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Monarchs are the odd team out for NCAA tournament

Old Dominion's season comes to an abrupt halt as they finish 41-17.

NORFOLK, Va. — Old Dominion head coach, Chris Finwood was getting a funny vibe about his team's chances as they left the Conference USA baseball tournament from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. "We got back after 4 in the morning and as yesterday unfolded you started to get a bad kind of feeling", he said on Monday. "With a lot of the upsets and the teams that weren't going to get in unless they won."

The domino effect ultimately hit his Monarchs as they were left out of the 64 team NCAA tourament field. There were questions as to how much their ratings percentage index (RPI), which is used to rank sports teams based upon wins and losses along with strength of schedule, would factored into it. ODU (RPI 40th) with a 41-17 record was listed among the first four out that included North Carolina State (RPI 33rd), Rutgers (RPI 42nd), and Wofford (RPI 35th). Meanwhile Florida State (RPI 29th), Liberty (RPI 31st), Ole Miss (RPI 39th) and Grand Canyon (RPI 50th) out of Phoenix, Arizona were the last four in. 

You figure Old Dominion earned the right for an at-large bid given that Conference USA was ranked 5th among the best conferences in the country and they only got two schools in themselves. Southern Mississippi, who they took two of three games from during the regular season and Louisiana Tech, the team they lost to in the tournament semifinals. Grand Canyon (41-19) plays out of a Western Athletic Conference that's ranked 19th among leagues. "It hurts without a doubt", says Finwood. "It hurts for the right reasons. It hurts because those guys love each other and they were fighting like crazy for each other." As proud as he is of his team, it's a shame they don't get to show more of that talent in the tournament before the nation.

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