Monday, February 9, 2015

Notes on conference leaders

I select the current conference leader for each bracket projection as the autobid winner.  It might be helpful for me to clarify how I break ties in the conference standings:

1) Head-to-head among the leaders
2) RPI

Of note, this means as of today, UAB is the CUSA rep, Valpo is the Horizon rep, Toledo is the MAC rep, terrible Colgate is the Patriot rep, etc etc.

Pet peeve:  it bothers me that people see Tulsa in the bracket and assume that's an at-large bid they're getting.  No, everyone's either a) putting them in as a conference leader and the autobid winner, or b) leaving them out because I have no idea why.  They should be listed as a projected autobid everywhere.  Seeing them listed as an at-large just drives me crazy because no one thinks they're an at-large team right now.  Almost no one.

So, if you're breaking ties for conference leaders, use whatever you have to.  But for God's sake, if there's a solo leader like Tulsa, just put them in with an autobid.  Please.  Don't get cute and just put who you think is the best team in the conference in that spot.  You're throwing off the aggregate of the brackets.  Poor, poor Bracket Matrix guy is being forced to list Tulsa as an at-large team when literally almost no one in the entire country is listing them as a worthy at-large team right now.

Also sorry to Tulsa for picking on them, but you lost to a D2, so tough.

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