There is more to the selection process than the teams ability. The venue, location, and season attendance are all factors. Unfortunately Minnesota and JMU fell short.
In other words...which place can make us the most money.
There is more to the selection process than the teams ability. The venue, location, and season attendance are all factors. Unfortunately Minnesota and JMU fell short.
In other words...which place can make us the most money.
No, but RPI combined with coach's poll combined with sportswriters usually has some meaning! They are in the top 16 (Minn in top 8 of coaches and sportswriters) of all three! Not good for growing the sport.
The mid-major D1's are the real victims when a team that can't even make it's own conference tournament gets a comfortable regional berth. (Georgia)
But do you really doubt that Georgia is as good or better than the 4th or 5th team in the ACC or Big Ten or Big East or better than the 2nd or 3rd team in the Sunbelt or American or A10 or Big Sky?
Ky lost twice to Pitt (ACC 5th best) so doubt they are better than them or Louisville ACC 4th best. Why give SEC 13 instead of giving ACC 4? or better, a 3rd (South Ala) to Sunbelt or a 2nd to Kennesaw in ASUN or a 2nd to USF in AAC?
Back to money.
Money matters, but it might also be because the SEC is just that good this year. Usually, the SEC has a couple of teams in struggle mode, but everybody was solid this year.
You speculate that Louisville is better than Kentucky, but Kentucky beat Louisville 10-1. ... So while Kentucky did lose twice to Pitt in February, Kentucky also beat Florida, Texas A&M (twice) and UCLA. Louisville didn't beat anybody worth noting. All Louisville ever did was play FSU close once or twice.
Fwiw, the Massey Ratings (which are objective, if nothing else) ranks Louisville #50 nationally. They rank SEC's last-place Georgia #29. If Louisville and Georgia played, I'd probably pick UGA.