Update – While Dayton is certainly not a championship caliber team, it’s important to note that 5 of the 8 schools selected ahead of UD (with records and rankings lower than UD) lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament:
Texas A&M – won
Arizona – lost
St Joseph – lost
Baylor – lost
Villanova – won
Kansas St – won
Oregon – lost
Kentucky – lost
March 16 – I don’t ordinarily comment on this sort of issue, but I’ll be the first to file the complaints for the 2008 NCAA basketball tourney selections… The University of Dayton Flyers had a better RPI than 8 schools selected for at large bids (see table below). Indeed, Dayton had both better RPI and Strength of Schedule (SOS) than 5 of the schools selected (Why were Baylor, Villanova, and Oregon selected?).
School |
RPI | Record | SOS |
34 | 21-10 | 34 | |
39 | 23-10 | 52 | |
40 | 18-14 | 2 | |
41 | 21-11 | 53 | |
Baylor | 43 | 20-10 | 46 |
Villanova | 49 | 20-12 | 47 |
Kansas St | 53 | 19-11 | 33 |
58 | 18-13 | 37 | |
59 | 18-12 | 19 |
I don’t know of any other school that was snubbed as badly as the Flyers…
I would have to agree with you that Dayton got hosed