I promise I'll shut up after this

Update: For the record, Penn is going to be playing at around 3 p.m. -- the second game of the day session. Which means Penn should probably root for Louisville so that Cardinals fans will stick around to root for them. (End update)

I'm only going to complain about two things with today's announced field of 65, and leave the other issues to other people.

First, I understand that Penn could have been a 14, but I don't understand how the Quakers are a 14 because they were passed by Albany. Here's a tale of the tape:

Record: Penn: 22-8, 13-1 Ivy (1st), Albany: 23-9, 13-3 America East (2nd)
NCAA official RPI (as of 3/5) -- Penn: 87, Albany: 88
ESPN RPI (as of 3/11) -- Penn: 88, Albany: 80
ESPN Strength of Sched. -- Penn: 177, Albany: 174
ESPN Non-conf. Sched. -- Penn: 173, Albany 131
Pomeroy ratings -- Penn: 102, Albany: 150
Pomeroy conference ratings: Penn (Ivy): 20, Albany (America East): 24
Pomeroy Strength of Sched. -- Penn: 195, Albany: 166
Pomeroy best win: -- Penn: No. 84 Drexel, Albany: No. 116 Bucknell Pomeroy worst loss: -- Penn: No. 189 Yale, Albany: No. 232 Binghamton (also lost to No. 201 Sacred Heart by 19)
Sagarin ratings -- Penn: 110, Albany: 124
Sagarin SOS -- Penn: 202, Albany: 241
Sagarin conference ratings: Penn (Ivy): 21, Albany (A-East): 24

Basically, the two teams are very even, with it looking to me like Penn played a better schedule, and most importantly, WON THEIR CONFERENCE OUTRIGHT! Albany finished second in an inferior (by all accounts) conference, and was placed above the Quakers. I just don't get it. I don't support an Ivy League tournament at all, but I can't help but think that a tournament would have bumped Penn above the Danes, mostly because the committee year after year overvalues conference tournaments. Maybe Albany's thrilling win against a Vermont team that basically gave them the game was enough, but it hardly looked like Albany was the better team that day.

My second gripe comes from the other half of Penn's pod -- Louisville vs. Stanford. If the Cardinals win, and Penn somehow loses to A&M, then the 6-seed will be playing the 3-seed only 80 miles away from Louisville, compared to 1,000 miles from College Station, Texas.

This line is from the NCAA's rules on seeding rules: "To ensure equitable competitive opportunities, the committee shall not place teams seeded on the first five lines at a potential "home-crowd disadvantage" in the first round."

While this is not in the first round, the fact is that there will be a lot of Louisville fans in Rupp Arena, and you can bet that they will be cheering hard for the Quakers to pull the upset. This pod could have been in New Orleans, which is 443 miles from College Station and 705 miles from Louisville. It would have been swapped with Memphis' pod. Memphis is 396 miles from New Orleans and it is only 26 miles more to Lexington. The closest opponent to the Tigers in their pod is North Texas, which is 558 miles from New Orleans and 890 miles from Lexington.

Again, this makes no sense to me. But I guess I'm not Gary Walters for a reason.