I didn't say shared opponents is the only metric I'm willing to use. I suggested it is better than relying on wins/loses against teams in the NCAAT, or on the bubble, since a team can't control its schedule or the fact that some opponents may under perform, overall (like IU).
When did I say we can't rank Butler and Purdue the same? My point is we can't differentiate between them based on the available evidence, yet we have knotheads like Lunardi out there insisting Butler is a #3 while only now moving Purdue from a #5 to a #4 and saying Purdue can't rise above a #4. (btw, I apologize for calling you a knothead.)
I can see how one can spin Butler over Purdue, but it could just as easily be spun the other way.
And it just fries me that the narrative being spun by ESPN, Lunardi, and some others, is that B1G regular season champ -- by 2 games -- has to also win the B1G Tourney just to get in on the discussion for a #4, while Butler is anointed a #3, already, seemingly regardless of what Butler does in the Big East Tourney.
It also fries me that with this idiotic process, a B1G team could win the regular-season title handily, and the conference tourney, and still not get assigned to the NCAAT site one hour away, where a majority of its alums reside. What then is the point of supposedly re-emphasizing the regional aspect of the NCAAT?
Call me paranoid, but if IU was in our shoes, the selection committee would find a way to assign IU to Indy, even if it took making IU a #2 seed. And they'd find a way because otherwise the blow back from the Indy media and IU fans would be withering. But with Purdue, the committee knows that Purdue fans will take it with little more than a peep.