m2 your thoughts...

[Van]

Shine, those teams become #1 seeds as a result of...you guessed it...a secret vote by a clandestine committee.

[Shine]

Am I having a discussion with Van or with brad? I thought it was Van but the continued ducking of direct questions and moronic comebacks has me second guessing things.

Yeah, a committee that publicly releases their rankings and immediately conducts interviews to answer questions about said rankings and their deliberations sure is clandestine.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Van]

They get locked in a room. No one knows who they are. No one is privy to the arbitrary criteria they use in any individual case. When they're done, they release their selections. Love 'em or hate 'em, the public just has to accept 'em.

It is exactly the same process college football goes through with the BCS selection committee.

[Shine]

No one knows who they are.

Chairman- Jeff Hathaway, retired UConn director of athletics
Lynn Hickey, UT-San Antonio director of athletics
Mike Bobinski, Xavier director of athletics
Dan Beebe, Big 12 commissioner
Doug Fullerton, Big Sky commissioner
Ron Wellman, Wake Forest director of athletics
Steve Orsini, SMU director of athletics
Scott Barnes, Utah State director of athletics
Joe Alleva, LSU director of athletics
Jamie Zaninovich, West Coast Conference commissioner

No one is privy to the arbitrary criteria they use in any individual case.

The chairman of the NCAA tournament selection committee Jeff Hathaway said Tuesday that the combination of a mock bracket selection with the media and the newly added "team sheets" and "nitty gritty" links on the NCAA.org website have the committee "moving in the right direction."

The "arbitrary" criteria is so vague that so called "bracketologists" are only able to accurately predict 98.5% of the field.

It is exactly the same process college football goes through with the BCS selection committee.

Tears Jerry, tears!!

[Van]

No one knows who they are.

Chairman- Jeff Hathaway, retired UConn director of athletics
Lynn Hickey, UT-San Antonio director of athletics
Mike Bobinski, Xavier director of athletics
Dan Beebe, Big 12 commissioner
Doug Fullerton, Big Sky commissioner
Ron Wellman, Wake Forest director of athletics
Steve Orsini, SMU director of athletics
Scott Barnes, Utah State director of athletics
Joe Alleva, LSU director of athletics
Jamie Zaninovich, West Coast Conference commissioner

Exactly. A bunch of nameless, rotating suits who couldn't be picked out of a police lineup by 99.9% of college hoops fans...just like the BCS selection committee.

Riddle me this. Exactly why is a retired UConn athletic director the chairman of this select little club? Why the inclusion of athletic directors from college hoops powerhouses such as Utah St, SMU and UT-San Antonio?

Jamie Zaninovich? Seriously?



There is no fucking rhyme or reason to this whatsoever.

No one is privy to the arbitrary criteria they use in any individual case.

The chairman of the NCAA tournament selection committee Jeff Hathaway said Tuesday that the combination of a mock bracket selection with the media and the newly added "team sheets" and "nitty gritty" links on the NCAA.org website have the committee "moving in the right direction."

The "arbitrary" criteria is so vague that so called "bracketologists" are only able to accurately predict 98.5% of the field.

Not the seedings, which is what we were talking about in the first place.

Also, their counterparts in college football can accurately predict the bowl match-ups most of the time, too.

There's no difference here.

It is exactly the same process college football goes through with the BCS selection committee.

Tears Jerry, tears!!

So, not only do you have nothing here with which to refute a word of what I said, you also have a lame sense of humor.

What's next, smashing a watermelon with a big mallet?

[Goober McTuber]

Van,

A lot of the college football bowl matchups are predictable, due to previously-contracted conference tie-ins.

Sincerely,

Marcus Q. Allen

P.S. What is this “BCS selection committee” you speak of?

[Van]

Goobs, and a lot of the NCAA tourney entrants are predictable due to their auto-bids. Same deal.

The BCS selection committee? The group which puts together the two picks for the title game. Their work culminates in that wonderful little TV show we always get every year where they announce all the bowl match-ups, and we find out how badly the BCS bowl game representatives screwed Boise St again.

[Goober McTuber]

Goobs, and a lot of the NCAA tourney entrants are predictable due to their auto-bids. Same deal.

No, it’s not the same deal. Auto-bids in basketball have nothing whatsoever to do with seeding. Football bowl tie-ins are dictated by where the team finished in the conference.

The BCS selection committee? The group which puts together the two picks for the title game. Their work culminates in that wonderful little TV show we always get every year where they announce all the bowl match-ups, and we find out how badly the BCS bowl game representatives screwed Boise St again.

If by “committee” you mean two polls and six computer rankings, fine. The people who announce the matchup have nothing to do with selecting the two teams in the title game. Now you can make a case for Boise getting screwed by the BCS bowl game representatives, but that process is unrelated to picking #1 and #2. And I don’t believe that’s done by any committee, but rather is a case of each bowl taking its turn to choose a team based on pre-determined criteria.

You really need to bite your tongue on this one, Van.

[War Wagon]

You really need to bite your tongue on this one, Van.

about as likely as Boise St playing for the MNC but good luck with that

[Van]

Goobs, that criteria is certainly not pre-determined, otherwise there would be no drama leading up to the show. Those BCS bowls aren't locked into anything beyond the contractual conference tie-ins. Once they're free to choose, no, nothing is pre-determined.

If they were, Mizzou would've gone to one a few years back instead of Kansas getting the nod, and Boise St would've gone last year.

[Goober McTuber]

OK, now you’re jumping all over the place. Let’s take this one step at a time and see if we can get your shit squared away once and for all.

1. BCS title game is determined by polls and computers. No BCS “committee”.
2. The remaining BCS bowls honor conference tie-ins then pick teams according to the rules in place. College football pundits (BTPCFB equivalent of bracketologists) don’t have a great record picking how these games will line up – see UM v Va Tech. No BCS “committee”.
3. The conference tie-ins for lesser bowls kick in (Capitol One, Outback, etc). These are predetermined based on finish in the conference, so pundits have a chance at being somewhat accurate here.

But you’re right about one thing.

Once they're free to choose, no, nothing is pre-determined.

Which is why predicting football bowl matchups is nothing like basketball bracketology.

[Van]

They're both left to nondescript committees. Never mind the complete seedings, no one even knows which region each hoops team will land in until the committee comes out with the brackets.

[Goober McTuber]

They're both left to nondescript committees. Never mind the complete seedings, no one even knows which region each hoops team will land in until the committee comes out with the brackets.

No they are not. What "nondescript committee" has anything to do with football bowl pairings?

[Van]

The committee comprised of each bowl's nondescript representatives. Other than for the contractual tie-ins, the rest is decided in closed-door meetings held by faceless bureaucrats who are largely unknown to fans of college football.

If you point is simply to hammer home the difference between a single committee of faceless suits vs a collection of faceless suits doing precisely the same thing, okay, you can have it.

[Goober McTuber]

The committee comprised of each bowl's nondescript representatives. Other than for the contractual tie-ins, the rest is decided in closed-door meetings held by faceless bureaucrats who are largely unknown to fans of college football.

If you point is simply to hammer home the difference between a single committee of faceless suits vs a collection of faceless suits doing precisely the same thing, okay, you can have it.

Each bowl's representatives do not comprise a committee. And the bowl games beyond contractual tie-ins are inconsequential. There's no closed-door meetings held by faceless bureaucrats to slot the Poinsettia Bowl. Again, in basketball the committee is not faceless. There is no comparison between basketball and football. Period.

[Van]

It's not? So you would recognize UT-San Antonio's AD, or Utah St's? When they're replaced next time by some other faceless nobodies, you'd know them too?

Knock yourself out.

[Terry in Crapchester]

I remember the Good Old Days, when it was always a debate over the best conference -- the PAC or the ACC.

Never heard that one. Back when I was in college, the debate was over who was better (and this even made a SI cover story IIRC) between the ACC, Big East and Big Ten.

[BSmack]

I remember the Good Old Days, when it was always a debate over the best conference -- the PAC or the ACC.

Never heard that one. Back when I was in college, the debate was over who was better (and this even made a SI cover story IIRC) between the ACC, Big East and Big Ten.

You don't remember all those post Wooden Pac 10 Final Four teams and National Champions?

Oh yea, neither does anybody else.

[Goober McTuber]

It's not? So you would recognize UT-San Antonio's AD, or Utah St's? When they're replaced next time by some other faceless nobodies, you'd know them too?

Knock yourself out.

What does it matter if I can recognize them? Like Shine pointed out, after they put together the bracket they are available to explain their choices. I suppose you'd rather it was just AD's from the power conferences. Then we could have Boise State type screwjobs in basketball as well as football.

[Terry in Crapchester]

I'm not vouching for the accuracy of this from wikianswers. These are the major conferences' NCAA basketball titles:

13 - Pacific 10
12 - Atlantic Coast
10 - Big East
10 - Big Ten
10 - Southeastern

Worth noting here that the Big East is about 20 years younger than the next youngest conference on that list.

[Terry in Crapchester]

I remember the Good Old Days, when it was always a debate over the best conference -- the PAC or the ACC.

Never heard that one. Back when I was in college, the debate was over who was better (and this even made a SI cover story IIRC) between the ACC, Big East and Big Ten.

You don't remember all those post Wooden Pac 10 Final Four teams and National Champions?

Oh yea, neither does anybody else.

They had 10 Final Four teams and two national champions in the 29-year stretch from 1980-2008 inclusive. Not horrible, but to compare other conferences over the same time frame:

ACC: 27 Final Four teams, 8 national champions
Big East: 13 Final Four teams, 5 national champions
B1G: 19 Final Four teams, 3 national champions
SEC: 16 Final Four teams, 5 national champions

[BSmack]

I'm not vouching for the accuracy of this from wikianswers. These are the major conferences' NCAA basketball titles:

13 - Pacific 10
12 - Atlantic Coast
10 - Big East
10 - Big Ten
10 - Southeastern

All but two of which were won before the Big East even EXISTED. What has the Pac done lately?

[Terry in Crapchester]

Also worth noting that the Pac-8/10/12 is the only one of the so-called "power six" conferences that has never sent two teams to the Final Four in the same season.

ACC did it in '81 (North Carolina/Virginia), '90 (Duke/Georgia Tech), '91 (Duke/North Carolina), '01 (Duke/Maryland) and '04 (Duke/Georgia Tech)

Big East did it in '85 (Georgetown/St. John's/Villanova, only conference to send three to the Final Four in one season), '87 (Syracuse/Providence), and '09 (UConn/Villanova).

Big Ten did it in '76 (Indiana/Michigan), '80 (Iowa/Purdue), '89 (Illinois/Michigan), '92 (Indiana/Michigan), '99 (Michigan State/Ohio State), '00 (Michigan State/Wisconsin) and '05 (Illinois/Michigan State).

SEC did it in '94 (Arkansas/Florida), '96 (Kentucky/Mississippi State), and '06 (Florida/LSU).

Big XII did it in '02 (Kansas/Oklahoma) and '03 (Kansas/Texas). Big 8 also did it in '88 (Kansas/Oklahoma).