can discard information from it as you like (or include information as you like). Let's say that RPI is really an accurate measure of anything, particularly given the relatively recent adjustment for home court versus away versus neutral games.

If RPI says Washington is the 45th best team, why not just use it to determine whether or not Washington gets into the tournament? The obvious reason is that everyone who has watched Washington play this season knows there is no way they are the 45th best team in the country. As a result, we get these silly, arbitrary binning of teams into groups based on a metric that we acknowledge is flawed to begin with. (Otherwise, we wouldn't be binning games anyway.)

I'll admit that VT should have gamed the RPI better but the fact that it can be gamed is also an acknowledgement of what a poor tool it is.