Unbalanced Scheduling?

Who does this Walters guy think he’s kidding?

Unbalanced scheduling is common in the high-majors (save the Pac-10), yet that’s the reason some teams — like Syracuse and Kansas State — didn’t get into the field. Syracuse didn’t have enough wins over NCAA Tournament teams among its 10 conference victories. Kansas State won only one game against the stronger South Division teams, and that was noted among the 10 wins the Wildcats earned this season. Unbalanced scheduling hurt those teams, but a true round-robin, and going 10-8 in the Pac-10, actually helped Stanford, according to Walters.

Okay – first things first – we were 5-5 against tournament teams.  So that’s just a flat out lie.  Second, we played Pitt (twice!), Marquette (and beat them by 12), Villanova (twice!), Georgetown (and beat them), Louisville, and Notre Dame (twice!).  Um, that’s the top of the conference!  It’s not like we played an easy conference schedule (like Alabama) – we played a tough one, playing all the top teams.  So if anything the level of our schedule hurt us.

I learned something the night that Brett Hull scored a “goal” against the Buffalo Sabres in the Stanley Cup Finals – when a committee or a league has a need to call a press conference to explain something, they’re goofed and they need to come up with an official line to justify it.  That night the NHL held a press conference to explain the call.  The fact that the chair of the committee specifically addressed Syracuse’s situation and gave what is a twisting of words (similar to the NHL’s a few years back) leads me to believe that they know they goofed – but powers beyond our sight pushed for sub-par teams to get in at Syracuse’s expense (mind you, I’m not claiming anyone had it in for Syracuse, I’m saying that people pushed for lousy teams to get in and it cost Syracuse a spot)

Want to know the real reason Syracuse didn’t get in?  It’s simple – conferences.  The Big East is a 16 team Conference, the biggest of all the major conferences.  They couldn’t put in as many Big East teams as they should have (Syracuse and West Virginia) because it would look bad.

Why the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Doesn’t Have a Clue…

How on earth did Syracuse not make the Tournament?  We were better in conference than Marquette and Villanova, who got in?  Marquette is a 8 seed, Villanova a 10 seed – you mean to tell me with a better conference record than Villanova and wins over Marquette and Georgetown SU didn’t get in?  Who makes these decisions?  How did so many Big 10 teams get in?  More than half their conference got in!  Way less than half of ours did!  What about the PAC-10 getting more than half their conference in?  And don’t even get me started on the SEC… Give me a break…