-- [ From: Adam Wodon * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
 
Mike M. wrote:
> When the teams are ranked within their regions based on
> season long performance, Lowell comes out 3rd in the East.
> Clarkson is 4th, Cornell 5th, and Providence 6th.
>
> 1) Does Lowell deserve an East seed more than Cornell?
> 1a) Does Cornell deserve an East seed more than
> Providence?
 
I definitely hear you, and I feel your pain <G>.  And I don't think you
hate Cornell, the criticism of you is unfair, and I enjoy your passion
...
   On that note, I'll reiterate what I said before:
 
   I think it would be unfair to have Cornell be a 5 seed, Clarkson be
a 4 seed and Lowell be a 3 seed, when they DESERVE, when pooled with
the Western teams, a 6, 5 and 4 seed respectively.
   So, going on that assumption, Cornell CLEARLY stays East over
Providence, by PAIRWISE, by RPI, or just by plain common sense. This
pulls Clarkson down to the #5 they deserve.
   That only leaves Lowell and WMU as #4 seeds.  And, I agree with the
sentiment that switching these two teams to avoid 2 intra-conference
games is the RIGHT way.  This, obviously, is an arguable point, but the
committee was clear they were going to do this.
   To me, that's all it came down to.  Lowell compared to Cornell or
Clarkson is completely and totally irrelevant.  I am convinced this is
how the committee looked at it.  This is how it's done in basketball.
 
   All this is based on two basic groundrules that were determined long
ago .... 1) Avoid intra-conference matchups ... 2) Give teams proper
seeds over keeping them in region, keeping them in region if possible.
 
    That's it - very SIMPLE -- no anti-Lowell conspiracy, no major
mathematical gymnastics -- just these sentiments mentioned above.
Maybe the committee didn't exactly think of it in these terms, but I
think that was the essence.
 
    To me, this just makes total sense -- Once the groundrules were
laid for deciding, which was months ago, I don't even think it took the
committee very long to figure all this out.  Again, argue with those
groundrules (i.e. avoiding intra-conference matchups, giving teams
their PROPER seed instead of keeping them in region) but not with the
result once we know the groundrules.
 
    It's just coincidence, in my opinion, that Lowell got screwed.  Yes,
I agree, they DID get screwed, but, again, in my opinion, they were
fairly sacrificed to avoid a situation the committee didn't want.
    And just like you don't argue this point personally against Cornell,
I believe this is nothing personal against Lowell.
 
    I have expressed my feelings on this 3 times now, - once I was told
that I wasn't making any sense, and another time I was ignored -- Have
I made any more sense this time??? Please let me know.
 
AW
 
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