(03-19-2013 12:29 PM)Dwight Wrote: +1 to all of the above comments. Create a formula that determines the at-large bids, and take the politics out. Since the RPI already heavily emphasizes strength of schedule, I just can't get my head around letting in a team with a much lower RPI than we have based on strength of schedule. As things stand, it's really unclear what a mid-major has to do to get an invitation.
Actually it is perfectly clear what a mid-major has to do to get an invitation---WIN THEIR TOURNAMENT----otherwise don't bet on an invitation.
In the men's game an appearance in the NCAA Tournament is currently worth about 1.5 million dollars to the home conference spread over 6 years for every time one of their teams plays a game in a given tourney (getting to the finals is currently worth about $9M! paid out over 6 years). (BTW---if anyone is still mystified as to how the Bearcats got into the Big East with a football program and football attendances both considerable below that which UT had at that time----just check out the number of NCAA appearances and NCAA games UC played over the 15-20 years preceding their invitation and compare it to the UT men appearances during the same period and then calculate the revenue each earned during that period and therein lies your answer) The women's tournament doesn't pay nearly so well but the selection "rules" are the same.
Just as in the BCS football system, the power conferences are in control and want to capture as much of those BIG TV $$$$ and merchandising $$$$ as possible so they can continue to hire the very best mult-million dollar/year coaches and provide the very best facilities to keep those TV $$$$ rolling in. They only throw a few crumbs to the lesser conferences in order to prevent anti-trust suits. Every at-large bid extended to a mid-major men's team is costing them a minimum of $1.5 and they don't like it.
They intentionally keep the BB selection guidelines vague and throw in enough variables (RPI, SOS, good/bad wins, good/bad loses, last 10 games, etc, etc) to ensure that they always selectively find a reason to accept a power conference bubble team and reject a lesser conference bubble team by picking and choosing which variable to apply and which to ignore on a team by team basis and thus "justify" their biased selection process. If you are a mid-major, you have about a 5% chance of getting an at-large invitation particularly if your conference has no representation on the selection committee---which uncommon for a power conference but very common for the mid-majors.
Except for a few small colleges and the IVY league, college FB and BB is no longer about sportsmanship or college athletic competition on a level playing field rather is entirely about chasing BIG TV $$$$ and as a marketing tool to establish a "brand name" and image for your institution that will successfully recruit all those (even bigger) college federal loan $$$$.
I have probably said this a 100 times but I guess it sounds so cynical (and paranoid) that most readers evidently think it is a joke, but if you look at who has gotten in and who has been left out over a period of a few years, this interpretation is as plausible as any and better than most. Accept the one simple premise of uncontrollable and unbridled greed on the part of the power conferences and all of sudden everything falls into place and makes perfectly good sense. Think about it.
