story about Big East teams potentially playing in the second round

[downtown85]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/The-NCAA-selection-committee-8217-s-Big-East-bl?urn=ncaab-wp409

[96warrior]

That picture of Jae is priceless.

[NickelDimer]

Pretty easy to see it was done intentionally to cancel BE teams out.  Wealth distribution I guess.

What's the earliest two Big Televen teams can meet? Hmmm

[MUCam]

Pretty easy to see it was done intentionally to cancel BE teams out.  Wealth distribution I guess.

What's the earliest two Big Televen teams can meet? Hmmm

Absolutely. The fixes are so easy that there is no way to consider this anything other than intentional. I wonder who led the selection committee....it couldn't have been anyone with an anti-Big East bias, could it? It couldn't have been someone from a desperate league whose teams got seeded much to high, could it? It couldn't have been someone from a school whose football program's head coach would try to hide legitimate NCAA concerns, could it?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Pretty easy to see it was done intentionally to cancel BE teams out.  Wealth distribution I guess.

What's the earliest two Big Televen teams can meet? Hmmm

I honestly don't see the conspiracy on this.  I agree with the article that says sloppy, but there is no evidence other than pure speculation that it was done intentionally.  This is uncharted territory for these guys and they already couldn't get the seeds right on simple things like Florida a 2 and Kentucky a 4.  I think people are giving them way too much credit to be this smart to try and jigger future results. 

[NickelDimer]

I honestly don't see the conspiracy on this.  I agree with the article that says sloppy, but there is no evidence other than pure speculation that it was done intentionally.  This is uncharted territory for these guys and they already couldn't get the seeds right on simple things like Florida a 2 and Kentucky a 4.  I think people are giving them way too much credit to be this smart to try and jigger future results. 

I've seen the committe move teams up to three lines in years past with the defense that they didn't want rematches of regular season games before at least the elite 8.  They made no effort whatsoever to avoid, not just rematches in the elite 8, but in the second round.  And not just rematches of regular season opponents, but conference opponents.  Come on.  Like I said, wealth distribution

[Sharpie]

They could have easily avoided these matchups with a few slight moves. And if they didn't do it on "purpose", they are clearly not smart enough to be on the committee or miss this sort of matchup issue. And if they did do it on purpose, it doesn't look good on the committee. As far as seeding this year, I have no issues with Marquette being seeded where they are. I also have nothing against the big ten but where does the committee get off with Michigan and Penn states seeds? Well compared to us that is. Haha I'm just biased to some mediocre big ten teams compared to us. An also not to say that we are anything above mediocre this year. But come on man.

[Sharpie]

And don't come at me with rpi because I thinks that's a bogus metric. Although if the committee is going to overwhelmingly use the rpi or push it to members then we need to do something to increase outa via, winning (I know) and less awful cupcakes.

[MUCam]

I honestly don't see the conspiracy on this.  I agree with the article that says sloppy, but there is no evidence other than pure speculation that it was done intentionally.  This is uncharted territory for these guys and they already couldn't get the seeds right on simple things like Florida a 2 and Kentucky a 4.  I think people are giving them way too much credit to be this smart to try and jigger future results.  

Wow. What a surprise. The devil's advocate position....

Every year the committees harp on ensuring teams do not play conference foes early in the tournament. Then, randomly, with two EXTREMELY SIMPLE fixes, they "forget" to adhere to this principle?

"but there is no evidence other than pure speculation that it was done intentionally"

Come on; seriously. For a guy that has never avoided pure speculation to make declarations in the past, you sure seem quick to call out speculation on this one. Weren't you just speculating based on our seed that we were one of the last four in? Haven't you just tonight speculated on what would've happened had we lost to Providence. Oh, but avoid speculation on this....because Chicos says so.

Par for the course.

[GGGG]

I agree with chicos. This committee seems too incompetent to do anything this underhanded.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

More stupid than vindictive.

[MUCam]

I agree with chicos. This committee seems too incompetent to do anything this underhanded.

I hate you.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Wow. What a surprise. The devil's advocate position....

Every year the committees harp on ensuring teams do not play conference foes early in the tournament. Then, randomly, with two EXTREMELY SIMPLE fixes, they "forget" to adhere to this principle?

"but there is no evidence other than pure speculation that it was done intentionally"

Come on; seriously. For a guy that has never avoided pure speculation to make declarations in the past, you sure seem quick to call out speculation on this one. Weren't you just speculating based on our seed that we were one of the last four in? Haven't you just tonight speculated on what would've happened had we lost to Providence. Oh, but avoid speculation on this....because Chicos says so.

Par for the course.

Speculating on us being the last 6 in?  Ahem...No....the Chairman of the Committee said we were one of the last 6 in.  No speculation needed, I took him at his word since he was in the room with 9 other people and would know first hand who the last 6 in were.  Speculation not needed.

I guess I'm not alone in thinking the conspiracy stuff might be a bit much.  This committee couldn't get a lot of the basic seeding right like Florida as a #2 but Kentucky, the better team in that same conference, as a 4.  Or Michigan as an 8.  Etc, etc.  They certainly got some seeds right...if we were one of the last 6 in as stated, then our seed should have been an 11 or 12...which it was.   But I think you give them WAY too much credit to being this devious.

Make sure to call out Rollout and Sultan, I wouldn't want them to feel slighted.   

[bilsu]

I am surpised that there are Big East teams meeting in the secound round(third round for some teams), but it is more complicated than that. MU also played Duke, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Bucknell who they also in the past could not meet until the third round.  To just simply change MU's and Cincy's slotting is possibly ignoring creating a non conference matchup problem with the other team they are switching with. For example moving Michigan St to another slot may result in Mich St. meeting a team they already played before the final 8.

[MerrittsMustache]

Conference teams potentially playing in the 2nd Round is an absolute joke. I don't think it's a conspiracy but I find it hard to believe that it was mere sloppiness. Solutions were just too simple.

Swap Marquette and Georgia. Problem solved.
Or swap Marquette and Michigan State. Problem solved.
Or swap Marquette and Penn State. Problem solved.
Or swap Cuse and Texas. Problem solved.

Swap Cincy and Temple. Problem solved.
Or swap Cincy and Arizona. Problem solved.
Or swap UConn and Florida. Problem solved.

EDIT: The article says a couple of these same things. Guess I should have read that before posting  

[brewcity77]

I am surpised that there are Big East teams meeting in the secound round(third round for some teams), but it is more complicated than that. MU also played Duke, Gonzaga, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin and Bucknell who they also in the past could not meet until the third round.  To just simply change MU's and Cincy's slotting is possibly ignoring creating a non conference matchup problem with the other team they are switching with. For example moving Michigan St to another slot may result in Mich St. meeting a team they already played before the final 8.

Honestly, it wouldn't have been that hard. I did it myself. The day before the tournament, I went through and seeded the entire field based on my own projections. Admittedly, I did have two at-larges incorrect (St. Mary's and Va Tech in, VCU and USC out) but for the most part had the entire field. I seeded it in about an hour and a half, and using kenpom.com was able to ensure that there were no rematches of regular season games in the first two rounds, and that no Big East teams would meet until the Sweet 16. If an amateur bracketologist can do it alone with relative ease, I'd have to imagine a group of 10 people all paid to make this work right should be able to do the same.

Bottom line, this Selection Committee was really just a study in ineptitude and laziness. Either that, or they are all just sharing lots of bum love with the Big Ten.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Time will tell, but last year's committee I thought did the best job ever....while this year's borders on the 1969 selection committee performance.  For goodness sake, the chairman couldn't even explain the seedings or selections.  It is obvious that the TV match-ups drove the selection and seedings, led by the B10 football cheating team AD. BCS football control has ruined college sports. 

That said, MU got in because of the BE pull, so I will take it.  Bring on the 96 team field because TV demands it. Can't wait.