Read the other half of the debate by Matthew Costa.
I’m not going to pretend to understand all the criteria of making the national tournament. I realize as sports editor many, if not most people, expect me to know everything there is to know about college sports.
It’s confession time people: I’m not really that big on college sports. I understand the importance of it and I can appreciate the draw of collegiate action. However, it wasn’t until I became a reporter here at SMU that I really began paying attention to the collegiate battle ground.
If you are at all familiar with my more opinionated writing, you already know that I like to use common sense as my initial tool in analyzing particular sports occurrences.
Come now, employ your own trust of common sense, and then tell me how a team considered to be the 25th best in the nation, fails to make a tournament of 68.
I’ve heard many people rattle off obscure statistics common fans are not familiar with or they will mention the lack of strength in SMU’s out-of-conference schedule as a means to explain SMU’s absence from the tournament.
I’ve also heard people mention the inspiring story of SMU and all the positives it has brought to the community as way to defend the schools’ right to be included in
the tournament.
None of that matters.
Sure SMU lost its last three games. Even after those losses, SMU was still decided to be No.25 in the country.
Yet somehow, SMU was overlooked by the selection committee. Apparently after scrubbing the Mustangs and looking at their whole body of work they weren’t as awesome as the Associated Press led us all to believe.
What are the rankings for then? Why have them if they are meaningless? Why tell programs they are among the top 25 in the nation only to turn around and say they aren’t?
Imagine this conversation among you and your friends:
“Hey Scott, it is my opinion that you are quite awesome.”
“Thank you very much, good sir, you are quite awesome yourself, Joseph.”
“You are probably among the most awesome people I know.”
“You are too kind.”
“My birthday celebration is next weekend. I’m inviting all the awesome people I know.”
“That sounds splendid. What time shall I arrive?”
“Didn’t…Didn’t you hear me? I said only the most awesome people I know
are invited.”
“It’s just that…you said I was one of the best pe-”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Scott! You aren’t that awesome.”
It doesn’t make any sense, people. If you are going to have a list of the best teams in the country, that list needs to be made with the same rules and guidelines as the bracket for the tournament.
If that were the case, SMU wouldn’t be the first ranked team since 2004 to miss the
big tournament.
