Its not so much punitive to mid-majors as it is very rewarding to the P6 teams but the argument I am making is that there is some serious flaw in the system that puts a 19-8 (now 19-9 and 11) AZ team with only one real decent OOC win and 6 losses in a very mediocre PAC12 as the 7th ranked team. You did not address that point at all and kind of just asserted that my point was something else. Can you explain how a 19-9 AZ team is ranked 11th (wow they dropped 4 spots with the loss to USC) while a 24-4 Auburn team is ranked 27?
I'm sorry, I thought I had addressed this point when I said "AZ was too high." (AZ was not ranked 7th with 6 Pac12 losses, btw) As of last Sunday, Arizona was 14th in the Massey Composite of computer rankings. The NET had them 8th, which while in the upper part of their range, is not some huge outlier (someone had them 4th). KenPom had them 13th. Sagarin had them 22nd, which is probably more to your liking. ESPN had them 8th. But they're still a solid Quad 1 no matter where they fall in that range.
Auburn was #19 in the Massey Composite: 25 in NET, 33 in KenPom, 24 in Sagarin, 28 in ESPN. The gap is certainly narrower, but all of the "big boys" had Auburn ranked below Arizona, and the NET is not some crazy outlier. Again, the reason Auburn is held down is their 5-0 OT record (those games are essentially ties to the computers), and their OOC schedule. When Richmond is the strongest OOC opponent you faced, you're not going to get a lot of love from the computers.
Seeing such an obvious error in ranking puts the entire system to question and throws off the whole ranking. Every PAC12 team now gets two chances at a great win per the NET when it is very obvious that the Wildcats are not a great team and never have been. The real point of my post was to point out this flaw and then try to understand why such an egregious ranking exists.
And yes the Wisconsin win is great for us and good to see them winning which I have said but that shouldn't make every Spider fan now rejoice in a very weird, flawed system that seems to not have any known justification or reason why it ranks teams a certain way.
The idea that AZ is ranked so high changes so much for every opponent they have played and the entire PAC12. You say that the committee will only use the NET to determine which teams are Quad 1,2,3 or 4 but that is HUGE. Any PAC12 team that now beats AZ has their ranking jump up significantly since they are so highly ranked. That means that their ranking also becomes inflated and now every team who beat, or crazy to think, even comes close to beating AZ in the PAC12, has an inflated NET ranking. So what should be a Quad 2 win is a Quad 1 win or what should be a Quad 3 in now a Quad 2. And this goes for bad losses too. Washington at 13-15 is a Quad 1 opportunity.
That scenario is playing out in the other leagues too. St. John's and Depaul are still Quad 1 wins, lol and not considered a bad loss. WTF???
The Big10 is inflated for the same reasons. Minnesota at 13-14, a team that lost to 4 unranked teams in the OOC, and 2 of their 7 wins B10 wins are against Northwestern, is ranked 45 and a Quad 1 win and more importantly, cant be a bad loss.
As it stands currently, this system absolutely is against mid majors and favors P6 because of the reason I have stated. Somehow some teams with only decent resumes are ranked very high in the NET in P6 and this inflates the entire league. This makes every game a chance at a big win and worse, there are no real chances of bad losses. Ex. UNC at 11-17 is still ranked 94 and not considered a "bad loss" per this crazy, illegitimate system.
The whole thing is total crap. No other way to look at it.
Yes, I get all that. These computer rankings are a feedback loop. These power conference teams just lift each other up. Inflated NET begets more inflated NETs. Yes. It favors P6. Mid-majors will have a difficult time getting a really good NET ranking. Yes. My question remains:
If the committee still "gets it right" in spite of these inflated, crappy NET rankings......so what?
I notice you ignored the main points of my post.
The author of the article you posted explicitly said the NET was better than RPI.
Last year, more mid-majors made the tournament under this "total crap" system than did the year before the total crap system was put in place. How on Earth did the authors of this total crap system allow that to happen?
Clemson and NC State were two beneficiaries of this "total crap" last year. VCU was ranked right between the two. VCU, a mid-major victim of this total crap, was a lock for the NCAA. Clemson and NC State went to the NIT.
Belmont and Temple, two mid-majors, were in the last four in. Their total crap NET rankings were way crappier than several P6 teams that did not make the tournament.