The Guru Known as Bilas

[Ashockalypse]

rjl

mix some facts in with your opinion. It wont matter who we beat next year only the tournament winner will get in. Creighton should have been in. They won 26games and tied for the MVC championship. Should be an unofficial lock every year just like it is an unofficial lock that an inordinate number of Big East ACC Big 10 and Pac 10 teams get in. The one Stanford game proves nothing.

[vbird53]

While I'm not a card carrying member of the chip on shoulders club, I still think it's extremely important for midmajor programs to be included in the NCAA tourney.

It becomes more and more difficult for WSU to continue the scheduling that we've been able to get, because more power conferences will see the chance to stay at home, and beat "buy teams". The more this happens, the less you will see any BCS teams at CKA.

On another note, its exciting to see some lower level teams (according to ESPN) beat the BCS teams. Although its probably not an upset in the minds of the players and true fans, it looks like it to the rest of the nation (David vs. Goliath).

Which would you rather see? This year, we only had a few chances to see those match-ups. Dayton, Cleveland St., and W. Kentucky took advantage. Butler, Portland St., and Northern Iowa couldn't get it done. But these were really the only real chances the nonBCS leagues had.

[The Mad Hatter]

rjl-You're wrong that if WSU wins with good wins, they automatically will get in. When SWMSU didn't get in (2006), they had a RPI of 24. The reason that they didn't get in was because the Valley had 4 other teams in.

So you are telling me that a team with an rpi of 24 in the ACC wouldn't get in because the ACC already had 4 teams in?

[SubGod22]

TMH - Are you really trying to say the ACC = MVC?

Someone elsewhere has already shown that the top RPI teams every year to be left out are non-BcS teams. That there says a lot. When teams from the non-BcS conferences have RPIs in the 30s and they get left out so a BcS team with an RPI in the 60s can get in.

I know RPI isn't everything but it's hard to justify some of those actions. Taking 44 over 40 or something along those lines I could see cases being made. But when there's such a difference it makes you stop and think...

[The Mad Hatter]

TMH - Are you really trying to say the ACC = MVC?

Someone elsewhere has already shown that the top RPI teams every year to be left out are non-BcS teams. That there says a lot. When teams from the non-BcS conferences have RPIs in the 30s and they get left out so a BcS team with an RPI in the 60s can get in.

I know RPI isn't everything but it's hard to justify some of those actions. Taking 44 over 40 or something along those lines I could see cases being made. But when there's such a difference it makes you stop and think...

No, I'm not saying that they MVC is the ACC, but I am asking if a school with a good resume from a power conference would be left out because there were already a lot of schools from that conference in. Shockmonster may be wrong about why MSU was left out, but if not, it is clearly a double standard.

I'm not one to totally buy into the idea that there is an intentional conspiracy to keep non power conference teams out, but I do think that there are institutional structures and subconscious motivations that result in a double standard.

[SubGod22]

I'm not one to totally buy into the idea that there is an intentional conspiracy to keep non power conference teams out, but I do think that there are institutional structures and subconscious motivations that result in a double standard.

I'll agree with that

[ShockTalk]

Correct me if I'm wrong shockmonster, but I believe his point is that 1) There was no way the committee was going to have 5 teams in from the Valley, on the other hand 2) There would be no way they would leave out a team from a major conference if they had an RPI of 24 and were the 5th team to be added from that conference.

Not that I totally disagree with the committee in such a situation, but these types of problems will never go away as long as the scheduling issue is not better resolved. In the case of Arizona, Minnesota, and Maryland, we had three bubble teams with, I believe, lower RPIs than some "deserving" mid-major teams. Yet these same teams did not really prove themselves in the non-con. 39 total games, 3 on the road (8%) and 5 neutral sites (13%) and finished 4-4 with 3 of the loses to mid-major schools. The top teams will always get a pass on the non-con scheduling, but bubble teams should be held to proving themselves in all the areas that rjl listed - "If a team schedules and plays well in the non conference, plays well in their conference, and does well in their tournament, they get in". In my opinion, most of these criteria were not met by those three schools and therefore, not deserving.

[pinstripers]

I beleive that is is a conspiracy, not necessarily by the selection committee. The money involved is phenominal.

[shockmonster]

I think that we probably agree. As good as the Valley was that year, there shouldn't have been a question to leave off a team with a 24 RPI. Those five teams were all very good and practically interchangeable with each other. To me, that year showed that showed that you can do everything right and still be left out.