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The Bryant Baseball team is currently 33-8 on the season with a 16-2 mark in the Northeast Conference. Interesting enough, Bryant has a very stable RPI of 32 which would put them right in the hunt for a two seed in the NCAA Tournament come the end of May. So lets say they lose in the NEC Tournament should the Bulldogs be given an at-large berth to the tournament? I think the answer is yes based on their strong resume and RPI even though they play in a weak conference. We posted a poll about this today on twitter which you can vote on below.
.@_BryantBaseball has a 33-8 overall record and a 16-2 mark in @NECSports Should they get an At-Large berth?
— CB Daily (@CB_Daily) May 2, 2016
9 comments
How is their resume “strong?” Their SoS is 246! The only thing even resembling a quality win was a 7-4 Sunday win in February over Kentucky. Yet somehow their RPI is 25. Totally absurd.
Did I say there resume was strong anywhere? They did beat Maryland in one game and have a victory over Boston College (who did win two series against NCAA hosts) so I think that helps out a ton in that RPI mess. That RPI can’t be overlooked though.
I assume the byline citing you is actually you and the article says, “I think the answer is yes based on their strong resume and RPI even though they play in a weak conference.”
The RPI is comprised of numbers. That much is true. But that in no way grounds it in anything resembling analytical rigor.
Ha…overlooked myself saying that 😉 Any team with eight losses on the year should never be left out of the tourney. I am one of the people that believes that conference tournaments should be eliminated in all sports and thinks the regular season champion should get the bid.
I was about to agree with you on letting them in based on how well they pitch and hit, but that SoS … I just can’t see them performing nearly as well among post season level of play.
I definitely agree on the conf tourney thing. Bids should be awarded on total season performance.
The two other times they made the tourney they have been very competitive and they really have become the best team in New England very quickly since there move up from D-2.
Back to the original hypothetical … if they lose the NE tournament. Losing seems pretty unlikely given how much distance they’ve put between themselves and Sacred Heart and the rest of the Northeast. But IF they lose, I’m not sure the committee would hand out a precious at large to the Northeast. The SEC and ACC are going to take approximately 50 bids. Last I heard, Florida’s club team is inline for a 3 seed.
Yea, I think everyone else should just drop baseball and make the NCAA Tournament the SEC/ACC invitational as that is the way the tournament is going to be. These conferences are so large that they are getting 80 percent of their conferences in now.
Anybody can beat anybody. That’s the beauty of it. That’s why we watch. Last year, Fullerton had no business playing Louisville. You know how that turned out. Then they’re in the middling of putting it on Vanderbilt in Omaha when the rains came. The next day, the tide turned. Such is life. I’d love to see Bryant as a 2-3 in an SEC or ACC regional. But unless they win the tournament, they might not get the chance.
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