Meet the 2009 NCAA Tournament Selection Committee

Have you been wondering who gets to determine the fate of the Noles and the rest of the NCAA bracket?

Here they are: 2009 Selection Committee

By my count, there are four individuals on the committee who have some type of basketball experience, coaching or playing: Thomas O'Connor, Christopher Hill, Stanley Morrison and Lynn Hickey, The other sports represented on the committe are football, baseball and hockey.

The Conferences represented are the following: Atlantic-10, Southland, Big East, Big Ten, Big West, Mid-American, Pac-10, Moutain West, Colonial Athletic and the SEC. In fact Michael Silve, the Chair of the Committee, is the Commissioner of the SEC. This selection commitee scares me.

Let's look at the conference rankings according to Ken Pomeroy:

 1 Atlantic Coast Conference           .8805  17 Summit League                       .4336  
 2 Pac 10 Conference                   .8734  18 Mid American Conference             .4167  
 3 Big East Conference                 .8693  19 Southland Conference                .3761  
 4 Big 12 Conference                   .8512  20 Big Sky Conference                  .3631  
 5 Big Ten Conference                  .8455  21 America East Conference             .3577  
 6 Southeastern Conference             .7808  22 Sun Belt Conference                 .3544  
 7 Mountain West Conference            .7602  23 Ohio Valley Conference              .3473  
 8 Conference USA                      .6863  24 Southern Conference                 .2919  
 9 Atlantic 10 Conference              .6375  25 Atlantic Sun Conference             .2906  
10 Missouri Valley Conference          .5834  26 Patriot League                      .2757  
11 Horizon League                      .5806  27 Big South Conference                .2757  
12 Western Athletic Conference         .5634  28 Ivy League                          .2702  
13 West Coast Conference               .5157  29 Northeast Conference                .2460  
14 Colonial Athletic Association       .4837  30 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference     .1473  
15 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference  .4683  31 Independents                        .1009  
16 Big West Conference                 .4409  32 Southwestern Athletic Conference    .0917  

The SEC is having a down year. The Big 10 is not a good as people think it is and the Pac-10 may be the second best team, but I don't think it compares to the ACC.

The selection committee members have a formula they are supposed to use to select the 34 at large teams. They don't have to stick by it. Obviously, more teams in the tournament for your conference means more money, more tv time, more press and a good recruiting tool. "Hey, look we made it to the tournament...they didn't." Of course there are going to be personal biases no matter what year it is. But, FSU, depending on how we do down the stretch isn't a lock. I think that we're fine and if we go at least 2-3 to finish what many people are considering one of the most difficult final stretches of the year, we should be fine.

Shouldn't basketball get more representation on the committee? I know these are all very intelligent people, but there are many ways to judge a basketball team's talent and potential. A hockey goalie? Maybe he runs the biggest NCAA bracket in his state or something (probably illegal if he's on the committee). There was a great discussion about this on ESPN this morning. They made the argument that if it was an academic curriculum committee or the like, people would go nuts if 60% of the committee was from the athletic department. These individuals are involved in sports, but I'm just saying.

We always talk about why the finish is always important. The committee is supposed to evaluate teams throughout the season. But, their orientation to the committee just happened. Selection weekend is the second week of March, when the committee will meet for 5 days to determine the fate of any team.

If we get snubbed it might be due to conference bias and a poor finish.

What are your thoughts?