At risk of throwing fuel on the fire, I just can’t see a strong, data-driven argument for VT not being one of the top 16 teams. RPI is a joke and not at all a legitimate metric. Even so, the committee seemingly ignored it in their seeding in many of teams anyway (Arkansas was #1 in RPI and got the #4 seed). Massey has the best well-known public ratings and has VT at #14. I also developed my own rating system earlier this year where VT finished at #12, ironically right above LSU. Not here to whine, but in my view claiming VT was not among the best 16 teams is not supported by the facts. At risk of being conspiratorial, I can’t help but suspect things might have turned out differently if we had SEC patches on the jersey in both the seeding and the hotel situations.