At first look, I'm very pleased with how I did. I'm completely baffled by the selection of Iona (maybe the worst resume to ever receive an atlarge bid?), and I don't understand how the winner of Iona/BYU will end up as a 14 seed, however, overall I do think the committee did a pretty good job. Here's a quick summary of my performance.
March 24 7's Results (2012):
67 of 68 teams correctly selected (99%)
62 of 68 teams seeded within 1 seed (91%)
39 of 68 teams seeded exactly correct (57%)
It has been a long stretch of studying resume's leading up to Selection Sunday and I will leave my analysis for tomorrow and the coming week. Check back regularly for comparisons vs. other notable bracketologists (yes, I beat Joe Lunardi of ESPN... again), a "letter to the Selection Committee", and other general observations as we wait for Thursday and the kick-off to the best sporting event of the year!
I have a feeling that RPI had a lot to do with IONA getting in over the 6 out that you (and most others)had. Their RPI (Warren Nolan) is listed at #40. That is way better than any of those 6 teams. For example, Drexel may have had a little better resume but their rpi was 26 behind IONA. I have a feeling that is what ultimely helped IONA. Any of those last 6 teams would have had the worst RPI of any at large in this years field. IONA fit right in rpi wise.
ReplyDeleteshocker3, that's a good observation. My question would be why the Committee changes its criteria so much from year to year. There have been very deserving teams with RPIs in the 20s and 30s that have been left out in year's past for teams with RPIs over 50. Apparently this year's committee was much more committed to the RPI than those in past years. I can't find anything else to explain Iona's bid.
ReplyDeleteThat is true about the inconsistency. Although it seems like it has been mostly MVC teams that get left out when they have a rpi in the 20s and 30s. Nearly everyone else gets in. I think there may have still been some on the committee who felt like the Valley was "gaming" the rpi.
ReplyDeleteBut in all reality very few teams with rpis worse than 65 have ever gotten a bid and pretty much everyone in the first six out had rpis that bad. I have a feeling that if Xavier had won on Sunday that ORU would have had a good chance of being the next team in (again based mostly on rpi).