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Message: [QUOTE="auror, post: 2937840, member: 1329"] Because North Carolina's loss at Michigan is incredibly more difficult than any game Iowa has won. And Iowa will probably lose that same game later this year. It makes just as much sense to penalize for unequal opportunity this early in the season as it does to rank based on pre-existing opinions. Iowa's most difficult game was their win on a neutral court against Oregon, who then lost to Texas Southern at home. North Carolina's other loss, neutral court by 3 to top 20 ranked Texas, is also more difficult than that Oregon win. Who's to say Iowa wins either of those games? UNC has faced the 50th hardest schedule. Iowa the 250th. How do you reconcile that? The truth of the matter is that systems and models use pre-existing "infrastructure" and player projections in the early season because it makes the model more accurate than starting from 0 and relying only on results. These guys test these things. Giving Roy Williams and Jay Wright the benefit of the doubt in the early season has been proven to be more accurate than not doing so and just relying on the small sample sizes at the beginning of the season. Are we having this discussion if UNC hits 1 more 3 and wins against Texas in OT and their only loss is at Michigan? So we're not even quibbling about 1 game, but maybe 1 or a handful of possessions. [/QUOTE]