-- [ From: Adam Wodon * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --
 
Dave H. wrote:
> Adam Wodon wrote:
>> my take on Lowell was that the committee needed to
>> balance out the regions.  If No. 6 Cornell went to the
>> West and No. 4 Lowell went back East, then that would
>> have unfairly knocked Clarkson to a No. 6 seed, and made
>> Cornell a No. 5 seed in the West ahead of Providence.
>> Putting an equal number of "strong" and "weak" teams in
>> the two brackets seemed to make sense to me, moreso than
>> any other reason I've heard from the committee or others.
>
> None of this makes any sense IMO.  The committee certainly
> didn't need to send Lowell out west to make the west
> stronger.   The West was stronger than the East to begin
> with.
<snip>
> As to "unfairly knocking Clarkson to a No. 6 seed" what
> would be unfair about that?  If the only way you can keep
> from falling to a number 6 seed is to prop you up with an
> even lower ranked team to fill the number 6 slot, then you
> don't deserve to be #5.
 
I think you completely missed what I was saying.  Basically, my take is
that the committee went the "basketball way" -- Like that or not, but
basketball has done it for years.
 
Clarkson was not propped up -- Clarkson is better than Providence and
Cornell in the rankings, therefore, Clarkson is not artificially
getting a No. 5 seed -- they DESERVE a No. 5 seed.  If you put Cornell
out west and moved Lowell East, Clarkson would become a No. 6 seed.
 
Again, to clarify my take on this:
   I admittedly am doing this off the cuff, and I don't honestly feel
like looking up the PWR ratings, but I have ASSUMED the following:
 
  Take out the 4 bye teams ... gone.   Now, of the eight remaining,
Providence is No. 8 and Cornell No. 7 - Agreed? Good.
   So, obviously, they each get a #6 seed. Now Minnesota is  No. 1 and
LSSU is No. 2 amongst the 8 non-bye teams.  So Minny stays to play
Providence while LSSU gets Cornell -- again, makes sense to me. (BTW,
if LSSU is actually ahead of Minny, it still makes sense because then
they get a "weaker" Vermont instead of Michigan in round 2).
 
   Going further -- it appears WMU was next best, then Lowell, then
Michigan State, then Clarkson.  So WMU and Lowell are the next seeds,
and they are flip-flopped to avoid inter-conference matchups.
    Then Clarkson and Michigan State are No. 5 seeds and they stay put.
 
    This makes perfect sense.
 
    Some may disagree that they should just rank them 1-6 within region
and let them shake out, and there are other arguments, we've heard them
stated eloquently...
 
   Now, I know we all hate basketball, but it seems now they are just
following the basketball formula, which I think works very well.
 
   The Committee decides the four #1 seeds, and the four #16 seeds --
then, it takes the worst #16 seed and pairs it with the best #1 seed.
etc, etc, all the way down.  It also, to an extent, factors in
avoidance of inter-conference matchups, though they have the benefit of
having a lot more conferences to deal with.
 
   WOULD YOU RATHER GET THE SEED YOU DESERVE or the REGION YOU ARE
FROM?????
 
   Swapping WMU and Lowell was the only thing that would've been fair,
in this respect, and that created 2 inter-conference matchups.
 
   Now, we can argue that inter-conference matchups are no big deal,
and in that case, maybe that's a point ... but it seems to me the
committee weighed the factors and made the proper choices.
 
   If you'd prefer, we could have Lowell vs. Providence and Cornell-
Clarkson in the East -- then have Minnesota-Mich St. and LSSU-WMU in
the West.  That's how it would be if went by seedings.
 
   I hate to admit it, but I do follow the Basketball Tournament, so
maybe I'm just used to this thinking and reasoning, for better or
worse.
 
AW
 
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