The PAC-12: An Argument Against Automatic Bids

My friend was supposed to write this post going the other way, about how the PAC 12 is actually underrated. But I’ve since destroyed him in a text-argument about how phuken wrong he is, and I want to share it with you.

This conference is The Worst Conference in the World. At least of the so-called major conferences. It’s even worse than a few of those pesky mind-majors. Google “conference RPI” and see what results come up with. You’ll find the PAC-12 ranked as the 10^th best conference in the nation. It comes in behind such traditional powers as: the A-10, Conference USA, the Missouri Valley, and the Mountain West.

Sure the conference has 6 teams with 20+ wins. Because they got to each play 15 PAC-12 games. When they ventured into the real world, it was all oops pow surpise in their faces.

Here are the best non-conference games of the top 4 teams in the league. I only chose the top four because even that is pushing it. They will be lucky to get 2 of these disasters into the tournament. And by “best” I am using an arbitrary formula of my own that takes into account personal opinion and program history.

1^st- Washington (21-10, 14-4)

@St Louis, @ Nevada, vs #11 Marquette, vs #5 Duke. ALL LOSSES. 0-4. In addition, they lost by 19 AT HOME to the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Yes, the Jackrabbits are Dancing . Also, they are still South Dakota State.

This is your PAC-12 regular season champion, folks.  And they just got bounced in the quarters of the conference tourney by the Oregon State Barack Obama Brothers-in-Law .

2^nd- Cal (22-8, 13-5)

Vs #21 Mizzou, @ San Diego St, @ UNLV, vs Weber State.  1-3, with the only victory coming over future lottery pick Damian Lillard and Weber State.

3^rd- Oregon (22-8, 13-5)

@#7 Vandy, vs BYU, vs UVA. OH-FER again!! They lost at home to the most universally-agreed upon soft sports school, Wahoo Wah Virginia.

4^th Arizona (22-10, 12-6)

Vs Miss St, vs San Diego St, @ New Mexico St, @#12 Fla, vs Gonzaga. These are no pushover games, granted, but the only good win they had was against the New Mexico State Hang Time. 1-4.

The top 4 teams in the league went a combined 2-14 in their biggest non-conference games. The conference as a whole was 1-30 against the RPI Top 50, with the only victory coming courtesy of a Stanford “W” over Colorado State way the heck back in November.

To give you an idea of just how nauseating that stat is, Southern Mississippi has 3 Top 50 wins. Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky, Carolina, Mich St, Michigan, Duke, and Ohio State EACH have 7+ Top 50 wins.

Washington is almost certainly going to receive an at-large bid, because, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, no regular season conference champion from a Major 6 conference has missed the tournament in at least the last 9 years. This is a shame, because their (terrible) loss to Oregon State in the conference tournament opens the door for some even s**ttier team to steal the conference’s automatic bid.

I would much rather see some sneaky tourney-team like Xavier or BYU, or *fingers crossed* Long Beach State. There is probably no more battle tested team in the country than the Dirtbags 49ers. Casper Ware and crew are going to be a nasty out for anyone looking past them.

They count among their 22-8 season: a victory @#9 Pitt, a 4 pt loss in OT @ San Diego St, loss @#6 Louisville, 8 pt loss @ #13 Kansas, 6 pt loss @ #6 North Carolina, a win over #15 Xavier, a win over Auburn, and a loss vs K-State.  If you combined TWO PAC-12 teams’ schedules, it wouldn’t look that good.

So I implore you to contact your local Selection Committee member , and ask them to do the right thing.

Which is keep PAC-12 basketball out of my precious tournament!