NCAA Championships Handbook

Finally on line at

[www.ncaa.org]

Look there to see the published rules for tournament selection and seeding.

Okay, I have to rush to get ready so I don't have time to read it in full... but did I miss something or does the "Determination of Competing Institutions" part say absolutely nothing about this new "good win" crapola?

Well, it's good to know we won't have to worry about the RPI modification. Because the Committee never, ever deviates from the published criteria.

Well, they haven't deviated from PWR in the past, what, 7 years?

Edit: yes, except for Quinnipiac, I know

I was hinting at the switch to having the two teams emerging from the Eastern regional meet in one national semifinal, and the two teams from the West in the other. This meant the only possible game between teams from different regions was the final. The committee just threw out the published bracket because it became inconvenient, something which irked a lot of fans.

And Niagara.

Well they gave Niagra the bid, only shafted them the seeding, so technically they followed PWR on it, which is meant to determine which teams will be there, not necessarily how they're seeded

Well, PWR is not meant to do anything. Pairwise comparisons according to the selection criteria are meant to be the whole story for selection, and one component of seeding. The committee seeded Niagara in contradiction of the PWCs not because of attendance or conference matchup concerns, but because they didn't believe the PWCs. (This was actually consistent with policies announced before the season, which allowed PWCs to be overruled for exceptionally weak conferences.)

Also, in 1999, while they were not in the top 12 of PWR, Niagara actually won a lot of comparisons with bubble teams.