Looks like the top 4 were released. No surprises.
Looks like the top 4 were released. No surprises.
I agree it doesn't look good. But it does happen sometimes. Look at the NBA/MLB playoffs. Those are NOT seeded by a "committee" but based on W-L record with codified tie-breakers. Every team in the pool plays every other team in the pool multiple times. And then, in the playoffs, they play multiple games in a short period of time and the winner of the "series" has to win multiple games. Yet, sometimes the #8 seed knocks off the #1 seed (2017 Yankees beat Cleveland, 2015 Cubs beat STL--and in both of those cases the lower seed didn't even win its division, in the 2015 case the #3 seed in the DIVISION knocked off the #1 seed in the division and the league). So no matter HOW HARD the committee tries to "get it right" funny things happen in sports.
Their goal is to have seeds 1-4 meet in the semi-finals. But no matter how hard they try sometimes they will get it wrong.
I, personally, don't buy the whole, "The committee hates the MVFC" or "there is a bias for/against x." The only embarrassment I think they are trying to avoid is 2 teams from the same conference meeting in the finals. It makes the rest of the FCS look like cannon fodder which really huts the brand and frustrates fans from those conferences.
Apples to oranges. I'll take a look at the NBA playoffs, when was the last time an 8 took down a 1?
Fact is when you have representatives from conferences who are ADs for schools involved there will be biases. They can claim until they are blue in the face that they want to get it right but those biases shine through year after year.
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OK. I will do partial retraction. The fact that ADs are in the decision making process makes it all, even if unintentionally--and that is up for debate--biased. The bias I am talking about is if they are sitting there debating and someone says, "Yes, of course Central Arkansas is a good team. But if we don't put an east coast team at or near the top then we are losing a HUGE TV market."
And if there is a bias like this one (an explicit bias), that can actually work in NDSU's favor as often as not. Right now NDSU is the "flagship" team of the FCS. For many luke-warm football fans that dabble in FCS for the last couple games of the playoffs NDSU is THE team. Even though they didn't win it all last year. Football fans across the country have watched NDSU for years. Not only seeing them destroy the FCS playoffs but also watched them dismantle the Hawkeyes. Many have become fans of the Bison. Some have taken the other path and decided to hate them as "the Evil Empire."
The sad truth is that there is no "perfect" way to do a playoff. It is somewhat counter-intuitive. But sometimes the best team loses in a playoff. And "seeding" in a league where most of the top teams DON'T play against one another is a crap-shoot at best. But as the FBS found out, doing it by "vote" is also not assured to come to a perfect conclusion.
But my point is that they are probably trying. Just because a lower seed sometimes beats a higher seed is kind of the importance of the tourney. Otherwise they could simply have announced JMU as champion if they had a foolproof way of establishing rankings.
Besides, if they did that what would people like us and the inane talking heads on TV and sports-talk radio rant about?
I doubt NDSU ever had a player hold last year’s trophy during the selection show look-in like JMU did.
It's OK to not be OK.