Cornell mentioned by Seth Davis

[gored]

We get a nice compliment from Seth in his weekly thoughts:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/seth_davis/01/11/pac.10/1.html

[Luke 05]

A few notes not worth their own post...

Interesting that ESPN's Bracketology has Cornell as one of the first four at-large bids out of the tourney:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

Also, Cornell receives 16 votes in the coaches poll and 12 in the AP. Anyone know the last time an Ivy team received this many votes in a poll?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

[David Harding]

A few notes not worth their own post...

Interesting that ESPN's Bracketology has Cornell as one of the first four at-large bids out of the tourney:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

Also, Cornell receives 16 votes in the coaches poll and 12 in the AP. Anyone know the last time an Ivy team received this many votes in a poll?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankings

More points in the polls than Sucks, but ESPN thinks they'll get the auto-bid.

[Luke 05]

The auto-bid in Bracketology goes to Harvard because they are in first place with a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

The auto-bid in Bracketology goes to Harvard because they are in first place with a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.

Not to mention their RPI may have been better when the article was written.

[CM cWo 44]

The auto-bid in Bracketology goes to Harvard because they are in first place with a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.

Not to mention their RPI may have been better when the article was written.

This is the actual reason, cited by Lunardi in his explanation column.

No league games had been played when the current version of Bracketology was posted.... but yes, they generally will include the 1st place team in single bid conferences regardless of their quality.

[ugarte]

The auto-bid in Bracketology goes to Harvard because they are in first place with a win over Dartmouth on Saturday.

Not to mention their RPI may have been better when the article was written.

This is the actual reason, cited by Lunardi in his explanation column.

Which is pretty amazing. Cornell is a "first four out" and they aren't even the top team in the conference by RPI. Alas, the Cornell and Harvard RPIs and ratings are going to plummet once we start playing Dartmouth and Brown instead of the BCS conferences, so that was probably as close as the Ivy League is going to get to being considered a bubble team for an at large bid.

I think the only chance would be if either Cornell or Harvard go 12-2 in conference with only close losses to the other team or both go 13-1 and have a playoff. Even then, the odds are very, very slim.

[Luke 05]

Cornell drops from 31 to 39 after a blowout win vs Columbia. I doubt there's any scenario that puts a second Ivy team in the Last Four Out by the end of the season. Even if Cornell wins out, their RPI will likely fall into the 60s.

[ugarte]

Cornell drops from 31 to 39 after a blowout win vs Columbia. I doubt there's any scenario that puts a second Ivy team in the Last Four Out by the end of the season. Even if Cornell wins out, their RPI will likely fall into the 60s.

With the caveat that I have ZERO expectation that a second Ivy League team will get a bid in even the rosiest scenario, RPI isn't gospel. If a good team is dragged down by a bad conference schedule, I would assume that the committee looks more closely at the pre-conference record. Obviously, in that scenario Cornell/Harvard are still fringe candidates, but it isn't a foregone conclusion that they'd be excluded either.

[semsox]

If Cornell wins out, their RPI is almost guaranteed to be in the top 50.

[ugarte]

If Cornell wins out, their RPI is almost guaranteed to be in the top 50.

If Cornell wins out, they'll get the autobid. The question is, can an Ivy team with a loss possibly get an at-large bid?

[semsox]

If we had won at Kansas we probably could have lost 2 games in conference and still gotten an at large without winning the Ivy.  As it is, if we split with Harvard, both ended 13-1 and lost the championship game, we'd probably be one of the last 4 out.