The Hogs were the lowest of seven ranked SEC teams.
And from checking the other major polls, this is approx where we are in every one of them. Ridiculous.
What the final polls have become is a retro-fit to the Tournament results. To me, the Tournament and the complete season polls are NOT the same thing. Sure, there is a general correlation . . . because the better teams should and normally do perform well in both.
But, for example, Arkansas was ranked around 12th going into the Regionals. We won 3 and lost 2 to quality teams. Not a great result, but not bad. You could make an argument that we slightly under-performed, but only slightly. Remember, as well, that both losses were 1 run losses to the eventual winner.
During the regular season, those results would have probably resulted in us staying about where we were - or, maybe - dropping a spot or two max (depending on what the teams around us did). As a testimony to that, our final RPI (after post-season) remained at 12.
Then you have A&M, a team we have a better overall record than (by four full games, 45-19 to 41-23), finished ahead of in the SEC race (18-11 to 16-14), beat 2 out of 3 at their place, and then we finished ahead of them in the SEC Tournament (we were in the Championship game, while the Aggies washed out in the “play in” round with a loss to lowly Mizzou. While our end of year RPI was #12, the Aggies - even with their “run to Omaha”, finished at just 33.
But, because they eeked out a win in the Houston regional (that was as much a home game for them as it was for host Houston), and then was the primary beneficiary of #2 UNC tanking to Davidson, the Aggies got an unlikely ticket to Omaha - where they promptly went 0-2 and were the first team sent home.
For that, the rocketed to a final ranking (in the polls) of 8th (10th in one of them), well ahead of us.
Malarky.
No one can, or should, take their trip to Omaha away from them. Nice Tournament run, regardless of how easy their path was. But in every true comparison of A&M to Arkansas, over the course of the season, including head to head - we were clearly the better team. For them to be ranked ahead of us - especially #8 to number 18 (or whatever), is ridiculous.
Some years it helps Arkansas, some years it hurts. The Razorbacks were not a top 10 team in 2015, but got a good tournament draw, won their games and finished No. 8 because of the trip to Omaha.
[quote=“MattJones”]
Some years it helps Arkansas, some years it hurts. The Razorbacks were not a top 10 team in 2015, but got a good tournament draw, won their games and finished No. 8 because of the trip to Omaha.
[/quote]That’s true.
But at least that year, Arkansas had to go on the road and win a regional against a higher ranked team, and then defeat a National seed in the Super. So they were “climbing the ladder” against teams ranked ahead of them. They did get a break hosting MO State, but it was still a National Seed. Meanwhile, A&M survived one of the weaker regionals in a virtual home-field environment, and then caught a Cinderella team that had used everything it had to oust #2 seed UNC - then had nothing left.
I understand using the post season tournament to ‘fine tune’ the rankings. But when you have several other good points of measurement - as I pointed out in the OP - between 2 teams (such as A&M and Arkansas), you don’t ignore ALL of them and JUST look at the Tournament results (and even then, when you break it down, A&M’s tournament results weren’t really significantly better than ours, considering the draw).
FWIW, I agree with Wiz on both his posts. Good analysis as always.