FanPost

Why Iowa should be in the NCAA Tournament as it stands, or "The RPI is Straight Bull****"

So I picked a fight on Facebook earlier today with a friend who made a snarky remark about how Iowa still needed to do some work before they could have a shot at the NCAA tournament. In doing some research to back my (mostly) unfounded argument that Iowa should be in, I drew up the following list. It identifies the teams that found themselves in the same scenarios to end the year as Iowa does now, i.e. 6th place in the conference rated #2 by the RPI, going back to 1994-95. (#1 is the Mountain West, which is likely Exhibit A as to why the RPI is straight bullshit.)

Anyway, from left to right, we have the year, the #2 conference, the #6 team, conference record, overall record, and whether the team made the Dance. Without further ado:

1994-95: Big 8 (Colorado 5-9 13-15; OUT)

1995-96: Big East (Providence 9-9 18-12; OUT)

1996-97: Big 12 (Oklahoma 9-7 19-9; IN)

1997-98: Big East (Seton Hall 9-9 15-15; OUT)

1998-99: SEC (Ole Miss 8-8 20-13; IN)

1999-00: ACC (Georgia Tech 6-10 15-16; OUT)

2000-01: SEC (Vanderbilt 8-8 19-11; OUT)

2001-02: ACC (Wake Forest 8-8 19-11; IN)

2002-03: Big 12 (Missouri 9-7 24-12; IN)

2003-04: SEC (LSU 8-8 21-11; IN)

2004-05: Pac-10 (USC 8-10 13-15; OUT)

2005-06: Big East (Notre Dame 9-7 17-12; OUT)

2006-07: ACC (Maryland 8-8 19-13; OUT)

2007-08: Big 12 (Missouri 7-9 18-11; OUT)

2008-09: SEC (Florida 8-8 24-12; OUT)

2009-10: Big East (Louisville 11-7 20-13; IN)

2010-11: Big Ten (Michigan State 9-9 19-15; IN)

2011-12: Big East (South Florida 12-8 22-14; IN)



What does it all mean? The general rule to be gleaned from the appears to be that 19 wins overall coupled with a .500 conference record will put the #6 team in the #2 conference firmly on the bubble, and 20 wins overall will make you a mortal lock for the tournament. The lone exception to this rule is 2008-09 Florida, whose spot was taken by a 4-12/15-15 Georgia team that got hot and won the SEC tournament.

TL;dr - if Iowa's resume right now isn't sufficient to get picked on Sunday, it's straight bullshit.

Go Hawks.

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