They were in almost all bracket prognostications no worse than an 11 seed. Nobody had them "out". I did say, in an earlier post right after VT beat Clemson on the buzzer beater, that ND needed to beat VT to eliminate all trepidation about making the tournament.
BTW, my argument about Duke and UNC also losing to VT convincingly, was not to say those two shouldn't be in, but that their losses give strength to the quality of VT. If VT lost to UNC the next night, then I believe there is a stronger argument to exclude ND.