We definitely will not get an at-large bid. Mid- majors with RPI from the 20s to 50s historically have been denied at-large bids. Besides, we currently have a tier 4 loss against Fullerton. That may change since Fullerton is at the cusp of being a tier 3 loss at home. I'm curious what the cutoff would be this year though with these tier 1 to 4 emphasis.

Any chance we could get an NIT birth at home?

I personally don't think so. UC Davis is projected to be a #14 or #15 seed if we are fortunate to make the Big Dance. That's probably not good enough for a home berth in the NIT although I haven't studied the historical trends. I personally believe there's a bias towards the power conferences for at home berths.

Just look at the UCD Women's team from last year. In my opinion, we should have gotten an at home berth vs. the school that beat them at the quarterfinals(?). That school had a losing record yet they were rewarded an at home berth. Was that school Washington State? I can't remember without googling it.

yeah it was WSU. We beat them in the rematch in Davis this year

Yes, the Aggie women lost at Washington State in WNIT after road wins over Colorado State and Utah State. They absolutely deserved a home game at that point but the PAC12 has much more influence and power than the Big West.

My guess is that, with the good following the women have, we would have had more fans in the seats than WSU. A WNIT quarterfinals game against Davis in Pullman with a Cougar team with a losing record would not create much excitement with their PAC12 fans. On the other hand, we would have had more fans in the seats because this was a big deal for us and Aggie fans were excited about it.

We killed them in the rematch.

Just clarifying. ;)

Ran them out of our house....more clarification. :cool:

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Obviously we have to win the tourney but we have officially been added to ESPN's bracket!

Just for memory sake, because everything is different now: Bob Hamilton used to schedule not only teams like Santa Clara (when they were very strong), but would take the team on a 3-game road trip to the east. If my memory serves, they played teams like Ohio State, Minnesota and Memphis. I knew a few players on those teams and they told me that Coach Hamilton's philosophy was that if you play the best teams you learn a lot more, even if you get smacked by them.

Interesting story. Back in 1968, when Santa Clara was a rival for western dominance with UCLA, Sports Illustrated ran a story about Santa Clara noting that they had "swatted a few mosquitoes" like UC Davis. A friend of mine, Dave Crawford, wrote in umbrage to SI and his letter got printed! He wrote about the Aggies then dominance of the Far Western Conference. He showed that issue to everyone he knew.

Nice! Yes, Ham played Kansas, Fresno, SC, Berkeley consistently.

i would love to see USF and Santa Clara added, especially if we could get one home /one away deal over 2 years or at least 2 away/one home games over 3 years. It would be great for Bay Area alums to be able to see some games and I think USF/Santa Clara would draw well in Davis.

Given the one bid the Big West gets, i would be in favor of a gradual increase in schedule toughness. I don't think it makes a ton of sense to play too many top 25 teams, but I would like to see more teams in the 26-75 RPI range added.