Jordan Bean | Sacked

I'm not impressed. Although its record reads 31-0 and it is ranked second in the polls, Wichita State is far from the second best
team in the nation. Are we really all in agreement that it deserves this ranking? Is a team that has defeated teams such as Bradley, Drake, Evansville and Emporia State better than a North Carolina team which has defeated then-No. 3 Louisville, then-No. 1 Michigan State, then-No. 11 Kentucky and then-No. 5 Duke?
While the ongoing quest for the mid-majors to earn our respect is in full force with the likes of Boise State and Northern Illinois in football along with Wichita State and Butler in basketball, they simply do not stack up against better competition on a week-in week-out basis.
The common argument for these teams, especially Boise State, is that their records against top-tier teams are above average. However, if we look closer, there is a pattern that appears. Boise State's recent noteworthy wins have come against Oregon, Oklahoma, Georgia and Virginia Tech.
Three of the four games came on the opening night of their seasons and the other was a BCS bowl. Boise State had at least one, if not many, months to prepare, plan and prac- tice for the opponents. The game became its "Super Bowl", while for the others it was just another game.
After the matchup, teams like Georgia would go on to their rigorous SEC schedules while Boise State falls back to its Mountain West conference games, a considerable difference from playing Alabama and LSU.
It's not necessarily the fault of the mid- majors that their schedules do not compare favorably to the others, but it is the reality of the situation. The truth is that strength of schedule should be a very important ingredient in how we rank and assess teams.
I prefer to see University of North Carolina challenging itself against No. 2 Syracuse and losing by twelve than to watch Wichita State survive a three-point-overtime win against Missouri State.
IwouldevengoasfarastosayIwouldbet that Duke, or many top-25 teams, would run the table if it switched schedules with Wichita State. I cannot say the same for the reverse. I would even argue that with Duke's schedule, Wichita State would have at least five losses by this point, including Arizona, Syracuse, Kansas and others. Would we still call it the number two team in the nation then?
Come tournament time, power conference teams will have already been accustomed to playing ranked opponents, whereas for Wichita State the level of competition is a drastic increase.
While it's not uncommon to see these teams make a run, it's partly due to the inflated regular-season statistics. They receive a high seed based on a better regular season record compared to teams with more losses and harder schedules. With this ranking, they are able to face the 14 or 15 seed, which compares very favorably to being an eight or nine seed and having a tougher road to the Final Four.
If we're going to penalize a team for its losses, maybe we should consider penalizing a team for its wins too. When the selection committee comes to Wichita State, I hope they will take a long hard look at who they have beaten on its road to an undefeated season.
While being able to win all of the games on a schedule is admirable, it doesn't nec- essarily make it impressive in the bigger picture. When we are trying to make com- parisons between conferences and sched- ules, there really is no comparison between mid-majors and power conferences. Understand that a win may not mean what you think, or else - you're sacked!
Jordan Bean is a sophomore majoring in economics. He can be reached at Jordan. Bean@tufts.edu.