Quote Originally Posted by Groff View Post
In a vacuum maybe, but isn't the whole point that bubble selections are *not* made in a vacuum? bubble selections are made relative to the other bubble teams. So, while 0-9 v. top 50 could be a 1-way ticket to the NIT, what if the final slot comes down to NCST and Drexel. Could you really make the argument that Drexel's 1 top 50 win is that much more valuable than State's 0 considering all of the other facets of their resume that are clearly better?

There is no criteria for selection in the NCAA tournament because the forced distribution nature (they must select a certain number of teams every year) of the tournament makes a concrete selection criteria impossible. One year 0-9 vs. top 50 might mean an instant NIT, but the next year it might not. It only matters in relation to the top 50 record of other bubble teams, and even then only as one of any number of differentiators.
At some point, the committee should recognize the limitation of small sample sizes: that 0-8 and 1-2 versus the top-50 tells you almost nothing about the relative strengths of teams. (Nor does a single head-to-head game.) I think the committee tries to do the right thing when it doesn't consider a single number (such as standing in conference, or head-to-head results), but it fails when it boils things down to top-50 or top-100 wins when there simply aren't enough samples to draw those types of conclusions.