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Message: [QUOTE="kirbivore, post: 1627149, member: 952"] From the insider section of bracketology The season's halfway point also brings us to the presentation of the annual Rand McNally Award. This award goes -- tongue firmly in cheek -- to the coach and team playing their first true road game at the latest point on the calendar. In other words, who went the longest without experiencing those two four-letter words (r-o-a-d g-a-m-e)? Multiple prior winners include Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) and Mike Brey (Notre Dame). However, as members now of the ACC, both are forced at least every other year into an early December road game, courtesy of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Our latest winner benefited from an ACC/Big Ten Challenge home game (which it lost), only to turn around and win its first true road game five weeks later. Even so, by managing to go 58 days into the season without being an AWAY team, the 2015-16 Rand McNally Award goes to: [B]Jamie Dixon, University of Pittsburgh[/B] [B]Pitt 86, Notre Dame 82 (Jan. 9) [/B] [B]Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana[/B] Another scheduling pet peeve is the extraordinary number of wins piled up by mostly power conference teams in the nonleague portion of the season. Now I understand the practice of "buying" games is almost as old as the sport itself. However, nothing says that I have to believe win-loss records that are so inflated as to be almost comically misleading. So, for kicks, I like to subtract sub-200 home court victories for schools that load up excessively with "buy" games that are little more than glorified practices. You know who you are ... Inflating The Records [B]TEAM[/B] [B]ACTUAL W-L[/B] [B]EFFECTIVE[/B] [B]DIFF[/B] Marquette 12-6 (.667) 4-6 (.400) .267 Kansas State 11-6 (.647) 5-6 (.455) .198 Syracuse 12-7 (.632) 6-7 (.462) .170 Clemson 12-6 (.667) 6-6 (.500) .167 Connecticut 12-5 (.709) 6-5 (.545) .164 Michigan 13-5 (.722) 7-5 (.583) .139 Boise State 13-5 (.722) 7-5 (.583) .139 Ohio State 12-7 (.632) 7-7 (.500) .132 Utah 12-5 (.709) 7-5 (.583) .126 Northwestern 15-4 (.789) 8-4 (.667) .122 Baylor 14-3 (.824) 7-3 (.700) .124 Evansville 16-3 (.842) 8-3 (.727) .115 Cincinnati 13-6 (.684) 8-6 (.571) .113 Saint Mary's 15-2 (.882) 7-2 (.778) .104 Colorado 13-4 (.765) 8-4 (.667) .098 Seton Hall 13-4 (.765) 8-4 (.667) .098 Gonzaga 14-4 (.778) 9-4 (.692) .086 Texas-Arlington 13-3 (.813) 8-3 (.727) .086 Louisville 14-3 (.824) 9-3 (.750) .074 Maryland 16-2 (.889) 9-2 (.818) .071 Purdue 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064 Southern Cal 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064 Indiana 15-3 (.833) 10-3 (.769) .064 Davidson 11-5 (.688) 8-5 (.615) .063 Pittsburgh 15-2 (.882) 10-2 (.833) .049 [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?