Craig Littlepage Quotes on Committees (8 Quotes)

The goal is still to pick the 34 best at-large teams and to seed and balance the 65-team bracket. But this committee is going to face some very unusual challenges because there is so much gridlock at the top and the middle of some of these conferences.

I think it's been pretty clear from the committee over time that we're not going to be impressed with records that are somewhat artificially built. If we're comparing six or eight teams and two have put together a schedule of rigor where they play home and away from home, the committee is going to go with teams that have challenged themselves.

We endeavor to try to provide as much transparency, within reason, as to how the committee works, why it does what it does.

The advice I would have is to look at the performance of the team. I understand their questions. I understand their disappointment. The committee is equally devastated when we know there are excellent teams that won't have an opportunity to play.

It's much like the question about injuries - it has to be considered, it has to be brought up. The committee member who has the monitoring assignment for that team and for that conference would be obliged to bring that to the attention of the committee.

Personally, I would be resistant to that and I believe that in listening to my colleagues on the committee, there doesn't seem to be a lot of momentum in that direction. I think that over the last two years there is a certain magic that has evolved over the course of this tournament, and I wouldn't want to fool around with that in the short term in regards to expanding the field in any way.

One of the committees' primary objectives over the last few years has been to increase the transparency and understanding regarding the process of selecting teams for the tournament. We think that announcing the results of the RPI ranking on a weekly basis has its benefits.

There are 10 people on the committee, and each has factors that are important to them. I'm a former coach, so what other coaches say about teams may be important to me. Someone else wants to base it purely on the numbers.