Dick Vitale, ACC Hack

I'm watching SportsCenter this morning, and for some reason, they think Dick Vitale is even remotely qualified to give his opinion about why Virginia Tech should receive a bid.  OK, I get that he's actually coached before, and I get that he's seen more live basketball than I've seen live nudes.  Given his time away from vocal-chord surgery, I don't think he's followed the season well enough to give an honest, unbiased opinion about Virginia Tech's merits.  For one, Dick Vitale washes the ACC's balls every time he opens his mouth.  For two, he just called Virginia Tech's admittedly good game against North Carolina yesterday.  Of course they're going to have made the most immediate impression on him.

Vitale's reasons mimic those of every other ACC hack:  The ACC is the best conference (RPI #1), ergo they should have the most bids.  Going 9-7 in the ACC is apparently on par with scaling K2 or sleeping with Scarlett Johansson.  

Myth #1 - the RPI is even capable of determining which conference is the best.  I know the Selection Committee uses it to a degree, but it's less valuable now than it ever has been before.  The Selection Committee has left out teams with an RPI inside 20, and it's given at-large bids to teams above 50.  To let you know how flawed the RPI is, after Kentucky received their 41-point drubbing at the thunderous hands Vanderbilt, their RPI WENT UP.  The year that Kansas lost in the first round to Bucknell, their RPI before (and after) the tournament was #1.  It's just not that great of an indicator of quality.

Myth #2 - The ACC is the best conference.  The ACC benefits greatly from having two teams that are elite and no teams that are completely inept in the way Northwestern, Oregon State, South Florida, and Colorado are in their respective major conferences.  Having a very high ceiling and not a very low basement will make it so the math says the ACC is the best, but it doesn't in any way mean that they'll have more tournament-worthy teams than any other conference.  It sure as shit doesn't mean that the 5th place team in the ACC is automatically better than the 5th place team in, say, the Big 12 or Pac 10.

Myth #3 - Virginia Tech's 9-7 record in the ACC is a marvelous achievement.  It's not.  The way their conference schedule was weighted, Virginia Tech had an easier conference schedule than just about every other team in conference.  They only had to play North Carolina and Clemson (1st and 3rd in the conference) once, and they benefitted from playing Georgia Tech, Virginia, BC, and Wake Forest each twice.  Their 9-7 record is a little gaudier than it appears.

Myth #4 - Having played a close game against a very good team yet losing should help their case.  This is the crappest reason of them all.  It was, after all, one game.  Kudos to them for getting up for it, but it's their body of work that either will or will not get them in.  Over the course of the season, Davidson (at-large merits were debatable before they received their auto-bid), UNC Asheville (not an at-large team), Boston College (not an at-large team), and Virginia (not an at-large team) have played very close games with North Carolina and still lost.  Maryland, another team that won't be dancing, even BEAT North Carolina, and that is not enough to solely get them into the Tournament.

Add on top of this the fact that VT's best nonconference win was against UNC Asheville, and I just don't see how this can be one of the 34 best at-large teams.  This is already my second post of the day, it's not yet 11:00 am, and this is way more than I even wanted to discuss Virginia Tech.  I just couldn't let Dick Vitale's ACC homerism go unchecked.