Derek Hodgins writes:
 
> Looking at last year, I think that a team like QU deserves that spot for
> their play over an at-large like Denver.
 
Oh geez, do we have to start this again?  QC's play last year included
an out-of-conference record consisting of a win over Army and a split
with Air Force, plus a 23-3-2 record against a conference schedule
made up of teams were swept in six games with Niagara and Mankato and
played below .500 against Army and AFA.  The only reason anyone
thought of giving them an at-large bid was that the RPI and PWR
systems used by the NCAA do a bad job of rating teams in the presence
of widely varying schedule strengths.  (And we can expect more of the
same this year, with the shortcomings in the choice of statistical
rankings likely to be handled by an ad hoc decision on the committee's
part to exclude MAAC and CHA teams on the grounds of conference
strength.)
 
(That said, I have no problem with giving the champions of the two new
conferences one auto-bid each if the tournament is simultaneously
expanded from 12 to 16 teams; let's just not kid ourselves about
whether Q was entitled to a bid last year.)
 
                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
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                                     http://www.amurgsval.org/joe/
 
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