MTSU IN and Kentucky OUT

I touched on this briefly last week, but I thought it was worth looking at Middle Tennessee again. Mostly because I am still in complete shock that an NCAA selection committee gave an At-Large bid to a Sun Belt team, over a "name team" like Kentucky. This just does not fit their history, at all.

Top-30 RPI:
I've always thought that was the magic number

No bad losses (prior to their upset loss in the Sun Belt Tourney):
Florida (Road - #10 ranked team in the nation)
Akron (Road OT loss to MAC Champ)
Arkansas State (Road OT loss to Sun Belt West Champ)
Belmont (OVC Champs who destroyed the OU Bobcats)

A high profile win:
Ole Miss (The eventual SEC Champ)

Played 3 SEC teams in their OOC Schedule:


Despite not having several big wins, they still got in. Was the RPI good enough? The RPI plus the "quality losses" maybe? I even read an article where someone pointed out their good, consistent play on the road as a factor.

And I still can't figure out how they get a Top-30 RPI without a much higher SOS.

Anyway, I thought this could make good discussion this week. Can anyone find anything else in their resume that should be noted and remembered for future reference?

MAC Coach and POY

I'm surprised nobody is talking about this. Isn't it getting announced at any time?

Could we possibly get BOTH this year?

Is Keith FINALLY going to get the award that has long eluded him?

Championship Celebration - 1986 and 2013

I wanted to start this thread this morning, mostly to get some thoughts from some of my fellow old timers who were a part of both of these seasons, which are the only two times in D-1 when we clinched a conference regular season title in Rhodes Arena. It's not at all intended to be another "things were better way back when" discussion.

On the night we beat Austin Peay back to 1986 to clinch the regular season OVC title, nobody left the arena. I remember hanging on that railing upstairs along with everyone else in the student section, screaming as every player and coach walked up the ladder to cut down the nets, including one of the assistant coaches who decided it was a good idea to sit on the hoop.

I stuck around for this celebration last night, too. I'd guess that 90% of the people in the arena were gone. The loudest sounds seemed to be coming from people folding chairs and cleaning the aisles. It was really an empty feeling for me, recalling what I experienced 27 years ago. Yet, the crowds who attended both of these games were probably quite similar in size.

I'm left wondering, why did everyone leave?
Have we become that spoiled at being a consistent, yearly winner, which was not the case when we won the 1986 title ?
Did anyone even know that we were clinching a title with a win last night, before they walked out? (the PA Announcer said it)
Did the end of the winning streak really drain everyone's enthusiasm? The crowd seemed uninterested most of the night.
Was it the fact that the 1986 championship was such a surprise?
Were the fans and students in general much more "into it" back then?
Have regular season conference championships really become that meaningless? (you needed to win the tournament to qualify back in 1986 too)

I'm interested in hearing some thoughts from those who shared these two events along with me.

Colllege Scoreboards - #24?

I'm looking at ESPNs schedule of games for today. Many of the teams have their ranking number next to their name, but not Akron.

Are other sites showing it the same way? Could it be that the AP is the recognized ranking for this purpose? Does anyone know? This is unprecedented territory for us, and I was curious is anyone knows.

I was hoping to see that 24 next to our name today.

OSWho's 2002 Halftime "Celebration"

I'm curious about how my fellow participants on this board feel about this, since I've been talking about this with numerous people since yesterday, and have listened to various sportcasters, local and national, weigh in on this.

Do you think the school would have thought twice if they knew the ex-players were going to parade JT around on their shoulders like that?
Does the school even care what anyone thinks?
Don't you think the right thing for him to do would have been to gratiously decline?
At the very least, was it too soon?
Is it yet another case of OSWho arrogance?
Thumbing their noses at the people who sanctioned him and the University, as some sportscasters have suggested?
How about the fans who cheered for him?

I even read an on-line article comment this morning that said something like..."if it weren't for what Tressel did, we wouldn't have Urban Meyer right now. So, this all worked out great."

Have we really reached such a low point in terms of integrity in college athletics? Does any integrity still exist at all, especially for the University down South that's only won one football title since the 60s, even though they spend more money per athlete than any other school trying to win championships?

To me, the timing was very bizarre. And since I always tend to think about the student athletes first, I have to wonder how the hard-working kids on the field felt about watching a man being paraded around the field, knowing that he was the primary reason why their season was ending yesterday.