Why should Drexel get an at-large bid
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by user Ncaahoopstoday
The NCAA selection committee has stressed year over year the value of playing road/neutral games and playing a challenging schedule. They went out of their way to encourage this by adjusting the RPI to give more weight to road wins.
And here is where Drexel is a poster-child for this. Aside from having one of the coolest nicknames and mascots (Dragons), they are 13-4 in road games this year. This is just road games, not road/neutral. In neutral games they are 1-1 (CAA conference tourney), although their loss was a semi-away game (played almost on VCU's campus).
However, some of the road wins were Big 5+ games, which are more semi-away than road games. Regardless those wins are "very nice" as Borat would say, three Big 5+ wins (Drexel being the "+" in Big 5 since they are not officially in the Big 5, but they play them anyways). The three Big 5+ wins: Villanova, Temple and St Joe. The only Big 5 team they lost to was Penn (they didn't play La Salle).
Other road wins of note: @Vermont, @Syracuse and @Creighton. Also "very nice". They split two overtime games with Hofstra (each winning on each others' home floor). They are 0-4 against ODU and VCU, but that's more of a reflection of how good ODU and VCU are. Why pick a team like Syracuse that sits at home and tries to eat 13 cupcakes (and can't even do that) instead of picking a team that actually played and won road/neutrals? (I'm not saying Syracuse shouldn't be in this year, I'm merely contrasting two extremes of scheduling practices).
Their 3-1 record in Big 5 games is also another indicator that this team would do well in a neutral tourney environment. ODU has a big win @Georgetown. Hofstra herself is not a bad team, but their record is not pretty enough for NCAA consideration (not that it helped them last year when they had a prettier record). On the plus side this will get Tom Pecora a more prominent role on CSTV's March Madness coverage. Why is that important? The CSTV karma! The CSTV karma got Seth Greenberg a great season this year after his stint as CSTV analyst! Also watch for CSTV karma rewards in the next two years for Gonzo (Seton Hall's Bobby Gonzalez) and Norm Roberts (St Johns).
Okay where am I? I think I was trying to make a point or two. Oooh the Drexel Dragons. If they don't get in, and some wishy-washy flaky BCS team with 1-2 road wins gets in instead of them, then the NCAA selection cmte should not be taken seriously...
Speaking of which, Billy Packer has promised that he will reveal some intriguing suggestion to the selection cmte on Selection Sunday, presumably when he and his caddy (Jim Nantz, fitting since he does a lot of golf tourneys) interview the selection cmte chair after the brackets are announced. Not sure if it will be groundbreaking suggestion or some silly pro-BCS silliness...
Okay back to the Drexel Dragons, from a TV ratings perspective, think of how many new fans will tune in to see the cool Dragon mascot! The UAB Blazers won't be there this year. But seriously, this is (as others have said) a litmus test of how serious the NCAA suits are about playing a tough/challenging road schedule and winning some of them.
