Surprise, surprise. Utah State isn't a great road team. Doesn't anyone want to know why? Its because not only do they not schedule road games east of the Mississippi River, they don't even schedule road games east of the Rocky Mountains! For years, Utah State head coach Stew Morrill scheduled the softest non-conference schedule ever on the basis that his team shouldn't have to put up with 2-for-1s with major conference teams. The end result is a team that would go 26-2 or 25-3 every year, lose to Nevada or New Mexico State in the WAC tournament, and end up in the NIT despite their gaudy record because they'd not only have 0 RPI Top 100 wins (just like this year), they've only PLAYED 3 RPI Top 100 teams!

Major conference schools get ripped on for trying to purchase a 20-win season with a soft non-conference schedule (like Cincinnati, where Mick Cronin will probably lose his job if they don't make the tournament). Yet Utah State does this EVERY SINGLE YEAR and they're not even a major conference school.

The only time Utah State got away with this was in 2006, when the selection committee awarded the final 2 #12 seeds to Utah State and Air Force despite 0 Top 100 wins for either of them because they believed they needed to give more west coast teams bids. They did this despite several major conference teams having better at-large resumes getting left out. CBS' announcers tore the selection committee a new one at the selection show because of it.