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I disagree with you BOM. If we do win out, we will possivly be 3-0 against teams in the top 100 and have a good road win against Pacific. Our OOC schedule will not be dead last in the nation this year. If we go 9-7 in the Big 12 after playing the south schools twice each that will include a couple of quality wins and we might not have any bad losses. 11-0, 9-7, and 1-1 an we are in. This being said, will it happen? I do not think it will. I think we will lose 1 of our last 2 nonconference games and will either be 8-8 or 9-7 in conference and back in the NIT, which is a major positive for this team and BCG 2nd yea
billydean, I agree with your sentiment here, but I don't see how we end up with three OOC teams in the Top 100.
Right now, Penn State is 146 in Sagarin - and that is before the conference losses start piling up. Last year, PSU was ranked 212 (Baylor, PSU and Georgia were the only Top 6 conference teams (ACC, , BEast, B10, B12, SEC, P10) not to crack the Top 150). Auburn was ranked 129 last year - they are 77 this year and again, based on what I saw Wed., I would expect them to fall out of the Top 100 once the conference losses start rollin in.
Pacific is ranked No. 95 in Sagarin now, and the Big West is much weaker than a year when three BWC teams cracked the Sagarin Top 100. What may keep Pacific in the Top 100 is the fact that once conference play starts, Pacific could easily run the table and move up, if they can get past Fullerton and avoid a slip against the likes of a Riverside.
As for Northwestern State, currently 56th, no Southland team has cracked the Sagarin Top 100 in the past five years - the best showing was McNeese St. four years ago at 102. Only 5 Southland teams in the last 5 years have broken into the Top 150. Northwestern State may be good enough to be a Top 100 team this year with three quality wins versus major conference opponents, but that remains to be seen. Even so, nobody on the committee is going to get too excited about a home win over Northwestern State anyway, assuming we beat them, which I think we will.
The problem though is not these teams - its the fact that 8 of our 11 OOC opponents did not crack the Sagarin Top 200 last year, and that 5 of the 11 were ranked 293 or worse.
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i thought we did last year and got snubbed. ISU getting a bid was a joke. losing to KSU in the tourney killed us.
TAMU was not snubbed last year. Prior to 2005, there were three 8-8 Big 12 teams - none made the tournament. OU was 8-8, 19-10, including a conference tournament win, in 2004 and was an NIT team. Baylor and Missouri were 8-8 in 1998 and were 14-14 and 16-14 respectively. I would point out that the OU team had OOC wins over Michigan State on the road (42), Purdue (72), Princeton (118), E. Washington (130) and Oral Roberts (147) and Tulsa (157).
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Right now there aren't many elite teams wanting to play us because there is little benefit for them. We aren't recognizable in b-ball to be a marquee win, but we're too good to be a gimme.
I don't understand this thinking. Sure, the North Carolinas and Villanovas and the Dukes and the UCLAs may not play us without TV, but what about teams like Manhattan, West Virginia, Bradley, BYU, Oregon State, Idaho State, Akron, Butler, DePaul - Top 50-150 teams that are on an even footing with us and that have to play a given number of OOC games just like us. If we would have simply replaced 2 or 3 SWAC games (and/or the Savannah St. game) with a couple from this list, and maybe a 150-225 team like Denver or IUPUI or SMU, suddenly our schedule looks a little more competitive. And why wouldn't BYU or WVU or Butler or Idaho State play us home-home? A&M should be playing one SWAC school - two at the most each season. Not five (counting SWAC wannabe Savannah State)!
The toughest OOC schedule for a major conference team is DePaul (11th). DePaul has played Bradley, Northwestern, at N. Illinois, Creighton, Bucknell, UAB, at Dayton, at Wake, at Old Dominion, at California. Bucknell is 7th, NIU is 43rd, Creighton 44th, UAB is 60th, Wake is 63rd, ODU is 71st, Bradley 76th, Dayton is 81st, California is 112th, & Northwestern 132nd. I'm not advocating nearly as difficult a schedule for the Aggies - but you don't see Duke or Memphis or Washington or Ohio St. on this schedule either (Bucknell is probably not a true no. 7). It would not take much improvement to make A&M's OOC schedule a non-issue.
