Excellent article about the Selection Committee. They watch enough basketball to put even
Marsh01 to shame!
http://m.espn.go.com/ncb/story?storyId=10584635
That article sums up my post about the need to go to computers.
Zaninovich, the West Coast Conference commissioner and a member of the 10-person tournament selection committee,
has developed his own personal college basketball ranking system, not unlike what you would see from the major media "bracketologists." His personal prioritizing of six different measures and metrics, however, is not for publication. It's for his own personal use with the selection committee.
"I weigh the different ranking systems and I put them into my own composite ranking," he said. "I can immediately see if something jumps out -- 'Look, they are only 1-4 in top-50s."
So each of the ten committee members could possibly look at teams all differently from each other. Where is the consistency.
Zaninovich's preparation for his third year on the committee began in November after he received his list of primary and secondary conferences (Pac 12, Big West, Summit and Big Sky).
So let's say that he is the expert on these four conferences. Does that mean if one of them is on the bubble that he has the final say. Isn't there a lot of prejudice involved there.
Here's an example of a conversation that might take place, adopted from a description from Zaninovich:
Committee member 1: Team X's road record is better, but Team Y's nonconference is better.
Committee member 2: Yeah, but I've seen Team X play. That team is better than Team Y.
Committee member 3: What does the conference monitor think of Team X?
Committee member 4 (conference monitor): I've seen them play 10 times. They had an injury here [points to red area of team sheet indicating losing streak].
Committee member 2: Let's take down Team X and compare Team Z to Team Y.
Wow. Committee member 2's comments are somewhat scary. You know these conversations are taking place but it's scary that one committee member could jettison a team for some unknown reason. Maybe this guy saw a team play once and they laid an egg. Shouldn't their inclusion and seeding be based on 31 games plus their conference tournament and not because of some people watching a few games with the distraction of a couple screaming kids and their spouse yelling at them to take out the garbage.
