Let the Valley bashing begin...

[BradleyBrave]

Up first - Jay Bilas of ESPN. Jay is calling for the end of the RPI, and uses Drake as his prime example.

Numbers game: It's starting already ??¦ we've now begun to simply count wins against the RPI rated teams as the best evidence of how good a team is. Are we not smarter than that? The RPI is unnecessary and past its prime. If you actually watch all of these teams play (and the committee says it is doing that), then why do we need the RPI? It presents a certain perception, and that perception is not always correct. I believe that the selection of teams has become formulaic, and I'm not crazy about it. If you think that Team A is better than Team B, then Team A should go into the field first. You don't need to count wins against RPI Top 100 or RPI top 50 competition. The only objective participants in the NCAA Tournament are the automatic qualifiers (the teams that win their conference titles). Everyone else is in a beauty contest. But, based upon RPI numbers, we are all assuming that Drake is in the field -- barring a collapse. But, if Purdue has played the same schedule as Drake and was 16-1, do you think anyone would be saying that the Boilermakers would be in? I doubt it. I think we would be questioning the schedule and whether Purdue had beaten anyone. Watch Drake play, and decide whether the Bulldogs are among the best 34 teams after the automatic qualifiers. That is plenty good enough. I think we need a new measure, and we need to get away from the RPI. It doesn't work, and it never did. It is a crutch, and we can do better without it.

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3225609&name=bilas_jay&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fentryID%3d3225609%26name%3dbilas_jay

[Double D]

That "just watch them play" is such garbage.

So many casual observers are blinded by the "gloss" of television production, fan ferver in the arena, name recognition, etc. The size of some of these players for the Iowa States and Purdues of the world gives the illusion of superior more physical basketball.

We all know these teams are counterfeit. How do we know? They come to our arenas for noncon games or the NIT or they play us at a neutral site in a Holiday Tourney and guess what? They go home with an L more times that they don't.

Every year we have this goop spewing from these talking heads. We know the truth is that in most seasons we need the RPI and other ratings to offset this stuff. Because if we just "watched the games" the only ones that we could see on "Big Monday" or whatever, wouldn't include the Drakes only the Purdues.

Remember Billy Packer's comment about why he said what he did about Bradley in 2006.

"I haven't seen them play"

Shew! Now I feel better.

[tornado]

They fabricated the entire RPI thing out of thin air several years ago to HELP get more BCS teams IN the NCAA.
They designed the whole formula and even tweaked it arbitrarily whenever they needed to just to be able to prove the 5-6th best team in the BIG conferences was still better than the top one or two teams in the littler conferences like the MVC, just to get more of their teams in and keep MORE of our teams out, and hand our guys the worse seeds.

Now, just as soon as their formula seems to favor (in their eyes) a NON-BCS team they want to get rid of it. This happened with BU each of the past two years, and we've heard these silly arguments before.

Jay Bilas.......meet your fellow dolts, Billy Packer, Digger Phelps, and Jim Nance (and Gary Williams & Tom Penders)!!

[houstontxbrave]

Individuals like Vital, Packer, Bilas etc will never be happy until they have the ability to tell the casual fan without any question from other sources ie RPI, SOS or otherwise who is the best teams. Or the NCAA goes to 2 separate tourneys one for BCS and all the others.

Oh and Jay my eyeball test tells me that Drake is better then Purdue. I dont need no stinken talking head to tell me different

[tornado]

Yup...
Drake beat Iowa
Iowa beat Michigan State
Michigan State beat Purdue and Mizzou
Mizzou also beat Purdue and Maryland
Maryland beat North Carolina

so it is obvious Drake is better than any of the Big Ten teams and even better than UNC.

[BradleyBrave]

Unfortunately, while the beauty of the tournament (and sports in general) is the David v Goliath matchup (as evidenced by last night's Super Bowl shocker), the talking heads in college sport don't want that. They want the BCS Invitational every March, and I am afraid to say that I think we're getting closer to it. What's truly amazing is that these morons forget that the most storied national championship game ever involved a mid-major team from the Missouri Valley Conference. If they have their way, such a scenario could never happen again.

[BradleyBrave]

Yup...
Drake beat Iowa
Iowa beat Michigan State
Michigan State beat Purdue and Mizzou
Mizzou also beat Purdue and Maryland
Maryland beat North Carolina

so it is obvious Drake is better than any of the Big Ten teams and even better than UNC.

BU also beat Iowa.

[numbr_9]

so we have how many Division 1 teams? 300 something? and each team plays more than 30 games?

yeah ... im sure that the analysts are watching 9000 games a season.

[tornado]

......the beauty of the tournament (and sports in general) is the David v Goliath matchup ....

But the massive $$ and GREED at stake alter people's perception of what beauty is.
Guys like Digger Phelps, Dick Vitale, and Billy Packer are mouthpieces for the Duke's and the ACC's of the world, and all they see is the ADDITIONAL money that might be making should they find a way to exclude the Bucknells and the Bradley's.
Kinda reminds me of this old story........

http://www.amazingchange.org/story_Naboth.htm

so we have how many Division 1 teams? 300 something? and each team plays more than 30 games?

yeah ... im sure that the analysts are watching 9000 games a season.

each game they see allows them to view two teams, so there wouldn't be 9000, only 4500 games to see.
This would make it much easier for blowhards like Digger and Packer.

[MacabreMob]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tornado
Yup...
Drake beat Iowa
Iowa beat Michigan State
Michigan State beat Purdue and Mizzou
Mizzou also beat Purdue and Maryland
Maryland beat North Carolina

so it is obvious Drake is better than any of the Big Ten teams and even better than UNC.

BU also beat Iowa.

And Bradley lost to UIC, who lost to Youngstown St, who lost to E Kentucky, who lost to Tennessee Tech, who lost to #341 RPI Jacksonville St.

I say let's crown Jacksonville St!

LOL!

[Murph]

So when BU wins the MVC tourny...... Who will be left out Drake and ISU or just ISU?

[mike radigan]

so we have how many Division 1 teams? 300 something? and each team plays more than 30 games?

yeah ... im sure that the analysts are watching 9000 games a season.

Two teams per game or 4500 games. Just havin' fun with ya.

[Da Coach]

Up first - Jay Bilas of ESPN. Jay is calling for the end of the RPI, and uses Drake as his prime example.

Funny, I don't recall him calling for the end of the RPI when it favored the power conferences and helped get the 7th and 8th place teams in some conferences into the NCAA tournament, with losing conference records.

He is so unabashedly in favor of his ACC teams that he should be disqualified when any objective reasoning is needed.

He is just running scared that is his beloved Duke slips up and loses another game, they could fall behind Drake in the RPI!

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html

[BU ICEMAN]

Tornado-

I'm not so sure I'd lump Dickie V in with those dolts. Off the top of my head, I can't remember anything outrageous he's said about this. I'm sure somebody can find something, but I don't think that he's got a pattern about talking smack like those other dipshi.....um, dumba.....um, well, you know what I mean.

[tornado]

true, he isn't too anti-mid-major, but he's so over the top, pro-Dook and ACC, that it is just as sickening.