3/9/06: Seth Davis defending MVC

[DWadle1983]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...hts/index.html

Did the Missouri Valley Conference unfairly game the RPI?

There's a fine line between "gaming" the system and playing by the rules. The bottom line is, the teams in the Valley were willing to play good teams on the road outside their conference. They've also been helped by the many power conference teams that put together weenie schedules that kept them at home for most of the preconference season. Remember, the RPI is now weighted to have road games count more than home games, which makes sense since the home team wins two thirds of the time in college hoops. If bubble teams like California, Texas A&M, Colorado and Florida State get left out on Sunday while the Missouri Valley gets five or six bids, those schools will have no one to blame but themselves.

Will someone please explain to me what "gaming" the system means. How many MVC teams want BCS conference teams to play home and home series?

[UNI MadCat]

Also, how many of these match-ups were determined prior to the "road weighted" rpi formula and/or were part of exempt tournaments??

[UNI MadCat]

They've also been helped by the many power conference teams that put together weenie schedules that kept them at home for most of the preconference season.

I'm glad people like Seth Davis are out there defending the MVC in some way shape or form, but even they seem to be off base a bit.

The slanted media/BCS coaches say we "cheated" the system. People like Davis dont deny the acqusations of the aforementioned bastards, they just say that what we "did" wasn't cheating at all.

Isn't his line here actually the key way more than who is on our schedule and how we went about making that schedule? Looking down the MVC schedule, between the 10 teams, we scheduled exactly four games on the road vs. BCS schools (Arkansas, ISU, Iowa & Cincy) plus one more road game for us vs. LSU but that wasn't something we "scheduled". The games vs. Illinois, MSU & BC were not "scheduled" either as they were part of tournaments. So really we didnt even "game" the system or play by the rules, we just won games when they were scheduled, regardless of where they were, who they were, or what type of game it was (tournaments, home & away games).

I would love to know who is the culprit with this whole theory. I truly believe it was one guy (coach or media, dont know) who postulated it and then everyone else picked up on it without ever really bothering to check the facts.