Utah State 2004

[SoCal_Pony]

Per USA Today article last year.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... y/1994259/

Utah State, 2004 (24-3): The Aggies were believed to be the first ranked team to not earn a berth into the modern tournament.

But in looking at their schedule, it appears they beat no one of significance. In other words, they 'earned' their ranking not so much on merit but simply on their W-L record, much like a C-USA football team might get ranked at the end of the year with a 10-2 record even though they are not truly worthy.

Most revealing is Utah State's SOS, which was 175.

SMU on the other hand earned their ranking, having defeated many quality teams and having played many more competitively. Our SOS is 114, which is a huge difference than Utah State's 175.

IMO, this is the biggest shaft job in the modern NCAA tourney history.

[FriscoChuck]

Agree and every school in AAC and every school joining should be very concerned about this.

[SoCal_Pony]

Utah State's 2004 schedule:

http://www.utahstateaggies.com/sports/m ... Stats.html

their SOS:

https://rpiarchive.ncaa.org/Stats%20Lib ... %20RPI.pdf

Kinda funny, they lost their opening round NIT game versus Hawaii.

Also, that 175 SOS includes the Hawaii NIT game, so when they were 'snubbed', their SOS was actually higher.