CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Dayton Flyers were practically discarded by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, as well as the Mid-American Conference in the NIT, as big-school bias by the two selection committees again trumped RPI standings when pairings for the two top tournaments were announced Sunday.
More than half of the 68-team NCAA Tournament field, 35 teams, come from the six major conferences. Of those teams, eight have 12 losses or more on the season. Another eight teams from those same conferences, with comparable records, are also in the 32-team NIT field. Every year selection committee members for both the NCAA and NIT stress they select teams, not conferences.
But every year the same conferences – Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, PAC 12 – reap the rewards, while quality teams from outside the six leagues sweat it out on the sidelines.
And while Dayton did make the NCAA field, they are relegated to the No. 11-seed play-in game on Wednesday night on their home court. The Flyers finished with an RPI of 32, losing to VCU (RPI 15) in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship.
Digest that.
“When you rank among the top 10 percent (of Division I teams) in the country according to the RPI, and you are barely in the NCAA Tournament field, something is either wrong with the (RPI) numbers or wrong with the process,” said Kent State coach Rob Senderoff.
A top 32 RPI team that finished second in a top 7 conference in the country is generally considered to be the last team selected into the field. Perhaps the Flyers should be thankful. Two other top 10 percent teams – RPI No. 29, Colorado State and RPI 34 Temple – did not make the NCAA Tournament field.
“Buffalo won the MAC Tournament, but based on what I see probably would not have made the NCAA as an at-large, even with a Top 30 (actually No. 28) RPI,” Senderoff said.
Boise State (RPI 40) out of the Mountain West can’t be too pleased, either. Boise State is also a No. 11-seed, matched against the Flyers on UD’s home court, where the Flyers have won 16 straight this season, and 21 straight over the last two seasons.
“I think our travel is going to be a little harder than theirs,” Boise coach Leon Rice deadpanned to his local media.
Meanwhile, one has to look farther down the RPI list to No. 59 Stanford from the PAC 12 to find a power conference team that did not make the NCAA Tournament cut.
MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher was speaking specifically about the MAC over the weekend, but his words could easily apply to any league outside of the power conferences.
“I think one of the challenges we have right now is the perception of our league needs to catch up with the reality of our league,” Steinbrecher said.
The MAC commissioner got the obligatory comfort call from the NIT, stating Toledo and Kent State “were right there” to be picked. But they weren’t.
The argument is that Toledo (20-13) underachieved this season. But the opposite applies to Kent (21-11), which arguably overachieved to tie for a MAC regular-season title. In the end, UT opted not to play in a post-season tournament at all. Kent, with a younger team, is playing in the CIT, on the road at Middle Tennessee State (19-16).
Senderoff felt Kent’s 21-11 team that shared a piece of the MAC regular-season title belonged in the 32-team NIT field. But he fully expected to get snubbed. “You see the same thing almost every year,” he said.
That’s the perception of the MAC right now, and a lot of other leagues like it.
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