Virginia shocked the world – and me, too – by pulling off something it never managed before, even in the Ralph Sampson years, winning both the ACC regular season and tournament. It then managed the topper last night of garnering a number one seed in the NCAA tourney.
As thrilled as I am about that, there’s just one little nagging detail that makes me wonder… about the football selection committee.
Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman, the chairman of the selection committee, said Virginia’s two championships trumped an RPI rating of 11 to earn a 1 seed over Michigan and Villanova.
So, an ACC athletic director explains that winning his conference was a bigger factor in determining seeding than play against overall strength of schedule.
Now, this wasn’t about anything more than ordering a top seed, so maybe that’s why there isn’t much of an outcry over it. But how do you think that rationale, delivered by such a person, would go over were it used to justify four vs. five in a college football playoff? I’m thinking not well.