Apparently this needs to be said constantly since people continue to bring it up. We are NEVER going to play Drake or UNI in non-con unless it is at Hilton. We don’t schedule home and homes with Missouri Valley Conference teams.
I agree. It should be irrelevant, but according to what this year's committee has said, non-con SOS appears to be more important than a superior overall SOS and TWO wins over the AP #1.Agree. If the selection committee insists on rewarding teams for their noncon schedule, then they should give specific criteria, rather than their vague assertion, to make the selection process transparent.
That said, factoring in the noncon strength of schedule is bs in the first place. Overall strength of schedule is relevant. Noncon strength of schedule is totally irrelevant.
Did any other team defeat an NCAA Tournament qualifier by 55 points?This year's committee definitely stepped in it. Who gives a rat's rump if ISU played Cupcake Tech college in November? ISU played in the toughest conference and placed 2nd. They also won the conference tournament (impressively) and beat the #1 team in the nation 2x. You are going to tell me that because they played Cupcake Tech, you think they are the 8th best team? Most of the credible pundits agree it was a screw job. Note: Clark Kellogg is not in this category of being credible.
A top 60 team is better than a 300+ teamThis was their best analytical year in his tenure and they're a next four out type team, not sure that moves the needle
This year's committee definitely stepped in it. Who gives a rat's rump if ISU played Cupcake Tech college in November? ISU played in the toughest conference and placed 2nd. They also won the conference tournament (impressively) and beat the #1 team in the nation 2x. You are going to tell me that because they played Cupcake Tech, you think they are the 8th best team? Most of the credible pundits agree it was a screw job. Note: Clark Kellogg is not in this category of being credible.
First rule of The Committee...Now that JP is no longer on the committee, it would be great if he let us in on how things really work.
I wouldn't hold my breath. How many hundreds of other guys have come off that committee over the years and it's still an absolute secret.Now that JP is no longer on the committee, it would be great if he let us in on how things really work.
I’m not.I wouldn't hold my breath. How many hundreds of other guys have come off that committee over the years and it's still an absolute secret.
Yep, there's a reason that there is a bit of (fake) mystery to the process for both college football and college basketball. The mysterious part is where they put their thumbs on the scales to get the results that they want.
Committe can always find a reason within a couple seeds to justify what they do. The whole argument to me is crazy. People are upset we are overall 8th seed when we deserved higher. Why did this happen? Committee says noncon sos. Fans say dammit noncon sos should've been better. I say, you don't schedule for every 20 years when you have a chance to be a 1 seed you schedule for what happens most years. If we loaded up the non con, there will be some year where we have a good resume on the bubble and the committee will say not enough wins. And our fans will say our non con is too hard, schedule more MEAC teams...
Damn. I was thinking the same thing but didn't know how to word it.The problem with a loaded non con is that only certain schools will get away with the losses. Look at Tennessee, they lost to Purdue, Kansas, and North Carolina and beat an ok Illinois. If that's Iowa State the committee's comments would have been "Iowa State played a challenging non con but they also lost most of those games". Unless there is a firm and transparent process the committee can just make it up as they go.
While I think it's hard to argue with the results, the counterarguments are:Scheduling is complicated; I mean look at our pre season outlook
This year's team returned:
30% of its scoring
52% of its total rebounding
43% of its total assists
47% of its total steals
In addition to that they lost one of the best defenders this program has had and an elite shot blocker. Add to those facts they had 4 new starters and 2 of them weren't even in the program last year and 1 of those 2 was in high school.
For these national idiots to think that Iowa State to think that 1.) they should have scheduled harder and 2.) anyone was willing to put this team in a spotlight non conference game is just that... an Idiot.
TJ and staff had no clue this is what they had and the scheduled appropriately in the summer. Iowa turned out to be way worse because in most years thats a Q1 game. DePaul went from ass to mega ass. The ESPN Orlando tournament field went from "these guys are pretty good" to "those guys ****** sucked."
Could they have gone less SWAC/MEAC heavy? Absolutely but I think we are all kidding ourselves that if they moved 3 of those Quad 4 games to Quad 3 the committee would have magically moved us about North Carolina.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we will never be able to load a schedule like Kansas, Mich St, Duke, or Kentucky. Those guys benefit from a strong holiday tournament annually as well as other promoter driven events like the Champions Classic. It's also not fair for the committee to look at these teams and expect non blue bloods to even begin to arrange such a schedule. It's not easy folks. Some of these games are purely invites. Once some of these events start sprinkling in NIL money it's only going to favor the blue bloods even more.
Its actually not a secret - they've held multiple events over the years with the media doing a mock bracket.I wouldn't hold my breath. How many hundreds of other guys have come off that committee over the years and it's still an absolute secret.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we will never be able to load a schedule like Kansas, Mich St, Duke, or Kentucky. Those guys benefit from a strong holiday tournament annually as well as other promoter driven events like the Champions Classic. It's also not fair for the committee to look at these teams and expect non blue bloods to even begin to arrange such a schedule. It's not easy folks. Some of these games are purely invites. Once some of these events start sprinkling in NIL money it's only going to favor the blue bloods even more.