The NET includes more components than just winning percentage. It takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.
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I'm going to make this super simple.
Quad 1 wins are better than Quad 4
Depaul is in Quad 4
Shocking that there is a discussion, but there is no debate
Computer modules, RPI, KenPom, NCAA Net Rankings and every metric known to mankind takes into account your opponents and their strength in some manner or another
Geez, if we only had more 300+ schools in the Big East, our body of work might be better than Purdue's!!!!!!!!!!
Whoop whoop whoop
The quads are an output of the NET, not an input.
You could absolutely have a schedule entirely of Quad 4 games and be #1 in the NET if you won the games by enough points. Right now Indiana State is #29 and their best win is at Bradley. They've played 19 Quad 3 or Quad 4 games so far. Their resume metric ranks are 21, 30, and 40. Again, their best win is at Bradley and their 2nd best win is home against Drake.
There's been a whole narrative in college basketball this season about the B12 and teams like Houston and Iowa St blowing bad teams out and juicing their NET (but that's a whole other topic which is kinda right but mostly wrong).
What you said was:
Depaul is literally keeping Big East bubble teams out of the tournament
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and they may keep 1-4 conference teams out of the dance.
Beating DePaul is not keeping anyone out of the tournament. DePaul isn't going to beat any of our bubble teams. If they do, that bubble team doesn't deserve to get into the tournament.
Is there an opportunity cost to DePaul on the schedule vs. a better team? Possibly. But you might lose to that better team, and you're not losing to DePaul. In fact it's quite easy to beat them by a lot of points, especially since they fired their coach. As I mentioned, their net rating change has gifted BE teams increases in their metrics overall. BE bubble teams this season have 11 Q1 opportunities in league play. Lack of Q1 wins for our bubble teams is only a problem if you're not good enough to win them.
But even aside from scoring margin, none of the "resume" metrics give you a demerit for beating anybody. Beating DePaul is not hurting anybody's resume. The baseline is positive movement for a win (although in DePaul's case it's close to zero, but it's not negative). The "predictive" metrics it depends on your margin of victory, but again, it's not hurting you if you beat them by enough. It's within your control. These metrics have been designed to judge quality of teams in all manner of conferences with varying membership strengths. You can show your quality against anyone and move up. As you said, there are other factors that go into the ranking, but those factors only really determine how much you need to beat them (on a per possession basis) to move up.