The R.P.I. is one of those tools that we have at our disposal.

One person might rely on (RPI) heavily and another might rely on it less heavily.

It's only a coincidence that they happen to be from one conference. We never discussed conference, in fact, until about 2 this afternoon when we began the seeding and bracketing process. I would not have been able to tell you how many from this conference or that conference were in the field at that point in time.

I don't think we look at it in terms of how many teams qualify from one league. We made our selections based on teams, not conferences. And I also I think this selection disproves the myth that (the process is exclusively) RPI driven.

The discussion about any one league will not go into our discussions when it comes time to select the at-larges. We are going to look strictly at teams, what teams have done.

One of the committees' primary objectives over the last few years has been to increase the transparency and understanding regarding the process of selecting teams for the tournament. We think that announcing the results of the RPI ranking on a weekly basis has its benefits.