I’m not sure if we’re better than Iowa or not (we’re probably not), and maybe they do drop out of the actual AP poll, but their placement in that CBS ranking is the perfect demonstration of big schools getting grace that smaller schools would never get.
They’ve only played 3 actual road games. They are 0-3 on the road (we are 7-0 on the road). They are 0-2 Q1 and 3-1 Q2 (we are 0-0 Q1 and 3-0 Q2). They just lost twice this week to NET 83 Minnesota and much better NET 10 Illinois. And yet…sure…they are still a top 25 team.
No non power team would be ranked if they were winless on the road in January, no Q1 wins, and lost twice that week, one of which to the NET 83 team.
My guess is we’ll be just outside of the top 25 week. Always add another week (or two) for the “eh, they’re a mid-major” bias when it comes to finally getting a spot in the polls.
Outside the high majors, still-undefeated Miami (OH) (364 NonConf SOS) has virtually no chance for an at-large. Bottom line: If you’re on the bubble with a sub-300 schedule, don’t blame us. Or the Selection Committee.
It’s such a scam that these outlets get all the voice. What’s a school to do if no one will play them? I lose respect for the journalists and pubs who don’t see the scam that is college sports at a high level, at least in hoops there is a lot of talent and roster limits. Harder to pull the scam that has happened in football. Still some parity. But yet, still scammy.
According to Steele the power conferences get a data sheet which tells them which mid-majors you shouldnt play based on returning players and 3 point efficiency and us and two other teams hit that mark
also I think we were late to address the schedule because we didnt realize how much harder it would be to schedule coming off of 25-9 vs 15-17 or whatever we were the year before
What makes you think those are the comparable teams?
Just to look at teams that finished around the same place in last years NET, 137-145 were:
NDSU (0 high major)
Kennesaw St (Alabama)
Wichita St (0 high major)
Murray St (SMU)
Us
ETSU (UNC)
NMSU (0 high major)
UC Santa Barbara (0 high major)
Towson (played Houston, UCF and Kansas)
So does kinda seem like the default is not playing a high major game.
In terms of the quality of mid major games, I don’t think it was ever going to be great, but we had some bad luck with some of the opponents:
Maine was picked T2 in America East, actually are 3-15 (1-2).
UNC Asheville was picked 2nd in the Big South, actually are 8-10 (2-2)
EKU was picked 2nd in the Atlantic Sun, actually are 6-11 (2-2)
Old Dominion was supposed to have been 5th in the Sun Belt but is 5-13 (2-4)
It’s plausible those teams could have all been 50-100 places better, which would have changed our NCSOS from one of the worst in the country to just normal “bad”.
IMO, a perfect scenario would be a schedule of 10 low-mid majors like we had this year and dumping the non-D1 teams for a 3 game neutral site event like Charleston, Maui, Orlando, etc.
This might be worth a read. Pretty well sums it up. Coach Steele is super competitive and will play anyone anywhere who’s good. But it’s getting harder for really good mid majors to do that. Especially for money.
Was just thinking about Sayler’s rant from the NIT snub last year and how much he would need to ratchet things up if the NCAA committee snubs us this year.
