Why is Stanford in the Tournament and not Clemson, Air Force, Missouri St. considering RPI & Sagarin ratings?

Question

Stanford did not win its tournament, and it ranks 65 in RPI, 53 in Sagarin. The other 3 schools I mention average about 35 in RPI & Sagarin. It seems inexplicable. Usually they do a decent job picking teams, but this Stanford seems really off.

Answer 1

Ok, here goes.

Stanford:

Played a harder schedule (32nd)
good wins - tex tech, virginia, washington st, usc, ucla,oregon.


Clemson:

schedule 50th
good wins, ga tech, boston coll, virg tech
lost 9 out of its last 12 games !!!!!!!!!!


Air Force:

schedule 80th
good wins - stanford, texas tech, unlv
lost 6 out of last 10 games!!!!!!!!

Missouri St:

schedule 42nd
good wins - wisconsin,
0-4 against the top 2 teams in its league


Air Force and Clemson would have made it, except for their slide at the end of the season.

Missouri St. had that great early win against wisconsin, but thats it, they didn't beat another good team all year.

.

You would have had more luck asking how Arkansas got in.

Answer 2

Because the selection committee loves the "power conferences" and picks worthless teams from them as opposed to good mid-major teams. No surprise that Stanford got booted in the first round of the tournament even though that idiot Dick Vitalle was picking them in the upset.

It is sad to see a chart showing the decling number of mid-major teams selected for the tournament. I think it hit a high of around 12 about four years ago and was down to around 6 this year. I, personally, would always prefer to watch a Cinderella team that plays well together and isn't well known to another of the boring terrible teams from the power conferences.

Answer 3

Not that those other teams didn't deserve it- and Stanford has definitely been inconsistent...but in Stanford's defense, they did beat Virginia on the road and Texas Tech at home and have beaten USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington State in conference play (all Tournament teams with higher seeds).