Post by poejoe8 on May 27, 2009 10:47:46 GMT -5
This from the C'ville Daily Progress:
UVa gets short end of the stick
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: May 27, 2009
A few unanswered questions remain about how the team with the sixth-highest RPI in the nation was treated more like a non-top 25 program by the NCAA Division I baseball committee over the weekend.
For years now, all we’ve heard about is how tournament selections are made on various criteria, with the RPI being a chief component. That’s the way it is with selection committees in most sports, but apparently not with baseball committee chairman Tim Weiser’s committee.
In perhaps one of the worst jobs ever by a tournament selection committee, Weiser was talking out of both sides of his mouth in trying to explain some choices that were either incredibly stupid or incredibly political.
What’s going on?
Either way, this committee gave the shaft to the people that matter most, or at least are supposed to matter most to the NCAA, and that is their own student-athletes.
Let’s start with Virginia, the team that was profoundly shafted. The Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament, beating three ranked teams in four days after finishing with a decent regular season, placing sixth out of 12 teams.
The ACC is rated as the best conference in the country and, while UVa didn’t play a strong nonconference schedule, the Cavaliers won 20 games in its own league, which accounted for the sixth-best RPI in the nation.
While there was some debate as to whether Virginia would host a regional, although this band of Wahoos are better than some other UVa teams that have hosted, absolutely no one would have predicted the Cavaliers’ fate.
Instead of hosting, or playing in a regional, say close by like at East Carolina, Weiser’s committee sends Virginia clear across the country into what was already a strong regional with UC Irvine, which was ranked the No. 1 team in the nation most of the season; with defending College World Series champion Fresno State; and with San Diego State, which boasts the No. 1 pitcher in America.
The question is why?
We have a strong suspicion that the television folks may have had something to do with it all. Isn’t it a bit odd that ESPN will televise two regionals nationally, and this is one of them?
Isn’t it just a little strange that San Diego State coach Tony Gwynn happens to have a strong relationship with ESPN, from whom he used to draw a paycheck?
We have to believe that the NCAA committee caved in to pressure by the TV people to make the Irvine regional a sexy draw in order to attract viewers. Clearly, the committee wasn’t thinking of the athletes, including Irvine, which probably expected a creampuff first round draw instead of the defending national champs.
And what about UVa? For all the Cavaliers accomplished, winning the toughest conference in the country, they are rewarded by being shipped clear across the country to face ace right-hander Stephen Strasburg, most likely the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft.
Coincidence? We think not.
Something smells here, and it smells of TV and ratings and the NCAA committee not have enough brass to tell TV to back off.
Most who follow the bracketology of the baseball tournament expected Washington State to fill that fourth slot in Irvine, which would have made much more sense for a variety of reasons, including
economics.
It would have made more sense to either have UVa host or at least take a short trip to ECU, and for Washington State to stay on its coast. But no ... that didn’t have the same saucy flavor of adding UVa to a regional that ESPN wanted to televise in the first place.
If that’s the case, and TV influenced the NCAA to switch things around just for ratings, then some head should be rolling.
Can you imagine if TV came in and influenced the NCAA basketball committee to pull the switcheroo on its field just to enhance the ratings?
It would be a national scandal, an outrage from coast to coast.
Cavaliers’ coach Brian O’Connor took the high road when asked about the selection before Tuesday’s practice at Davenport Field.
We asked him if he would use the slap from the NCAA as motivation for his team.
“Absolutely,” the Virginia skipper said. “This is an opportunity for Virginia baseball, our team, our players to show the country what this program is all about. It’s a nationally televised regional, there’s going to be a lot of hype around it and we have an opportunity to make our program shine on a national level.
“We’ve obviously won a lot of games in the years past, but we haven’t made a statement at the end of a year from the national standpoint,” O’Connor continued.
“This is providing an unbelievable opportunity for this because there’s a lot of controversy around it and we’re playing great teams, going to the No. 1 team in the country’s ballpark and probably facing the No. 1 pitcher in the country, and the defending national champion being there.”
Weiser said that Virginia was given its fate because of a weak nonconference schedule.
True, the Cavs don’t play a great non-league slate, however strength of schedule is a key ingredient to a team’s RPI, which again we point out was No. 6 in the entire nation.
Virginia wasn’t the only bungle by Weiser’s committee. Weiser, who just happens to be deputy commissioner of the Big 12, seemed to make sure that his conference had nine teams in the 64-team field.
While most of those are legit, one has to do some head scratching to figure out how Baylor and Oklahoma State were included. Baylor lost 12 of its last 14 games and its last 10 conference games.
Oklahoma State (32-22), finished ninth in the conference and didn’t even qualify for its own conference tournament?
Huh?
How could a team that didn’t qualify for its own conference tournament qualify for the national tournament?
This whole thing stinks and smacks of TV meddling and politics.
If the NCAA really cares about transparency and fairness to the kids its supposed to serve, then it needs to examine how tournament selections are handled and needs to take a very close look at how Weiser and his committee caved in to pressure.
UVa gets short end of the stick
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: May 27, 2009
A few unanswered questions remain about how the team with the sixth-highest RPI in the nation was treated more like a non-top 25 program by the NCAA Division I baseball committee over the weekend.
For years now, all we’ve heard about is how tournament selections are made on various criteria, with the RPI being a chief component. That’s the way it is with selection committees in most sports, but apparently not with baseball committee chairman Tim Weiser’s committee.
In perhaps one of the worst jobs ever by a tournament selection committee, Weiser was talking out of both sides of his mouth in trying to explain some choices that were either incredibly stupid or incredibly political.
What’s going on?
Either way, this committee gave the shaft to the people that matter most, or at least are supposed to matter most to the NCAA, and that is their own student-athletes.
Let’s start with Virginia, the team that was profoundly shafted. The Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament, beating three ranked teams in four days after finishing with a decent regular season, placing sixth out of 12 teams.
The ACC is rated as the best conference in the country and, while UVa didn’t play a strong nonconference schedule, the Cavaliers won 20 games in its own league, which accounted for the sixth-best RPI in the nation.
While there was some debate as to whether Virginia would host a regional, although this band of Wahoos are better than some other UVa teams that have hosted, absolutely no one would have predicted the Cavaliers’ fate.
Instead of hosting, or playing in a regional, say close by like at East Carolina, Weiser’s committee sends Virginia clear across the country into what was already a strong regional with UC Irvine, which was ranked the No. 1 team in the nation most of the season; with defending College World Series champion Fresno State; and with San Diego State, which boasts the No. 1 pitcher in America.
The question is why?
We have a strong suspicion that the television folks may have had something to do with it all. Isn’t it a bit odd that ESPN will televise two regionals nationally, and this is one of them?
Isn’t it just a little strange that San Diego State coach Tony Gwynn happens to have a strong relationship with ESPN, from whom he used to draw a paycheck?
We have to believe that the NCAA committee caved in to pressure by the TV people to make the Irvine regional a sexy draw in order to attract viewers. Clearly, the committee wasn’t thinking of the athletes, including Irvine, which probably expected a creampuff first round draw instead of the defending national champs.
And what about UVa? For all the Cavaliers accomplished, winning the toughest conference in the country, they are rewarded by being shipped clear across the country to face ace right-hander Stephen Strasburg, most likely the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft.
Coincidence? We think not.
Something smells here, and it smells of TV and ratings and the NCAA committee not have enough brass to tell TV to back off.
Most who follow the bracketology of the baseball tournament expected Washington State to fill that fourth slot in Irvine, which would have made much more sense for a variety of reasons, including
economics.
It would have made more sense to either have UVa host or at least take a short trip to ECU, and for Washington State to stay on its coast. But no ... that didn’t have the same saucy flavor of adding UVa to a regional that ESPN wanted to televise in the first place.
If that’s the case, and TV influenced the NCAA to switch things around just for ratings, then some head should be rolling.
Can you imagine if TV came in and influenced the NCAA basketball committee to pull the switcheroo on its field just to enhance the ratings?
It would be a national scandal, an outrage from coast to coast.
Cavaliers’ coach Brian O’Connor took the high road when asked about the selection before Tuesday’s practice at Davenport Field.
We asked him if he would use the slap from the NCAA as motivation for his team.
“Absolutely,” the Virginia skipper said. “This is an opportunity for Virginia baseball, our team, our players to show the country what this program is all about. It’s a nationally televised regional, there’s going to be a lot of hype around it and we have an opportunity to make our program shine on a national level.
“We’ve obviously won a lot of games in the years past, but we haven’t made a statement at the end of a year from the national standpoint,” O’Connor continued.
“This is providing an unbelievable opportunity for this because there’s a lot of controversy around it and we’re playing great teams, going to the No. 1 team in the country’s ballpark and probably facing the No. 1 pitcher in the country, and the defending national champion being there.”
Weiser said that Virginia was given its fate because of a weak nonconference schedule.
True, the Cavs don’t play a great non-league slate, however strength of schedule is a key ingredient to a team’s RPI, which again we point out was No. 6 in the entire nation.
Virginia wasn’t the only bungle by Weiser’s committee. Weiser, who just happens to be deputy commissioner of the Big 12, seemed to make sure that his conference had nine teams in the 64-team field.
While most of those are legit, one has to do some head scratching to figure out how Baylor and Oklahoma State were included. Baylor lost 12 of its last 14 games and its last 10 conference games.
Oklahoma State (32-22), finished ninth in the conference and didn’t even qualify for its own conference tournament?
Huh?
How could a team that didn’t qualify for its own conference tournament qualify for the national tournament?
This whole thing stinks and smacks of TV meddling and politics.
If the NCAA really cares about transparency and fairness to the kids its supposed to serve, then it needs to examine how tournament selections are handled and needs to take a very close look at how Weiser and his committee caved in to pressure.