RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Phil]

http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology

I think Charlie often does a decent job, and I agree with many of his picks. But I have some thought abour South Dakota State

At one level, I get that the AP voters tend to favor P5 (plus UConn) teams over mid major conferences. I'm sure it takes time to keep up on all that's going on, and sometimes a mid-major team has to do something spectacular to get noticed.

But I would hope that Charlie would make sure the mid-major teams don't get overlooked. I think South Dakota State is potentially one of those teams. They are ranked number 37 (Massey). That's certainly not good enough to be ranked in the AP top 25, but their omission from the tournament is eyebrow raising. By comparison the following teams:
Arkansas (5), Nebraska (12), Purdue (8 ), Ohio State(11), Iowa(9), Arizona State (10) (seeding in parentheses)

All are ranked worse by Massey but all picked to be in the tournament. I see that South Dakota State has four losses, but that's because they have a strong schedule (currently the rank 12th) The worst of those four losses is to number 33 Drake, who is good enough to earn an 8 seed. They get spanked by Oregon, but that's going to be true of a lot of teams. What am I missing?

The selection committee tells teams "play a challenging schedule and you'll get rewarded"

So South Dakota State arranges for the 12th strongest schedule so far and manages to beat Notre Dame.

Tennessee arranges for one of the weakest schedules on the face of the earth and manages to beat Notre Dame.

Tennessee gets rewarded with an AP ranking and a decent seed according to Charlie. South Dakota State doesn't even get on the first four or next four out.

Why on earth should teams listen to the selection committee?

[purduefanatic]

SDSU will be just fine. He is picking teams at the current moment and the 'Rabbits are currently 5-4 with their best win being over South Florida. Beating ND this season really won't carry much weight given that the Irish are under .500 and will most likely have a rough year after replacing all those WNBA players.

Losing to fellow mid-majors FGCU and Drake, while certainly not bad losses by any stretch, probably also put them further down the pecking order.

All that said, I would expect to see them in the field come selection day. The wins will pile up for them once they get into conference play.