Anonymous
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02-28-06 08:10 PM - Post#16526
Since Bucknell's seeding or maybe an at-large selection (hopefully not) will be determined by this Committee, I was curious as to its personnel and rules. I've always had visions of a bunch of big conference guys meeting in some smoke-filled room, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that six of the ten on the committee represent mid-major conferences (five of the six for over a decade) and that nine of the ten have significant mid-major backgrounds. Here are the backgrounds of the ten:
1. AD - UVA; played and coached at Penn, and coached at Rutgers (A10 days).
2. AD - Utah for 18 years; played at Rutgers in early 70's when it was a mid-major playing at the Bison's level.
3. AD - Texas Tech; no mid-major roots.
4. Commissioner - WAC for 12 years; former Commissioner of MAC; played at Boise State.
5. Commissioner - SEC; former Commissioner of CUSA; former AD at Cornell; graduated from Dartmouth; JD - UVA.
6. AD - Princeton for 12 years; coached Middlebury, Union, Dartmouth, Providence; played at Princeton when Princeton was strong.
7. AD - George Mason for 11 years; former AD at Loyola (MD), Santa Clara, and St Bonaventure; head coach at Dartmouth and Loyola; played for Assumption. AD of mid-majors for 30 years in total.
8. Commissioner - Horizon League for 14 years; former Asst Comm. of ACC in 1980's; also Asst AD of Wake around 1980; BA - Wake; masters - Ohio Univ.
9. AD - UCLA since 2002; AD at Cal-Irvine for 10 years; played baseball for UCLA.
10. Commissioner of SWAC; was Vandy Asst AD; Duke graduate.
Looking at the above list, four have extensive roots in the Ivy League and a fifth at Rutgers when it was a low mid-major. Along with the other mid-major ties, that is good news, I think, for the Bison's case getting a sympathetic hearing.
The other thing I was happy to see is that the selection process has very rigid rules about the process that should make it reasonably fair. To begin with, there are regional advisory committees, made up of one coach from every league. The Patriot League is represented by Jim Crews, and other members include Jamie Dixon, who clearly knows the Bison level of play, and the Cornell coach. Seven of the ten reps on this committee are from mid-major conferences. We beat teams from four of these: American East, the A-10, Ivy, and the MAAC this year. This committee submits a complete ranking of teams in its region just before the selection weekend.
The committee itself has very precise rules. An AD/Commissioner cannot be in the room any time a school he represents is discussed, and they cannot talk about the teams they represent at any time. Also, they cannot nominate teams or vote for teams they represent in the initial phases of the process. Furthermore, in the later phases when pools of teams are nominated and ranked, they cannot participate at all if any team they represent is still in the pool. Thus the WAC (Utah State), the Horizon (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and the SEC (Kentucky, Vandy, and Arkansas) may lose their representatives during the voting process. Also, as long as George Mason is in the pool (not either selected or eliminated), then their AD cannot participate, even to vote for others from the CAA. Looking at the process, I am more confident that mid-majors will get a fair hearing.
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