2007 Syracuse second biggest snub in last 8 years

[SWC75]

I remember one poster had insisted that we "weren't a lock" and got flamed for it. He was in his glory after the selection show.

 

[RandygoCuse]

I remember waiting for another bracket... I remember the selection committee rationizing there were more 20 win teams than ever before - even though Stanford didn't have 20 wins. And when our higher RPI rating was brought up, they made some remark about being able to have stats do whatever you want...as if the RPI is something barely ever used.

 

[kirbivore]

True. If you are on the bubble, you are like a boxer who could have knodked out his opponent but let it go to a decision and got one he didn't expect.

Looking at the records of Arkansas and Stanford:

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/arkansas/2007-schedule.html

Arkansas didn't loose to any mid-majors but they did have a 7-9 regular season record in the SEC and they lost games by 22,24 and 21 points and then lost by 17 to USC in the first round.

even more damning to Arkansas was their league schedule. Back then the SEC played a 16 game league schedule with east and west divisions. You played your own division teams twice and the other side once. That year the East was much stronger than the West. Arkansas went 1-5 vs. the East and 6-4 vs. the West. They couldn't get to .500 in league play while doubling up on the weaker division.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/standings/_/year/2007

 

[sabach]

After the 3rd bracket, I told my son that if we aren't in the 1st half of the 4th bracket we are out. There was another lock BE school that had not been mentioned yet and I knew we couldn't be in the same half of the bracket as another BE school. I still remember the gut hit when that first half of that 4th bracket was revealed and we were not in it.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Is there any chance that they just messed up and forgot about us completely that year? and then had to start rationalizing the "decision" because they decided it was easier to do that than the explain just forgetting about a team?

 

[SWC75]

Is there any chance that they just messed up and forgot about us completely that year? and then had to start rationalizing the "decision" because they decided it was easier to do that than the explain just forgetting about a team?

More likely the SEC commissioner had more clout than the Big East commissioner and wanted one more SEC team in the tourney so they made the last-minute switch.