D1 Men NCAA Tournament

[Wheels]

With this said, when a team loses to a team lower-ranked than them, they should move down (at least some).

How are you "ranking" the teams? By the media or coaches polls? Those polls are more flawed than the RPI could ever be.

[Matnum PI]

either they're not that smart, or they're just winging it.

I want to add one more (all but guaranteed) possibility. The committee is five coaches and administrators. (Is this done anonymously? Do we know who? And who picks them?) These five... work for schools. (In theory, they could be NCAA administrators but I don't think this is the case.) And, as they work for schools, whether directly or indirectly, their decisions can benefit or damage them and others they know. Across the board, people insist that they're rational, don't have agendas, etc. and... They're wrong. Humans are irrational. It's what makes us human. So... they're not that smart, they're just winging it and... They're making prejudiced decisions. i.e. They decided what they decide 100% for altruistic, objective reasons and... It's just not true. They pick SU over High Point over Cornell over whomever because... There's a breeze within all our minds that blow the pointer from here to there when we make decisions. The process needs to be taken out hands of humans and put into the hands of a cold, hard equation.

[Matnum PI]

How are you "ranking" the teams? By the media or coaches polls? Those polls are more flawed than the RPI could ever be.

Agreed. I prefer an above average equation over people. But to answer your first question, I'm prejudiced but... I like FanLax's equation. It would need to be adjusted to each of the coach's tastes but... You can count the number of cells that need to be filled in on one hand. Basically, what percentage of your opponents Points should you get for a W? And what percentage of your Points should you lose for an L? It gets a little more detailed than this but... That's the gist. Currently FanLax's Rankings are set to Admin's taste. e.g. He de-emphasizes game scores. Admin likes Ws and Ls. But the coaches can decide differently. Decide this stuff upfront, then SU loses to Colgate who over the course of the season tanks and... SU loses X Points. There's no discussion of "How bad a loss was this?... maybe we should ignore it?... It was a long time ago and... It just happened once." Just minus X Points. Just as long as all the coaches sign-off on the values upfront (and there aren't a lot of values to decide) and we'd have a transparent, rational system. And coaches, players, and fans would understand the system. People understand RPI generally but... No one thinks like that. People do think like "Denver beat Air Force and... This was a meaningless game" or "Denver just beat Duke. How many Points does that get them?"

[Wheels]

either they're not that smart, or they're just winging it.

Humans are irrational. It's what makes us human. So... they're not that smart, they're just winging it and... They're making prejudiced decisions. i.e. They decided what they decide 100% for altruistic, objective reasons and... It's just not true. They pick SU over High Point over Cornell over whomever because... There's a breeze within all our minds that blow the pointer from here to there when we make decisions. The process needs to be taken out hands of humans and put into the hands of a cold, hard equation.

Not to get into an academic argument here, but it's not accurate to say humans aren't rational. It's more accurate to say that humans are idiosyncratic. Someone's decision-making might not seem "rational" to you, but it probably rational to the person making the decision. After all, who decides what is rational? Other humans?

Maybe what you're getting at isn't so much whether or not the selection committee is rational but what are their incentives. Do coaches on the committee like Joe Amplo or Richie Meade have incentives (conference affiliation, friendships, grudges, etc.) to include some teams but not others? Did Jack Hayes, the AD at Brown, have an incentive to exclude Cornell? I think the answer to all of those questions is no, but who knows, right? It's hard to see into the hearts of humans.

But to your final point, who makes the algorithm? Humans. You can't exclude humans from this process, and if you think that the nature of humans is to be irrational, even an algorithm won't correct that.

[Matnum PI]

But to your final point, who makes the algorithm? Humans. You can't exclude humans from this process, and if you think that the nature of humans is to be irrational, even an algorithm won't correct that.

As long as the algorithm isn't preferential towards one team over another, it'll work. Humans make calculators, humans make spreadsheets, humans make smartphones, etc. Just because something is made by humans doesn't mean it's irrational.

[molo]

Looks like the weather will be excellent tomorrow, not as warm as predicted earlier. While some good teams were eliminated last weekend, any of the four who will play tomorrow is capable of winning Monday. Largely thanks to the shot clock, this season has featured exciting, entertaining games every weekend.
In a year of parity, we won’t have a season with a NC with five or six losses.

[molo]

Looks like the weather will be excellent tomorrow, not as warm as predicted earlier. While some good teams were eliminated last weekend, any of the four who will play tomorrow is capable of winning Monday. Largely thanks to the shot clock, this season has featured exciting, entertaining games every weekend.
In a year of parity, we won’t have a season with a NC with five or six losses.

[bearlaxfan]

Is this overall the weakest group of goalies to play in the FF in years?

[Sativa Specialist]

Is this overall the weakest group of goalies to play in the FF in years?

Thinking the same thing.
I don't know who Penn State's back up goalie is but I have been waiting for the broadcasting team to bring it up.

[calourie]

32,000+ for the semis. Not sure where that stands, but it looked like a good crowd to play in front of.

[DaneFan]

Is this overall the weakest group of goalies to play in the FF in years?

Thinking the same thing.
I don't know who Penn State's back up goalie is but I have been waiting for the broadcasting team to bring it up.

I was surprised they never mentioned it, but overall the Penn St defense flat out got exposed.

[HowieT3]

32,000+ for the semis. Not sure where that stands, but it looked like a good crowd to play in front of.

I saw a tweet that said it was the 11th largest of the 17 held in NFL stadiums. It beat out 2012-15 and 2017-18.

[bearlaxfan]

We Are really represented. Otherwise, I think 'meh' fan support. Even UVa.