Michigan Muskie
02-15-2010, 11:16 AM
While watching Xavier/Temple in January at a sports bar in Huntington Beach, a colleague from Atlanta was ragging on Xavier and the A10 with the usual, "Let's see how they would do in a real conference," or "Any team from the ACC would win the A10" remarks. A couple of tall beers into the game we made it interesting.
The bet: I earn $20 per A10 team invited to the Big Dance, he earns $20 per team from the ACC. Then, the bet doubles to $40 for each team that advances to the next round.
So for example, if the A10 sends 5 teams and the ACC sends 6, I would owe him $20 for the first round. Then if 4 A10 teams advance and 3 ACC teams advance, he would owe me $40 for the second round. (Due to intake of beer and elapsed time, I can't remember if we keep doubling the bet for each level of advancement.)
As of today, the A10 has 6 teams in the top 50 RPI and the ACC has 7. Due to conference bias, I think I'm going to lose the first round.
That said, the A10 has 5 teams in top 30 while the ACC has only 3. This should favor the A10 in terms of seeding and hopefully result in more A10 teams in the second round.
Today's Bracketology features 6 teams from each conference with VA Tech not making the current cut. The seeds show a slight bias toward the ACC per this breakdown: (RPI in parenthesis)
2 seeds: Duke (3)
5 seeds: Temple (12)
6 seeds: Wake (11)
7 seeds: Maryland (40)
8 seeds: Xavier (20), Richmond (27), GA Tech (29)
10 seeds: Rhode Island (22), Dayton (30), Clemson (31)
11 seeds: Charlotte (41)
12 seeds: Florida State (47)
Rhode Island gets no respect with a 10 seed as the #22 RPI team. Xavier gets a bit hosed with an 8 seed as the #20 RPI and Maryland gets a gift with a 7 seed as the #40 RPI. (5 teams with better RPIs have worse seeds than Maryland.) Wake and Temple also get shafted as the #11 and #12 RPI teams. If the committee seeded teams based purely on RPI, the seeds would break down like this:
Duke 1
Wake 3
Temple 3
Xavier 5
Rhode Island 6
Richmond 7
GA Tech 8
Dayton 8
Clemson 8
Maryland 10
Charlotte 11
Florida State 12
We all know the committee doesn't work that way, but it will be interesting to see how this little contest shakes out. Originally he wanted to bet $100 per team, but I refuse to lay that much on the line when history favors a power conference bias.
The bet: I earn $20 per A10 team invited to the Big Dance, he earns $20 per team from the ACC. Then, the bet doubles to $40 for each team that advances to the next round.
So for example, if the A10 sends 5 teams and the ACC sends 6, I would owe him $20 for the first round. Then if 4 A10 teams advance and 3 ACC teams advance, he would owe me $40 for the second round. (Due to intake of beer and elapsed time, I can't remember if we keep doubling the bet for each level of advancement.)
As of today, the A10 has 6 teams in the top 50 RPI and the ACC has 7. Due to conference bias, I think I'm going to lose the first round.
That said, the A10 has 5 teams in top 30 while the ACC has only 3. This should favor the A10 in terms of seeding and hopefully result in more A10 teams in the second round.
Today's Bracketology features 6 teams from each conference with VA Tech not making the current cut. The seeds show a slight bias toward the ACC per this breakdown: (RPI in parenthesis)
2 seeds: Duke (3)
5 seeds: Temple (12)
6 seeds: Wake (11)
7 seeds: Maryland (40)
8 seeds: Xavier (20), Richmond (27), GA Tech (29)
10 seeds: Rhode Island (22), Dayton (30), Clemson (31)
11 seeds: Charlotte (41)
12 seeds: Florida State (47)
Rhode Island gets no respect with a 10 seed as the #22 RPI team. Xavier gets a bit hosed with an 8 seed as the #20 RPI and Maryland gets a gift with a 7 seed as the #40 RPI. (5 teams with better RPIs have worse seeds than Maryland.) Wake and Temple also get shafted as the #11 and #12 RPI teams. If the committee seeded teams based purely on RPI, the seeds would break down like this:
Duke 1
Wake 3
Temple 3
Xavier 5
Rhode Island 6
Richmond 7
GA Tech 8
Dayton 8
Clemson 8
Maryland 10
Charlotte 11
Florida State 12
We all know the committee doesn't work that way, but it will be interesting to see how this little contest shakes out. Originally he wanted to bet $100 per team, but I refuse to lay that much on the line when history favors a power conference bias.