First off, VTs out of conference schedule sucked and most years you can make the case that's a good enough reason to keep them out...until you consider that California, Utah State and UTEP all got in over Tech. Take a closer look at the RPI and SOS of all three...

Cal was 23-10, is #22 in the RPI and had the 15th-best strength of schedule. Sure, they played Kansas (#1 RPI), Ohio State (21), New Mexico (12) and Syracuse (5).....but didn't beat ANY of them. Their lone Top 50 RPI win was against Washington (#41), which they also lost to twice. Pac 10 got two NCAA tourney teams...Cal and Washington.

So judging by Cal's results, had VT replaced two of their non-conference cupcakes with road LOSSES to any two random Top 25 teams, they probably would have made the tournament.

And tell me how you're #22 in the RPI if your best win is against the #41 team and you have 10 losses? What the hell does strength of schedule matter if you lose to every good team you play?

And Utah State (#31 RPI/100 SOS, one less loss than VT)? They didn't play ONE school from a BCS/Power Six conference. Not one. Every single win they had against an RPI top 100 were against other mid-majors. Most of those were against the WAC, which would have been a one-bid league had it not been for Utah St. losing in the tourney. They played five games vs NCAA tournament teams and three of those were vs New Mexico State. To their credit, they at least beat BYU.

And who did UTEP (#38 RPI/111 SOS, two fewer losses than VT) beat outside of Conference USA (another one-bid league had it not been for a conference tourney upset)? They played five notable non-conference games: BYU (loss), New Mexico St (split 1-1), Texas Tech (lost), Ole Miss (lost).

Just goes to show how deceiving these SOS and RPI numbers are.