonder, “Why not us?” And it's a fair question.

Conspiracy theories—that committee chair and University of Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart singlehandedly squashed the Cardinals' chances—are comical at best, but the biggest argument against Louisville making the tournament was its 1-6 record against Quad 1 teams.

But the Cardinals went 13-1 against everyone else, including 6-0 against Quad 2 teams. Of its seven losses (Wisconsin, Miami, Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, Virginia, Duke), only the Blue Devils and the Hurricanes didn't make the 2021 NCAA Tournament field.

Playing in only 13 conference games also likely hurt Louisville's chances, with the ACC currently sitting in seventh in total RPI (.537). But three certified studs in Carlik Jones, David Johnson and Jae'Lyn Withers had more than a shot to win 1-2 games after having been pushed by a top-eight conference all season, and a 9-1 start to the year with wins against Virginia Tech (10-seed), Georgia Tech (9-seed) and Seton Hall (KenPom: 52) should mean at least something for the troubles.

Stumbling to a 4-6 finish in the final 10 games, including a 45-point blasting at Chapel Hill, created some late bias that unfortunately didn't get overlooked by the committee, but the Cardinals are officially the first call if a first-round team drops out due to COVID-19 protocol.

It just shouldn't have come to that. Instead, a 12-loss Michigan State and a mediocre Syracuse were among the middling squads to grab bids.

Another argument for Louisville? Even BracketMatrix had the Cards in the field through 81 of 90 projections. Since when were computers wrong?

Memphis Tigers (16-8, American Athletic Association, KenPom: 38, NET: 52)

Penny Hardaway and his pals piled up a plethora of painful losses this year: eight games, 15 possessions. Death by cuts, if you will. Six points to 20-win Western Kentucky. Eleven points to A-10's Virginia Commonwealth. Three points to the recently-former Tigers freshman phenom Justin Powell and Auburn. By seven points and one point to Tulsa. Two points to Southern Methodist. And three points and two points to Houston.

Pick up just one of any of those games—particularly a sweep of the Golden Hurricanes—and Memphis isn't a No. 1 seed in the upcoming 2021 NIT. Instead, they're dancing, and the fact that they aren't is odd.

Houston (24-3) is currently sixth in the KenPom and a two-seed this weekend, and the Tigers twice nearly tamed the Cougars. The Hilltoppers painfully missed an automatic bid following an overtime loss to North Texas in the 2021 CUSA championship game and made the NIT field. The Rams finished 19-7 and are a 10-seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament field. SMU (59th), Auburn (64th) and Tulsa (125th) weren't bad losses on the KenPom scale, either.

Never blown out this year, Hardaway's heroes have also done nothing but play intrepid defense. And defense, they say, wins championships. They're fourth in the country in field-goal defense (38.599) and second in 3-point defense (27.1), and the 76 points relinquished to Houston in the AAC semifinals was the most Memphis had surrendered all season.

Not exactly electric in scoring, the Tigers did have five players shooting 36% or better from the arc in D.J. Jeffries, Lester Quinones, Landers Nolley II, Boogie Ellis and DeAndre Williams — as well as five-star freshman center Moussa Cisse.

It's 3-point shooting and 3-point defense that typically takes over in a one-and-done scenario (hello, Colgate?), and that would've fit the Memphis mantra perfectly.

Alas, it wasn't to be.