With its worst team in years, MSU is in serious danger of being left out of the NCAA tourney field.
And anyone who has ever served on a committee such as this one, where each member brings their own self-interested objectives to the table, which can't all be satisfied, knows that it doesn't take long for the implicit "logrolling" and "horse trading" to begin among the members whose objectives are in jeopardy, even if such self dealing is explicitly prohibited (as it always is).
Every committee member is there to fight for his team, conference, or those who can serve his interests, regardless of what they'll admit. But no one gets to walk away with all that they want. So one has to be selective in terms of what they'll give up, to get what they truly want the most.
Given Purdue rarely gets any national respect, and has relatively little bargaining power in terms of offering side payments such as home-and-away match ups guaranteed for national TV (i.e., UK vs. KU), it's not too hard to understand why Purdue was left out. But the omission of Wisconsin points directly to Hollis and his beginning of a process that will under-seed the best B1G teams in order to horse trade MSU into the tail of field.
So:
-- Hollis effectively gives a public apology for the state of B1G basketball (after all, how good can it be with MSU down due to injuries?).
-- the ACC gets to thump its chest with 5 of the top 16 (I've been hearing about nothing else from my ACC buds since yesterday) but this favor will cost the middle-tier ACC teams in the end.
-- similarly, the Big 12 and Pac 12 get 3 each.
-- Nova secures a spot for a 2nd Big East team, Butler, so Nova can claim to have taken care of its conference.
-- And likewise, UK logrolls in a 2nd SEC team, UF.
-- this leaves Wisconsin and Purdue out, but there is a method to Hollis' madness.
I can hear Hollis now at the conference table: "... true, we (the B1G) have no great teams this year, but we have tremendous depth and parity."
This is truly good news for IU and Northwestern -- maybe Hollis will even sneak Minnesota in, so no one can claim he slipped in MSU as the lowest-seeded B1G team.
And you can say all you want that ... "we just need to keep winning and proves ourselves." Baloney!
How does Wisconsin, Purdue, and Maryland prove themselves against each other when the committee obviously has no respect for any of them?!
Hollis should be tarred, feathered, and run out of the B1G on a rail!
