Just like a college grad presenting his resume to get a new job, all of the college basketball teams are presenting their resumes to the selection committee hoping they will be chosen. In the end it will all come down to perception.
If the committee’s objective is to get the best teams in and they use the same criteria, then you may be able to disagree with one or two, but not many. In order to get the best teams you have to look at the conference strength, as well as how they performed against the best teams in their conference and the country.
Conference strength is a tricky thing, but it has to be part of the equation, especially when dealing with the power conferences. Let’s look at how they break down.
Big Ten Conference
No one denies that Michigan State is the class of this conference, and that they are probably a two seed in the tournament. Illinois, Purdue, and Ohio State are in the tournament as well, but if you look at the conference as a whole it looks mediocre at best.
Penn State has 22 wins, but no signature wins. The best thing you can say about them is that they beat Illinois twice. The same with Wisconsin. There isn’t a real big win on their resume that sets them apart.
Minnesota and Michigan finished with identical 9 - 9 conference records in the conference. Even though they have 22 wins, Minnesota has lost 9 of their last 15 games overall, all to conference foes. That is not worthy of an at large bid.
Michigan has a win over UCLA early in the year, but they have lost 10 of their last 17 games, so they have limped to the finish line as well and are not in a position to get an at large bid.
Penn State is firmly on the bubble. Losses to Temple at home, and to Rhode Island early in the year at a neutral site don’t help, as well as a loss to Iowa on the road to Iowa that they needed, but they should be able to sneak in.
The conference is evenly balanced and pretty competitive but that can be deceiving. Is it because there are a lot of good teams that keep knocking each other off, or is it because they are all mediocre? I will go with mediocre, and only slot five teams from this conference for the tournament.
South Eastern Conference
The SEC is the weakest it has been in recent history. Florida was the class of the conference, but they are no longer championship material. When you see Vanderbilt and Kentucky close to the bottom of the conference standings, you know they have fallen on hard times.
Florida is out. No signature wins, and they played a weak schedule, so their 23 wins are without merit. Vanderbilt and Kentucky are also out.
Auburn has been playing better of late, even though they lost to Tennessee in the conference semi-finals. They are firmly on the bubble, and probably will be rooting for Tennessee to beat Mississippi State in the championship game so State doesn’t eliminate another at large bid.
It would be a nice story if MSU wins and qualifies for the tournament, but at this point the SEC would be fortunate to get three teams in. LSU is in, and the winner of Tennessee and MSU is in, but after that it doesn’t look good.
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