A couple of factual inaccuracies here. First of all, Ball State was in the 50s in RPI when we faced them in the MAC tournament. Toledo was ranked in the 80s when we played them, and I'm not sure, but I think they finished in the top 100 as well. Kent State was in the top 100 early on but they faded badly at the end of the season. We finished the season with an RPI in the mid 30s and didn't get invited according to realtimerpi.com.gmartin wrote:I been paying attention to how the MAC does on Selection Sunday for the last 20 years. I know what you are getting at. Last years team did not have any quality wins. The conference as a whole had NO team except BG higher than 118 in the RPI, this year 4 MAC teams are in the top 70. If BG runs the table and would happen to lose in the MAC Championship it would mean BG would have 5 losses. More than likely all 5 of those teams would be in the dance, and one of those would be a #1 seed in OSU. Then BG would also have several quality wins.
No if the MAC would start to stumble and Toledo, Eastern, even Kent takes a nose dive and their RPI considerably fall then yes once again he will be sweating on Selection Sunday.
As for last season's wins, Hartford was ranked in the 20s of the RPI when we beat them, but they fell into the 50s by the end of the season. St Bonaventure was also in the top 50 but fell into the 80s by season's end. Dayton was ranked in the 70s when we beat them and stayed around there the whole way. So yes, technically we didn't have any wins as good as Vanderbilt this year, but to say we had no quality wins is wrong.
In terms of at-large selection, I feel we are in a situation where we'd have to run the table in the MAC, with the only possibly permissible defeats being Toledo and Eastern Michigan. A loss to anybody else and we're dead in the water. It would've REALLY helped if we could have beaten Marist or Hartford, those losses sting now.
