Tuesday, January 19, 2010

B101's Questions For The Competition

Questions For The Competition is a weekly column that addresses our issues with the brackets of other bracketology "experts." This week's questions are reserved for ESPN's Joe Lunardi, SI.com's Andy Glockner, and CBSSports.com and CollegeRPI.com's Jerry Palm. Keep in mind that these questions are about each expert's most recent bracket, all of which were released before Monday's games.

Joe Lunardi (ESPN) - Jan. 18 Bracket
We think we finally figured out how you seed UConn. It's like the ESPN/USA Today poll - every Huskies loss equals a one seed line drop. (Get excited UConn fans - you still have six more losses before you're on the bubble!) How in the world would they be a 6 seed if the season ended today?

We are extremely puzzled with your placement of Louisville. You had them in last week as a 10 seed (even though they had no wins over at-large worthy teams) and we gave you a pass because they were 3-0 in conference. Then they went out and lost two games and you not only left them in, but you moved them to a 9 seed this week? How is that possible?

Can you tell us how Cal is in as an at-large over Washington? The Bears have absolutely no quality wins and just lost to the Huskies by double digits. We know that Washington hasn't done anything too impressive, but at least they have a win over a tourney team (Texas A&M).

Richmond has more top 50 wins than Xavier, URI, and Dayton, yet they are behind all three in the bracket?

How is BYU a 4 and New Mexico a 10? They're really six seed lines better?

We can understand putting St. Mary's in (kind of), but isn't giving them a 9 seed a bit much?

Andy Glockner (SI.com) - Jan. 18 Bracket
If the season ended ended today, under what criteria would UConn be a 7 seed? How could the selection committee possibly defend that?

What has St. Mary's done to deserve an at-large if the season ended today? Beaten San Diego State and Oregon? That's all they need to get a bid?

How, if the season ended today, is Cal at-large worthy?

How is Georgetown a 2 seed over Pittsburgh?

How is BYU seeded five lines ahead of New Mexico? Don't the Lobos have a significantly better OOC resume?

Jerry Palm (CBS, CollegeRPI.com) - Jan. 18 Bracket
Wow...where do we start? The Big East deserves 9 bids? If the season ended today, St. John's would be an 8 seed? Rhode Isl...

Actually, on second thought, why don't we just do this? We'll save our keyboard the abuse, and we'll start asking you questions again when you stop using a hat and 70 tiny pieces of paper to pick your teams and seeds. What happened to your bracket knowledge, Jerry? What happened?

4 comments:

49ers Fan said...

How can you guys bash these other experts? You are the ones who put Notre Dame in despite a terrible OOC slate. How is Minnesota in over Northwestern?

Bracketology 101 said...

We put Notre Dame in after a big win over West Virginia, with the thought process that they were going to win at Cincinnati last week. That obviously didn't happen. We "bash" other experts because they still have a laundry list of unworthy teams in their bracket. We had ND in for one week and took them out; they still have UConn, Cal, Louisville, St. Mary's, etc. in. Those teams are simply not worthy of a bid if the season ended today.

If we did our bracket as if the season ended today, Minnesota vs. Northwestern would be a toss-up. We project ahead with our bracket, though, and (as we've said a lot over the last week) Northwestern's upcoming schedule is brutal and it's really hard for us to see them finishing above .500 in the Big Ten when all is said and done.

Bracketology 101 said...

One more point...we bash other experts cause we have earned the right to do so...http://bracketproject.50webs.com/rankings.html. Once someone passes us then we will let them do the bashing.

Jeff said...

I'm in second in those rankings...can't see myself passing you guys in the near-future...for the record, I look at four bracketology websites: this one, Bracketography, Glockner and Lunardi. Keep up the good work, fellas, I'll probably e-mail you once I start doing my brackets in February.