We’re new at this bubble thing, and new at learning how the NCAA Selection Committee deals with teams on the bubble. That being the case, here are some quick thoughts on what I learned from VT’s rejection by the NCAA committee. This isn’t a complete list, and certainly some of you understand this process better than I … unless you don’t.

A lot of it is based on RPI — unless it isn’t. (To borrow a turn of phrase from the great Jim Alderson.) There’s a whole litany of reasons why the Hokies didn’t get in, and most of them are based on RPI:

• Four losses to teams ranked below 100 in the RPI.
• No OOC wins against teams in the top 120 of the RPI.
• Only 1-7 against Top 50 RPI teams.

Those reasons were used to justify Tech’s non-inclusion. But it didn’t matter that VT finished fourth in the top RPI conference, and only four teams from that top RPI conference got invited. So RPI matters … unless it doesn’t.

Take the case of Dayton, for example. They’re the top RPI team to not get in, at #32. But Dayton started out 14-1, then went 7-9 from that point on, and that’s why they lost the bid. So that must mean …

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