You just never know what will happen on Selection Sunday

This post is not to say I think George Mason has a chance at being snubbed from this year's NCAA tournament.  I simply just want to show the track record of the selection committee when it comes to the final who's in and who's out decision time. Mason is a lock for the tournament in my opinion regardless of what happens next weekend at the CAA tournament. It's interesting to think that this year's conference tournament could have national implications, especially if someone other than VCU, ODU or Mason won the auto-bid. The ripple effect of who wins these conference tournaments can doom a lot of bubble teams and that is why you just don't know what Selection Sunday will bring.

Take a look at the graphic below from RPIratings.com of all the top 40 RPI teams that have gotten snubbed from the selection committee since 1992. George Mason's RPI currently stands at 25 today.

This further proves that RPI isn't everything and there are many factors that go into the decision making process. Also this year the committee isn't putting any special emphasis on a team's final 10-12 games like they have done in the past. Be that as it may I still find it difficult to believe that the Patriots' 15-game winning streak won't carry any additional weight on the minds of the committee, especially when it's a statistic that led the nation.

The difference between this year's George Mason team and the teams with similar RPI numbers on this graphic are the conference records.  The Patriots' only conference losses were against the #2 and #3 teams in the final standings and no other team on the above graphic had that going for them during selection time. Expert said in 2006 that Mason's success in the CAA that season is what got them an at-large bid into that tournament.