Top 25 rankings

[JT]

Swarm,

That was a talking head at ESPN who spoke that, not anyone associated with the NCAA.

This is why they should let you lead.

[repete]

I don't have a hard time not voting for my alma mater in the top 25, for instance, even though they are 6-1, because I don't think they're a top 25 team compared with resumes of some other teams.

Or perhaps a loss to mighty Frostburg is an automatic disqualifier ... 

[redswarm81]

Swarm,

That was a talking head at ESPN who spoke that [Al Guhainey line], not anyone associated with the NCAA.

D'oh!! My bad.

I guess if I want to bash the NCAA (Halliburton) , I'll have to stick with my go-to scapegoat, President (and RPI (Halliburton) grad, I'm not proud to admit) Myles Brand (Halliburton) , who is directing the NCAA's jihad on names and mascots of American Indian derivation or even of tenuous connection.

At least until I can either find another credible explanation, or figure out a way to hang it on Steinbrenner or Selig.

[K-Mack]

I don't have a hard time not voting for my alma mater in the top 25, for instance, even though they are 6-1, because I don't think they're a top 25 team compared with resumes of some other teams.

Or perhaps a loss to mighty Frostburg is an automatic disqualifier ... 

Well, basically, yeah ...

[K-Mack]

Personally, I find it hard to believe why people find it so hard to believe that a professional person can put aside his bias and follow the pre-determined criteria.

Not meaning to offend, Keith, but I can understand any person's reluctance to believe that an establishment media journalist will put aside his or her bias.

And I can understand that "The Media" is as hated by the general public as lawyers, or, well, The NCAA.

I'm also telling you it's just not that hard to recognize your own bias(es), then put it (them) aside for the purposes of getting a job done. I've never been on the committee, but I imagine it must be even easier to do when you're given a list of rules to follow.

Basically, with the criteria, any reasonable person or group of people should come up with virtually the same results. It's why Pat and Gordon can nail all or all but one team each year. Clearly there's some room for variation in interpreting the criteria, and it's significant to the 33rd team on the list. But "bias" is not the only possible or logical explanation for those variations.

People have generally been too quick to criticize what they haven't taken the time to understand.

The selection committee each year is made up of eight D3 coaches and ADs/administrators. Even if they had no professional pride, it would make sense for them to want to understand the process and get it right, since it's bound to affect them sooner or later. They are basically a bunch of folks who have devoted their lives already to student-athletics at our level.

The portrayal of the committee as a bunch of Montgomery Burns-looking guys sitting in a room figuring out how they can screw poor little Cortland State is just silly.

They definitely have a job to do, and it's one that affects hundreds of kids' lives. They're human and they make mistakes, but I have no problem holding them accountable for their mistakes.

Let's just not pretend they're something they aren't.

[K-Mack]

Swarm,

That was a talking head at ESPN who spoke that [Al Guhainey line], not anyone associated with the NCAA.

D'oh!! My bad.

I guess if I want to bash the NCAA (Halliburton) , I'll have to stick with my go-to scapegoat, President (and RPI (Halliburton) grad, I'm not proud to admit) Myles Brand (Halliburton) , who is directing the NCAA's jihad on names and mascots of American Indian derivation or even of tenuous connection.

At least until I can either find another credible explanation, or figure out a way to hang it on Steinbrenner or Selig.

Now that's funny.

And substantiativitaitiaittiiative.

[redswarm81]

Personally, I find it hard to believe why people find it so hard to believe that a professional person can put aside his bias and follow the pre-determined criteria.

Not meaning to offend, Keith, but I can understand any person's reluctance to believe that an establishment media journalist will put aside his or her bias.

And I can understand that "The Media" is as hated by the general public as lawyers, or, well, The NCAA.

Agreed.  But we can all take comfort from the fact that Congress is hated more than any of us. 

I'm also telling you it's just not that hard to recognize your own bias(es), then put it (them) aside for the purposes of getting a job done. I've never been on the committee, but I imagine it must be even easier to do when you're given a list of rules to follow.

Let's just not pretend [the Selection Committee is] something they aren't.

Agreed, in spades.  My comment about the establishment media journalists was more of a tangent, related to your solid point about how easy it is for any person  to put aside bias.  (Including NYTimes reporters, and Bill Moyers, which makes their sleeve-worn biases that much more disappointing).

I've never really had any complaints about which teams were selected, although I remember thinking in 2003 that Johns Hopkins got stiffed.   I'm with you 100% on the motivation behind the selection criteria, i.e. to keep it performance-based.  I might occasionally quibble with their seedings, but generally the selections are clear according to the selection criteria, as D3football.com's exceedingly accurate predictions bear out.

[K-Mack]

Good Lord, at that rate your karma will be up to negative 40 by the end of the week.

Is your avatar from Romancing The Stone?

[Schwami]

I don't have a hard time not voting for my alma mater in the top 25, for instance, even though they are 6-1, because I don't think they're a top 25 team compared with resumes of some other teams.

Or perhaps a loss to mighty Frostburg is an automatic disqualifier ... 

Well, basically, yeah ...

But Frostburg does have the best OWP in the country right now at .900.  That ought to count for something! 

[Knightstalker]

The portrayal of the committee as a bunch of Montgomery Burns-looking guys sitting in a room figuring out how they can screw poor little Cortland State is just silly.

Excellent!

I personally know someone who was on the NCAA selection committee for Basketball and also was chair of the Atlantic Region committee for a time.  I would be shocked if he was not completely professional about his job and allowed personal bias to enter into his decision making.

[Ralph Turner]

...
I've never really had any complaints about which teams were selected, although I remember thinking in 2003 that Johns Hopkins got stiffed. 

The stiffing of JHU, and Hampden-Sydney, and UMHB (ASC-Tri-Champion) and maybe even Hardin-Simmons (another ASC Tri-Champion) (2003 Playoff Projections) can be more accurately attributed to the 1:7.5 access ratio for Championships that D3 was authorizing in championships before 2005.  There were only 3 Pool C bids to give.

I suggest that you work with RPI's president, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson*, and encourage her that access to the playoffs is a high priority with you.  Furthermore your active participation in alumni and fundraising activities for the Athletic Department at a "sacrificial" level will convey the importance of the issue for you.   


*Thanks to redswarm!

[dewcrew88]

Since you're too uninterested to give us anything substantiative^© to chew on, . . .

My pro bono copyright work (pro bono publico, pro bono D3football.com-o, right, dewcrew?) is getting downright voluminious off of the ATN staff alone.

Personally, I find it hard to believe why people find it so hard to believe that a professional person can put aside his bias and follow the pre-determined criteria.

Not meaning to offend, Keith, but I can understand any person's reluctance to believe that an establishment media journalist will put aside his or her bias.

As for NCAA Playoff Selection Committee members and bias, that's a different kettle of fish.  There, I might just wonder about their intellectual capacity, when they study teams all year long, and spend hours in smoke filled rooms, to announce on national television that Al Guhainey (Allegheny) has been selected to play.

.com-o. You've got it. At this rate, you'd have to add more people to your practice.

[retagent]

Maybe I should just wave the white flag, but I feel like stirring a bit more. I'm not sure that having certain historical biases is necessarily a bad thing. Certain teams should have to show that they belong before they are regarded as well as teams who have shown over a longer period that they do belong.

[HScoach]

Over the years, I've had little (to no) problem with the teams selected.  The seedings?  That's a different story......

[downtown48]

seedings=joke

Tough to seed correctly when you have to pinch pennies...