Cohen the Selection Committee Chair has been an Adventure

[MSUDC11-2.0]

If any of you watched the Selection Show, he came off really poorly in the interview he did. Admitted on national TV that as the chair of the selection committee, he thought their selection criteria was bad and he wished he could change it…. You literally can do that, John.

There has also been controversy about the RPI being such a heavy emphasis and the one exception is Auburn getting a host spot. Now there is drama surrounding the Lexington Regional not having available hotel space and forcing the teams to stay in dorms. This is normally part of the host selection criteria but it just wasn’t in this case. Can’t help but recall that Cohen once worked at Kentucky, is still beloved there, and their current head coach was his long time protege.

Odds are some of this is just an unfortunate coincidence, but there’s no denying that the optics of it all aren’t good. And Cohen has taken a beating in terms of perception in the college baseball world through it all.

 

[Dawgg]

If any of you watched the Selection Show, he came off really poorly in the interview he did. Admitted on national TV that as the chair of the selection committee, he thought their selection criteria was bad and he wished he could change it…. You literally can do that, John.

Can he though? My understanding is the he has no more influence on current or future selections than anybody else on the committee. He can say "well conference record should matter more", but if the other 9 people in the room say "well non-conference record should matter more", then they'll carry the day. The 'chairs' of these committees are generally just figureheads and mouthpieces for ESPN and podcasts to interview after the selections are made.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Can he though? My understanding is the he has no more influence on current or future selections than anybody else on the committee. He can say "well conference record should matter more", but if the other 9 people in the room say "well non-conference record should matter more", then they'll carry the day. The 'chairs' of these committees are generally just a figureheads and mouthpieces for ESPN and podcasts to interview after the selections are made.

Maybe there’s some truth to that, but it’s still a really weird thing to say in his role.

 

[SouthFarmchicken]

Is this surprising? Cohen was a train wreck at AD and as our baseball coach. Worst SEC record in MSU baseball history. Yes, he had three seasons as bad as Lemonis and not one as good as Lemonis’s top 2.

 

[HuntDawg]

Honestly thought the committee did a good job. Only real issues was Auburn, but with as strong as the SEC was, you cant really fault them for that. The only thing I would have like to have seen is Auburn and Alabama switch places in the seeding.

I thought the interview with Cohen was good. He was basically saying he disagreed with a lot of how they are made to select teams but they could not just change mid course just because they wanted to. Which i agree with. You cant penalize teams that scheduled in a way to get into the tournament, you can only make sure it doesn’t happen this way in the future. I think Cohen did a good job of expressing this.

Everything Ive read by people that matter in the college game is that Cohen’s interview was good. And everyone basically agreed change needs to happen. But that Cohen and the committee did a good job picking the field with the rules provided

 

[HuntDawg]

Basically the committee nailed 15 of the 16 host sites. Put 8 sec teams as host for the first time ever. Nailed the top 8 seeds. And there were only 1-2 real snubs in the entire 64 team field.

Getting 8 of 8
Getting 15 of 16
Getting 62 of 64

Think the committee did a good job.

Think people are complaining about RPI and baseball not the committee and the selections And basically Cohen was doing the same thing. He was complaining about RPI as politically correct as he could, but said he and the committee couldn’t change the RPI on the spot just because they didnt like it.

Again I’ve seen no other take from anyone that matters in the world of college baseball About a bad job cohen or the committee did. It’s more about RPI, which Cohen and the committee had no control over.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Cohen should still be a coach. He's just better suited for that. I mean his culture stuck with our program for 4-5 years after he left. Of course, he was still right down the hall, so maybe that helped.

And I think he did fine on the selection committee. I think coaches should probably have a say so on the committee, moreso than the ADs.

 

[Johnnie Come Lately]

That is vintage Cohen. Whatever the method or conventional wisdom is, he can tinker with it and come up with something better.

 

[GloryDawg]

The Dude just hired Freeze. It might not have been his choice but he hired him.

 

[RockyDog]

Is this surprising? Cohen was a train wreck at AD and as our baseball coach. Worst SEC record in MSU baseball history. Yes, he had three seasons as bad as Lemonis and not one as good as Lemonis’s top 2.

He inherited a train wreck and eventually turned it around to a national championship series, which was MSU’s first ever. That is a ridiculous take on your part.

Bucket boy went the opposite direction which should count much more against him than what you are trying to pin on Cohen.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Yes, he had three seasons as bad as Lemonis and not one as good as Lemonis’s top 2.

Are you drunk? This is the dumbest thing posted in a while on here.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Honestly thought the committee did a good job. Only real issues was Auburn, but with as strong as the SEC was, you cant really fault them for that. The only thing I would have like to have seen is Auburn and Alabama switch places in the seeding.

I thought the interview with Cohen was good. He was basically saying he disagreed with a lot of how they are made to select teams but they could not just change mid course just because they wanted to. Which i agree with. You cant penalize teams that scheduled in a way to get into the tournament, you can only make sure it doesn’t happen this way in the future. I think Cohen did a good job of expressing this.

Everything Ive read by people that matter in the college game is that Cohen’s interview was good. And everyone basically agreed change needs to happen. But that Cohen and the committee did a good job picking the field with the rules provided

Auburn’s treatment is a little suspect and has been commented on by multiple people that cover or follow the sport on a national level. Them being ahead of Bama in the seeding makes zero sense. Bama went 3-1 against Auburn and had a better RPI, and only one game difference in conference record.

When the hosts were announced on Sunday I didn’t mind Auburn being a host. But if you’re going to make RPI the end all be all like this committee did in basically every other situation, Campbell should have hosted over Auburn.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Frankly, I don’t think the SEC deserved 8 hosts. Kentucky and South Carolina were total RPI picks. UK lost 6 of their final 7 series and went one and done in Hoover. SC went 3-9 in their last 12 regular season games and just had the one win against a bad Georgia team in Hoover. That’s not even counting Auburn, who had a borderline RPI for a host.

I think the league was very top heavy this year and the inflated RPI’s made teams seem better than they actually were (us included). I think there’s a strong case that teams like Campbell, USM, or Boston College were more deserving of those last couple of host spots.

 

[8dog]

Is this surprising? Cohen was a train wreck at AD and as our baseball coach. Worst SEC record in MSU baseball history. Yes, he had three seasons as bad as Lemonis and not one as good as Lemonis’s top 2.

One of the best talent evaluators in the game. He built this program from the ground up.

 

[SouthFarmchicken]

Are you drunk? This is the dumbest thing posted in a while on here.

Cohen went 9-20, 6-24, and 8-22. His two best seasons were 18-12 and 21-9.

Lemonis had two 20-10, won the SEC, two National seeds. Two seasons of 9-21. Facts are hard.

 

[Perd Hapley]

Facts are hard.

Well….you certainly appear to have nailed this part. The rest….not so much. Please just quit before anyone else draws any more attention to this nonsense. You are embarrassing yourself.

 

[HuntDawg]

Auburn’s treatment is a little suspect and has been commented on by multiple people that cover or follow the sport on a national level. Them being ahead of Bama in the seeding makes zero sense. Bama went 3-1 against Auburn and had a better RPI, and only one game difference in conference record.

When the hosts were announced on Sunday I didn’t mind Auburn being a host. But if you’re going to make RPI the end all be all like this committee did in basically every other situation, Campbell should have hosted over Auburn.

Auburn is really the only questionable move the committee made. And that isn’t that far fetched, they rewarded a sec team that won 17 games in the toughest conference in the country and had an RPI of 19 over campbell. Which I Think i read somewhere a sec team that won 17 and had an RPI that high has never not hosted.

That’s honestly the ONLY thing I’ve heard even semi negative on the entire selection field. Minus the obvious debates over the last 4 in and the last 4 out type things.

The committee did a good job. If the only issues, and that being a semi minor one, was Auburn over Campbell and a few teams splitting hairs on the last 2 in and the last 2 Out. I’d say they nailed it.

I too agree the SEC only deserved 7. CANT believe South Carolina got a host site. But it’s like I saw posted elsewhere, in order for teams to move downs, other teams have to play well enough to move up. Saw a lot of bubble host teams play their way out of hosting, not into it.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

Pretty candid words from K-State’s head coach. They were in the First Four Out:

 

[patdog]

Pretty candid words from K-State’s head coach. They were in the First Four Out:

K-State coach needs to look at his OOC schedule. That's a schedule that's begging the committee to not give you a break.

 

[HuntDawg]

I dont buy the K-state beef.

They played the 150th OOC SOS. Which means something they controlled (their schedule), they chose this path.

They went 14-16 against the RPI top 100.

Oklahoma is the only real beef. But 15 spots in RPI is a lot. Plus OU won 17 games vs the RPI top 100, and played an OOC in the top 25.

Kansas State has a beef, and I’d be pissed if I were them, however they knew the parameters to make the tournament when they made their schedule.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

I dont buy the K-state beef.

They played the 150th OOC SOS. Which means something they controlled (their schedule), they chose this path.

They went 14-16 against the RPI top 100.

Oklahoma is the only real beef. But 15 spots in RPI is a lot. Plus OU won 17 games vs the RPI top 100, and played an OOC in the top 25.

Kansas State has a beef, and I’d be pissed if I were them, however they knew the parameters to make the tournament when they made their schedule.

I do think they badly need to revisit the RPI formula. It has a lot of geographic bias and puts teams that aren’t in the southeast or in Texas at a pretty sizable disadvantage just because scheduling can be tougher for those teams. Very few West Coast teams made it in this year for similar reasons, and Stanford was the only host West of the central time zone.

In a non-revenue sport, being a 3-4 hour bus ride away from several quality teams has a ton of advantages. Somebody like K-State doesn’t really benefit from anything like that. It’s easy to dog their nonconference schedule but they played more road and neutral site games than home games. They played in the Round Rock Classic that had three quality NCAAT teams in it, including LSU. They were over .500 in-conference the third best RPI league. If the formula says that team is only 55 in the RPI, something is wrong with the formula.

 

[HuntDawg]

I do think they badly need to revisit the RPI formula. It has a lot of geographic bias and puts teams that aren’t in the southeast or in Texas at a pretty sizable disadvantage just because scheduling can be tougher for those teams. Very few West Coast teams made it in this year for similar reasons, and Stanford was the only host West of the central time zone.

In a non-revenue sport, being a 3-4 hour bus ride away from several quality teams has a ton of advantages. Somebody like K-State doesn’t really benefit from anything like that. It’s easy to dog their nonconference schedule but they played more road and neutral site games than home games. They played in the Round Rock Classic that had three quality NCAAT teams in it, including LSU. They were over .500 in-conference the third best RPI league. If the formula says that team is only 55 in the RPI, something is wrong with the formula.

I agree the entire RPI thing needs an overhaul. It reward you too much for just playing tough teams and not enough for winning games. Teams lose 2 of 3 on certain weekends and move up, not down, and it Shouldn’t be that way. And like you said, in baseball it’s sometimes not very easy to find good teams to play within certains schools budgets.

I’m not sure what the answer is. But somehow the SEC shouldn’t be rewarded as much as they are, like Kentucky being rated the 2nd beset team in the country… and teams like Campbell shouldn’t be penalized as much as they are for the rest of their conference not being very good.

 

[HuntDawg]

I also think EVERYONE agrees that there is something wrong with the formula of the RPI. That’s why I said what I said in my initial response. Cohen isn’t catching heat, if anything i think hes garnering respect for basically saying the RPI thing is screwed up and needs to be changed, however, these are the guidelines we have to follow when selecting teams.

HE could have toed the company line, but didnt. He basically called it out and said it needed to change.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

Maybe there’s some truth to that, but it’s still a really weird thing to say in his role.

He sucks at doing interviews. He isn't a people person

 

[She Mate Me]

Are you drunk? This is the dumbest thing posted in a while on here.

He's in competition with himself for that title.

 

[She Mate Me]

Never mind

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I think Cohen is just getting more threads on this page than he was here at MSU. If he keeps it up, he will catch Dan Mullins thread popularity. I realize this thread was actually about the selection committee. It's just an observation from watching this place.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

I agree the entire RPI thing needs an overhaul. It reward you too much for just playing tough teams and not enough for winning games. Teams lose 2 of 3 on certain weekends and move up, not down, and it Shouldn’t be that way. And like you said, in baseball it’s sometimes not very easy to find good teams to play within certains schools budgets.

I’m not sure what the answer is. But somehow the SEC shouldn’t be rewarded as much as they are, like Kentucky being rated the 2nd beset team in the country… and teams like Campbell shouldn’t be penalized as much as they are for the rest of their conference not being very good.

Kentucky staying at 1 or 2 in the RPI all year even after they lost the majority of their SEC series tells you all you need to know. Credit to them for gaming the system with how they did nonconference scheduling, but there is no way they should have the best RPI in the SEC.

 

[HuntDawg]

Kentucky staying at 1 or 2 in the RPI all year even after they lost the majority of their SEC series tells you all you need to know. Credit to them for gaming the system with how they did nonconference scheduling, but there is no way they should have the best RPI in the SEC.

Yep agreed 100% with that take.

And i think you'll see change with it in the very near future.