Sunday, March 11, 2007

Akron Gets . . . Zip

No NCAA, and no NIT. Unbelievable. The selection committee for the NIT (aka, the battle for undiputed 66th best team in the nation) gave an apparently token MAC bid to regular season conference champ Toledo. Toledo has one more regular season conference win than Akron. Akron has seven more total wins and advanced to the final round of the MAC tourney where they lost on a last second -- oh yeah, last second plus one -- prayer three. Toledo on the other hand bowed out in the semis.

Two nights ago I said Akron would be battling Toledo for an NIT berth if they didn't win the final. Then I looked up Toledo's regular season record and felt like an idiot. Apparently I'm not the only one.

Akron gets no post-season play after winning 26 games. No one in the NIT has 26 wins. No one. Two teams have 25 and the next highest in the field is 23. Akron's RPI is 67 which puts them, let me see, oh, just outside the field of 65 in the NCAA tourney. C'mon NIT, you are supposed to be a joke. This isn't even funny.

3 comments:

Ben said...

is it possible they turned down the bid because they had to travel and it was money related? I am sure we will know more tomorrow.

Jason Haas said...

Pluto's column today indicates they received an outright snub.

Which is shameful.

John Ettorre said...

As Clinton would say, I feel your pain.