UWW Football

Selective Intelligence

On Sunday afternoon, the NCAA D3 National Selection Committee did what no one else has been able to do this season. They put a beat down on UW-Whitewater. Ignoring both major national polls (because they can), dismissing a 25 game winning streak (the longest in the nation at any level), and disrespecting the fact that UW-W is the NCAA D3 Defending National Champion, the Committee granted Whitewater a 2 seed for the upcoming playoffs.

Relying heavily on a Strength of Schedule formula, the committee opted to place North Central College as the #1 seed in the bracket they placed Whitewater. North Central plays in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, ranked as the 6th strongest D3 conference by d3football.com. UW-W plays in the WIAC, the strongest D3 conference by d3football.com. Strength of Schedule? North Central played a non-conference schedule against teams with a combined record of 4-26. Strength of Schedule? It was pointed out to me that the CCIW overall winning percentage was far greater than WIAC's. It doesn't take much research to look at the comparative non-conference schedules and see which conference played stronger teams. So in the world of the committee, North Central's strength of schedule was built upon playing weaker teams. The formula brewed to develop the criteria is flawed. The use of the criteria is applied unevenly.

At the end of the day, it won't matter. Each qualifying team has a path to the national championship and the cream will rise to the top. However, injecting a little common sense into the process seems like a good idea. If nothing else, for the sake of the tailgaters!

Here are three common sense ideas for the NCAA to consider:

1. Clarify the charge to the National Committee: Seed the best four teams #1 and build brackets around them. Use all the data available to you in making the decisions: strength of schedule, common opponents, past results, national polls, and common sense.

2. Establish a National DataBase to use in filling game dates. Post all open dates for all teams. Have each school submit a report each time they fill a date, each time they offer a game to another school, and each time they refuse an offer from another school. Any school refusing an offer from another school and subsequently scheduling a weaker team will be severely penalized in "strength of schedule" points. Provide extra strength of schedule points for scheduling teams who have been to the Final Four within the past 4 years.

3. Fill the committee with people who actually could watch a set of football games and have an idea of which teams were better from what their eyes told them. Football people who are given statistics to supplement what they see would be far better than administrators trying to apply faulty criteria to evaluate football teams.

For 2010 it is what it is. Beginning Saturday, seedings and strength of schedule and criterion and the committee's opinions won't help a team a bit once the whistle blows. UW-W got a beat down on a teleconference call. Now let's see if anyone can give them one on the football field.