[NU Sports] There is still hope

[Eric C West]

While I disagree with parts of this -- given NU's higher-than-usual RPI (and all that entails), three wins could easily be enough this year, and with the soft national bubble the Big Ten could certainly get eight teams in -- the main point is they need to beat Minnesota, far more than they "needed" to beat Purdue or Indiana. For me, the rest of the schedule is moot until after Saturday.

Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Hodges
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 8:35 AM
To: Beamsley, Jeff
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] There is still hope

The thing is that the selection committee honestly does not care where a team finishes in the conference standings (unless it wins the conference, at which point it gets some extra weight), and instead focuses on the entire body of work.  The fact is that NU needs 4 more wins to put itself in a good spot (it's possible that one of those wins could come in the conf tourney).  Just finishing tied or above certain teams in the conference standings won't mean anything come selection time, and fewer than 4 wins would find NU slipping down the bubble.

Jonathan