This is so spot on. Of course the but but but... crowd will still try to twist it. Also because big ten cannot play a round robin hard to say you played a schedule within the conference equivalent to the actual strength of the conference. That said its too bad Iowa did not get a shot Michigan or OSU at home. I think they would have won and been in the big dance as a result
So, when the Big 12 actually had 12 teams you have the same argument.
When you look at round robin play, Iowa had the 8th ranked Big Ten schedule, 8th!
It still consisted of playing a 1, 2, 3, two 4's, 7 and 11 seeeds, again that is the 8th "easiest" schedule playing round robin.
When has another conference 8th "easiest" schedule have that, outside of the 42 team Big East?
This just happens to be one of those years that Iowa did not benefit by winning 9 games in a difficult conference. Other years the Big 12 has been better and some ISU fans were probably thinking it would be nice to play in another conference.
My issue with the Big 12 is that there are 4 teams only that deserved to get in and OSU was not really a good team and benefited from the bottom teams being awful. K-State just played terrible and Oklahoma should never have been in the tournament, they did nothing to validate being there.
I had four teams that I thought did nothing to deserve being there:
1. Oklahoma - lost
2. Villanova - lost
3. Colorado - lost
4. California - Drew one of those RPI No. 1 conference teams, so it was a crap shoot going in on who was going to win.
Teams I thought were overseeded:
1. UCLA - done
2. Oklahoma State - done
The NCAA tournament selection committee agenda is revealed each year and this one went with RPI and road wins...not sure that is the greatest measuring stick of how good teams are, but that was their thought process.
We can argue about what league deserves what, but it comes down to what the guys in the room have predetermined their criteria and that is the problem. It isn't and Iowa/ISU problem, it is a college basketball problem.
Iowa had their chances to prove to the committee and their criteria they could play in the tournament, but the losses at Purdue, Nebraska and Wisconsin sealed their fate. ISU capitalized and they are in the tournament. Iowa is in the NIT, no shame it that, but not where the fans feel they should be. I will say this and get mad all you want, but you can't lose to Nebraska, home or away, and make the NCAA tournament, it was such a horrible loss at the wrong time of the year and the committee say "hey they can't win at Nebraska, Nebraska really?"
