Why the 2007 NCAA Selection Committee Took Arkansas Over Syracuse
Arkansas fired its coach Stan Heath today, despite the Razorbacks getting into the tournament. The general consensus, as far as I'm aware, is that if Arkansas hadn't made the tournament, Syracuse would have been in the bracket. So when I saw that Heath was fired, I wondered if he had any friends on the committee who might have been intent to try to save his job.
I went looking for the selection committee names and stumbled onto this nice site. There are a couple of notes on the right giving the author's opinion that 2005 was the best-seeded tournament while 2006 was the worst. I glanced at his rationale for the latter, and it looked pretty reasonable. In retrospect, complaining about George Mason getting into the tournament seems a little foolish. But this year I've heard a lot of people saying, "the selection committee got it right" just because the seeds held. I don't buy that argument. The selection committee is supposed to pick the best field and give them fair seedings based on how well they've played during the year, then let the tournament run its course. George Mason lost to Hofstra twice late in the year, but got into the tournament over Hofstra? That's not fair to Hofstra.
But I digress.
Scanning the roster for possibly pro-Arkansas/Stan Heath people, two of the ten names jumped right out. First, the SEC had its commissioner, Michael Slive, on the committee. The Big East didn't have a representative from its conference or from any of its teams this year. If Darryl Gross is on the committee, even if he's out of the room when they're discussing Syracuse, the Orange get a bid. Ditto Michael Tranghese, Big East commissioner. Slive, too, would have had to leave the room when Arkansas was being discussed. But he's going to know whether or not Arkansas gets in, and he's going to know who Arkansas is fighting against to beat out Syracuse. At the very least, he's going to think a little higher of Arkansas than anybody else and, therefore, think a little less of the other teams on the bubble.
The other pro-Arkansas/Stan Heath guy...Kent State's AD Laing E. Kennedy. Why would he care if Stan Heath got fired? Remember why Heath got the Arkansas job? He took a mid-major to the Elite Eight in 2002. That team...was...KENT STATE!!! Good ol' Laing gave Stanny his first coaching job. Why wouldn't he want to see his old guy keep his job at a big-time SEC school? And Laing would have been in on the discussions for whether or not to include Arkansas.
The irony of all this is I actually defended the selection committee after they let a bunch of journalists run through a mock version of the process. In retrospect, Chris was exactly right in his comments: "...I think political considerations probably enter into a commissioner's decision making process." I also agree with Chris's comment that the selection committee isn't "evil." But the committee can't help but be skewed toward helping a school here or there. This year, the deck was (unintentionally) stacked against Syracuse, and other bubble teams not named Arkansas.
Of course, Syracuse probably should have gotten in ahead of about 8 schools that made the tournament. So I guess the other conclusion we can make about this year's selection committee is that they're all blithering idiots.
Luckily, the 2007 tournament was canceled.
I went looking for the selection committee names and stumbled onto this nice site. There are a couple of notes on the right giving the author's opinion that 2005 was the best-seeded tournament while 2006 was the worst. I glanced at his rationale for the latter, and it looked pretty reasonable. In retrospect, complaining about George Mason getting into the tournament seems a little foolish. But this year I've heard a lot of people saying, "the selection committee got it right" just because the seeds held. I don't buy that argument. The selection committee is supposed to pick the best field and give them fair seedings based on how well they've played during the year, then let the tournament run its course. George Mason lost to Hofstra twice late in the year, but got into the tournament over Hofstra? That's not fair to Hofstra.
But I digress.
Scanning the roster for possibly pro-Arkansas/Stan Heath people, two of the ten names jumped right out. First, the SEC had its commissioner, Michael Slive, on the committee. The Big East didn't have a representative from its conference or from any of its teams this year. If Darryl Gross is on the committee, even if he's out of the room when they're discussing Syracuse, the Orange get a bid. Ditto Michael Tranghese, Big East commissioner. Slive, too, would have had to leave the room when Arkansas was being discussed. But he's going to know whether or not Arkansas gets in, and he's going to know who Arkansas is fighting against to beat out Syracuse. At the very least, he's going to think a little higher of Arkansas than anybody else and, therefore, think a little less of the other teams on the bubble.
The other pro-Arkansas/Stan Heath guy...Kent State's AD Laing E. Kennedy. Why would he care if Stan Heath got fired? Remember why Heath got the Arkansas job? He took a mid-major to the Elite Eight in 2002. That team...was...KENT STATE!!! Good ol' Laing gave Stanny his first coaching job. Why wouldn't he want to see his old guy keep his job at a big-time SEC school? And Laing would have been in on the discussions for whether or not to include Arkansas.
The irony of all this is I actually defended the selection committee after they let a bunch of journalists run through a mock version of the process. In retrospect, Chris was exactly right in his comments: "...I think political considerations probably enter into a commissioner's decision making process." I also agree with Chris's comment that the selection committee isn't "evil." But the committee can't help but be skewed toward helping a school here or there. This year, the deck was (unintentionally) stacked against Syracuse, and other bubble teams not named Arkansas.
Of course, Syracuse probably should have gotten in ahead of about 8 schools that made the tournament. So I guess the other conclusion we can make about this year's selection committee is that they're all blithering idiots.
Luckily, the 2007 tournament was canceled.
posted by Prof. A at 10:23 AM
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