While Mayor whines, what is he hiding?

Try and follow this:

• WBAL-TV has been reporting for weeks now about the discrepancies in Baltimore City Crime reports.
  
  
• Politicians, of both political stripes, call for an independent audit of the books.
  
  
• Last night, the Baltimore City Council voted to create a commission to provide such an independent audit.

So in the Sun this morning, we were treated to this series of nuggets from Martin O'Malley, from the Mayor's testimony to the City Council:

"Every day that they get us to talk about how we go about proving independently that we haven't been doing something bad ... is one less day that Bob Ehrlich has to defend the fact that crime in Maryland as a whole, outside of our [city] borders, has been going up because of his miserable, pathetic management of juvenile services, which he promised to fix, and a parole and probation department that is still operating off of loose-leaf binders and notebooks."

What the gubernatorial campaign has to do with a City Council inquiry into potential mismanagement of crime records by the Mayor's many police chiefs is beyond me.

"This is like attacking John Kerry's rationale for his Purple Hearts in order not to have to talk about draft dodging and not going to war when you were called up,"

Get the feeling that O'Malley's opposition has little to do with good government? And why would anybody want to compare themselves to John Kerry and his campaign, especially given the accusations that Kerry exaggerated his own record in regards to his Purple Hearts and his service in Vietnam?

"So [Ehrlich] wants to have this debate - 'Oh, did it go down by nation-leading or were you first or third or sixth' - because he doesn't want people to see that crime is going up ... outside the city in the state of Maryland,"

Have any data for that? What's worse is the fact that I doubt that there is even much anecdotal evidence for such a claim, much less statistical evidence,

I get the feeling that everybody is getting tired of O'Malley's Act. The fact of the matter is that O'Malley promised to bring homicides down to 175, and the crime rate overall down. He failed on the first point; to be fair, it was an incredibly ambitious goal and more than likely nobody could succeed in that task. The problem is that the second goal we do not have an answer to yet, because of the questions regarding these statistics. You would think that they Mayor would welcome an independent audit to show the strides made in crime reduction during his seven years in office. I cannot see how anybody can take his shtick seriously when he wants to talk about his record on crime, and whines that calls for an independent assessment are politically motivated. I am waiting for him to bring up "Baltimore Bashing" again, since O'Malley and the Sun's editorial board have decreed that any criticism of O'Malley is a criticism of the City.

O'Malley should have called for the audit himself weeks ago. So the question gets boiled down to this: What does Martin O'Malley have to hide?

Mind the Gap

Calls for the extension of the Washington Metro's Green Line from Greenbelt to BWI are absolutely unnecessary.

What does the extension realistically accomplish? It links the airport to the Washington transit system, an unnecessary extension. The Airport is already connected to Washington by the MARC Train and by Amtrak Trains that run from Union Station and New Carrollton to the airport. Interested DC Metro Area residents, particularly those from Virginia, can take the Metro to Union Station or New Carrollton and take the train to BWI.

And then there is the ever important question as to who pays for the $3 billion projected cost of the Green Line extension.

Maybe if the DC Metro were a comprehensive, efficient, clean, system like the London Underground, maybe it would be useful. Instead, it is $3 billion that could be better spent the backlog of existing infrastructure improvements that already need to be built

Three Bills, No Hope

The Capital came out and said today exactly what I had been suspecting would happen in the first place; there is no hope for School Board selection reform in 2006.

There are now three bills that deal with the School Board selection process; the previously mentioned HB 24 and HB1373/SB915, and now also a bill by Delegate Cadden that would create a straw poll during this year's General Election to determine what the voters want to do. Truly complicating matters is the fact that three of the five Senators who represent this county are opposed to all of the options at this time.

It seems like that even the House Delegation cannot decide on which bill it supports. Some delegates support HB24, some delegates support HB1375. The situation is so completely out of hand that Delegate Dwyer is, according to the Capital, in the absurd position of opposing a bill that he is sponsoring.

Is there any good news out of this? Only that even if HB24, the bill that would elect school board members in name only, is dead on arrival in the Senate. What is bothersome, however, is the fact that the Senate delegation seems entrenched in the belief that no change is required.

I am of the belief that if given the choice, the best option is to allow the Board to be elected. An elected Board is an improvement over the current system insofar as everybody will be given the opportunity to participate in the process. No conventions. No nominating processes. No intrigue coming from the Governor as to whom the selection is really going to be. And if we can't get there this year, if we cannot get to the point where we have one appointed student member and seven elected Board members, then we should not act. No change is better than bad change, something I said upon the introduction of HB24 back in January.

The best way to ensure that we get that change in the future, however, is in your hands, the hands of the voter. At the ballot box in the September primary and in November's General Election, vote for candidates who support an elected school board. This is even more important in the Senate than it is in the House, because without a strong leader from Anne Arundel County on the floor of the Senate supporting an elected school board, we will not see reform at all.

If you want hope of change, make that change. At the moment, all we have are those three bills.

You can't spell Terrapins without N-I-T

Barring a late run through the ACC tournament, the Maryland Terrapins will once again find themselves in the NIT. A 16-10 record, 6-7 in conference just is not going to cut it. Maybe the Terps could find a way to sneak in by sweeping their three remaining conference games (at UNC, Miami, at Virginia) and winning two games in the tournament. It would give them a winning conference record and a 21-11 record overall; I can't see an ACC team with 20 wins being left out of the tournament, even in a down year for the conference.

If the Terps do wind up in the NIT, once again they will have earned their spot.

Bad Ideas in Action

Such an idea could only come from a New York Democrat:

Sen. David Paterson is pushing a bill that would require cops to shoot to wound, rather than using deadly force - drawing outrage from officers.

The bill also would create a new provision for second-degree manslaughter that would be reserved specifically for an officer who "uses more than the minimal amount necessary" to stop a crime suspect.

Paterson, who is on Eliot Spitzer's ticket as lieutenant governor, has reintroduced the bill twice since first sponsoring it in 2001, refusing to let it die.

In a memo urging its passage, Paterson wrote: "There is no justification for terminating another's life when a less extreme measure may accomplish the same objective."

How exactly does a police officer make the split-second decision to use appropraite force when the lives of civilians, victims, or officers is at state? Is there a rash of killings by police officers in New York that I am not aware of that justifies this law? Even if there were a rash of these killings, police departments have internal safeguards and procedures in place to deal with those situations. It is why any police officer involved in a shooting goes on administrative leave right away . And there are already laws against to prosecute police officers who go beyond the law.

When the choice is between siding with public safety officers and siding with criminals, always take the officers who have chosen to put their life on the line day in an day out.

Leave it to MLB

You would almost think that Major League Baseball had a desire to kill off baseball in Washington forever. First came the stadium fiasco, and now the revelation concerning the patent dispute regarding the Nationals' name:

A lawsuit over the trademark rights for the "Washington Nationals" name is currently in federal court in Manhattan.

Cincinnati-based Bygone Sports, a company specializing in historic sporting gear, applied for the federal trademark registration under the "Washington Nationals" name in September of 2002, when the team was still called the Expos.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded the trademark to Bygone last week, meaning the team can still be called the Nationals, but cannot sell any clothing under that name.

Major League Baseball had filed a protest with the Patent Office, but their claim was rejected. Now, both sides are suing each other.

According to the New York Times, which first reported the merchandise snafu, Major League Baseball thought they had a deal with Bygone before they announced the team's new name, but the deal fell through when Bygone raised their asking price from $130,000 to $1.5 million.

Roger Kaplan, an attorney for Bygone tells WTOP, "If Major League Baseball offered what was considered to be an appropriate price for the mark, Bygone would consider selling the mark to Major League Baseball."

Which more than likely means that team would no longer be the Nationals, since they would be unable to make money on the name:

If the court rules against Baseball, the Nationals would lose the right to sell apparel with the team's name on it -- although it would still be allowed to use the name on its uniforms. MLB has said it will change the name of the team if it loses in court.

It is amazing what you get out of Major League Baseball. One would have thought that MLB would have their ducks in a row before rolling out the name of the team in a glitzy display, especially considering the league still owns the team, and considering that the league had to expect that Nationals merchandise would be selling at a swift clip in the team's first few season. One almost wonders if MLB just went with it considering that Mayor Tony Williams, whose support was key to the stadium deal, favored the name "Nationals" all along.

Makes you wonder if the Rangers ownership is going to be willing to discuss the rights to the name "Washington Senators" sometime soon...

Pointless Reform

A slew of Democratic Delegates led by Delegate Jon Cardin have introduced HB1054, a bill to allow for the public financing of legislative elections. I cannot possibly think of the reason for introducing such a bill.

The bill would allocate $7.5 million towards a fund that would be available to legislative candidates that meet a certain criteria, raise a number of small donations and meet other seemingly pointless criteria.

What I do not understand is why we need to fund elections from the public treasury. $7.5 million seems like it could be much better spent on hiring new teachers for struggling schools than turning politicians and consultants loose with the money. Besides, how many times have you seen a legislative candidate win despite being tremendously outspent by an opponent, winning solely on grassroots support and shoe leather? It happens every year, will certainly happen again this year, and in every year from here into the future. These Democratic Delegates seem to be addressing a concern that nobody has. It is a pointless reform proposal that accomplishes nothing but feel-good press snippets.

In the meantime, Democratic candidates and leaders wonder why people are fed up with paying high taxes...

Getting There

I've been remiss in not noting the introduction into the House of Delegates HB 1373, another new school board bill. The bill introduced by Delegates Gilleland and McConkey, along with its companion Senate piece (SB915, introduced by Senator Greenip) is a much needed improvement over the disastrous HB24. However, HB1373/SB915 is not a complete answer to the calls of an elected school board. The bill has some interesting ideas, including a hybrid elected/appointed board that sees five elected members, two members appointed by the County Executive, and the student member.

My biggest concern with the current bill is that, while splitting the county into five districts for the purpose of elected Board members, candidates would run county wide. This means that voters from Pasadena would go to the polls to elect those who would represent Annapolis, and vice-versa. I'm not sure how we will get a board that represents the interests of the district the individual members represent if they have to secure votes countywide.

The bill also gives an option to vote for a slate of non-partisan candidates, or to give the option to allow the County Executive to appoint the member from that district, which strikes me as strange.

The bill is certain progress over the faux-elected school board bill introduced earlier. However, we still have a long way to go in getting there to a fully elected board.

Springtime Here, Springtime in Florida

It feels like spring today here in Maryland, and just to make sure we get the idea, pitchers and catchers reported to Orioles spring training today. Jayson Stark of ESPN had a column to get us all started today, and the Orioles were recognized for some of their...accomplishments in the offseason. One of which was that non-roster invitee Fernando Tatis was the most unlikely name on a spring training roster. Tatis is a third-baseman, and has not played in the big since he was an Expo in 2003. It made me wonder who else had been extended non-roster invitations to Orioles camp:

• LHP Vic Darensbourg
• LHP John Halama (who has pitched for five teams in the last four seasons)
• RHP/OF Brooks Kieschneck (a former 1st round draft pick)
• RHP Ryan Jensen (a former wunderkind in the Giants organization)
  
• IF/OF Howie Clark (a former fan fave on his 2nd go around)
• IF Luis Lopez (on his 3rd stint as an Oriole)
• OF Esix Snead
• Utility Man Desi Relaford

Darensbourg and Relaford could be useful players, and maybe Keishnick can help the problems in the bullpen, but I hope the front office has some other solutions available.

Maybe this really is going to be a long year...

Get the Audit

For somebody who loves to talk about how crime is down in Baltimore City, Mayor Martin O'Malley sure is having to do a lot of defending of his record on violent crime. It does not help that WBAL-TV is reporting that Commissioner Hamm confirms that some crimes are not reported as crimes, and that the homicide rates reported by the Coroner's office and the police are out of sync.

The O'Malley administration, upon taking office in the City, did a complete review of crime statistics of the last year of the Schmoke administration, and found that the number of violent crimes were in fact higher than were originally reported. It is only natural that, upon the review, certain crimes that were not tabulated during the original data collection would in fact be included upon review. That happens, and if that does happen, but the people of Maryland need to know if the O'Malley administration intentionally cooked the books to protect the Mayor's political flank.

Councilman Ken Harris, though, is correct; an independent audit would tell once and for all if the Baltimore Police were accurately recording crime data. And it would settle, once and for all, the issue of whether or not Mayor O'Malley has seen a decline in violent crime under his administration. For the sake of the city, and for the sake of the people of the metropolitan area, let's please have an independent audit.

Thanks

As many of you know, I sit on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Student Legislature, and last night was our annual Legislative Reception. The students of our program got to interact with Governor Ehrlich and many state legislators. The students also were recognized with resolutions on both the House and the Senate floor.

My thanks go out to Governor Ehrlich and the many legislators who attended our event, as well as the House and Senate staff members who assisted us in securing the room and obtaining these resolutions. We are very proud of the event our students put on.

The Dream Team(?)

Team USA was announced today for the World Baseball Classic, and I am not sure that it makes our team the favorites or not. Some thoughts:

• The team seems short on big-game players, particularly pitchers. Roger Clemens and, to a lesser extent from 2003, Dontrelle Willis are the only pitchers who have significant big game, postseason style exeperience. This is especially noticeable when you consider that Andy Pettite was left off of the roster.
  
• The bullpen is mighty impressive, the presence of Mike Timlin notwithstanding.
• How did both Jeff Francoeur and Matt Holliday make the team over Luis Gonzalez?
• Paul LoDuca should have made the squad as one of the three catchers, if only for the way he plays the game and his ability to motivate his teammates.

With this team, however, the starting lineup could yield some interesting possibilities. Consider this;

SS Jeter
2B Young
1B Teixeira
3B Rodriguez
RF Griffey
DH Lee
C Varitek
CF Damon
LF Winn

All in all, however, one has to consider the Dominican team and not the American team as the favorites come March 2nd.

Eliminate the Middleman

I do not drink wine, but those who do are very particular about the types of wine they drink. Every palate of every wine drinker is different. It is the reason that so many different wineries make so many different types of wine available. The market is lucrative and tastes vary.

The problem, once again, for Marylanders involves the state poking its nose where it does not belong. The Office of the Comptroller has ordered Maryland wineries to involve a wholesaler when selling their wine to restaurants and liquor stores. Prior to Schaefer's ruling, the wineries were able to deal directly with those who were purchasing their product. Once again, the state is taking a stance that directly harms small business owners, particular small wineries who will be forced to go out of business if they are required to deal with a middleman. What is worse is that the ruling dealt with a lawsuit about a Maryland law that prohibits out-of-state wineries from shipping their products directly to consumers without working with an in-state distributor. Instead of working to correct that problem, instead the Comptroller's Office decided to harm in-state operators.

How come whenever the choice comes down to siding with consumers and small business owners, or siding with the establishment, the Democratic apparatus always sides with the establishment? Thankfully, some State Senators are trying to fix this problem. Senate Bill 812 is a bipartisan bill that is pro-consumer and pro-small business. If the bill passes, all wineries will finally be able to ship their products directly to the consumer without the middleman, and the consumers will be able to buy wine directly without a high markup. It is the best of both worlds and will eliminate this unnecessary headache at all levels.

SB812 makes sense; the ruling of the Comptroller's Office (with copious help from the Attorney General's office) does not.

Game Not so Super for Seahawks

The combination of some really weird playcalling and some poor officiating doomed the Seahawks tonight.

The Seahawks drive at the end of both the first and second halves were surreal. Matt Hasselback wasted thirty seconds while running through multiple audibles at the line of scrimmage, and even then they were only bailed out by the Steelers taking a timeout on defense. Then, once the Seahawks began the hurry-up offense, they chose not to go for a field goal, ran multiple plays across the middle, and failed in their last chance to score and go for the onsides kick.

Two officials calls, in particular, were highly questionable. I am still not certain that the ball crossed the goal-line on Ben Roethlisberger's touchdown run. And the ten-yard penalty on Matt Hasselback for a "chop block" while tackling the defender with the ball was surreal.

But take nothing away from the Steelers. It was not pretty, but they earned their title.

Go Seahawks!

As much as I am rooting for the Seahawks to beat our rivals today, I do not actually predict that it will happen. The Steelers have advanced through the playoffs like the team of destiny, and I do not think that that will change today.

Final Score: Steelers 24, Seahawks 20

What is the Endgame on Danish Cartoons?

Where will the row about the Danish cartoons stop? Yesterday, it was burning the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria. Today, it is the burning of the Danish Embassy in Beirut, as well as an attempt to storm Catholic Churches in the capital. The White House released a statement yesterday condemning the attacks:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the burning of the Danish and Norwegian Embassies in Damascus, Syria today, which also damaged the Chilean and Swedish Embassies. The Government of Syria's failure to provide protection to diplomatic premises, in the face of warnings that violence was planned, is inexcusable.

The State Department has told the Syrian Ambassador that Syria must act decisively to protect all foreign embassies and citizens in Damascus from attack. We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support.

Where is this going to end? Legally, Denmark has a casus belli against both Syria and Lebanon; Embassies are treated as sovereign soil, and these countries have allowed Danish sovereignty to be violated. Syria is already listed as a state-sponsor of terror; is this, of all things, going to be the spark for military action against Syria.

And while seperate from the current violence in Syria and Lebanon, these pictures of demonstrators in London are not really conducive to free speech either.

The Medicine Does More Damage Than the Disease

Now that the Abramoff scandal is front page news, lawmakers in Washington have been bending over backwards looking for ways to "do something" about the problem of lobbying. Of course, the fact that the first thing Congress did was ban lobbying by former members of Congress in the House Gym was somewhat of a weird first step ("I've been going to the gym for 14 years, and nobody's in there lobbying...I've never seen any nefarious plots hatched on the treadmill," said Congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia).

My fear is that, once again, Congress is going to produce a medicine that does more damage to our political system than the disease ever will. What Jack Abramoff did is already against the law. And he has been caught and punished for his crime. As part of his plea deal, he is also going to provide evidence against former members of Congress who also broke the law. How will radical lobbying reform for the sake of lobbying reform change this? It would seem that the Ethics Committees need to do a better job of policing their own and enforcing the existing laws than passing new laws that will never actually be enforced. The problem with Congress specifically and lawmaking bodies in general is that they see a major news story break, whether it be a corruption scandal or a school shooting, and immediately overreact. How many lawmakers proposed new, tougher, more restrictive gun laws in the wake of a gun crime, particularly when it is a rash of inner-city drug-related murders? Plenty. But none of those lawmakers stopped and realized that oftentimes the shooter had already broken numerous gun laws prior to committing those crimes. How would a new law stop that shooter from still committing the same crime? It would not. All a new gun law would do in that situation is restrict the right of self-defense to those who are clearly in need of it. An overreaction by law makers.

McCain-Feingold was a similar overreaction. There was a perceived problem with money in politics. There was a perceived problem with negative campaigning and negative advertising. So McCain-Feingold was passed. So the so-called "soft money" was virtually removed from politics altogether. So federal candidates would be required to put ridiculous disclaimers on all of their campaign advertisements saying that they "approved" the message. What has McCain-Feingold wrought:

• Hundreds of millions of dollar spent by the Bush and Kerry campaigns in 2004
• A Presidential election year with ads more vicious and more negative than ever before.
• The rise of "527" groups that can spend unlimited sums of money and interject themselves into the campaign.

All at the cost of free speech; Political Action Committees, remember, are no longer allowed to run candidate-specific advertising in the last 30 days prior to a federal primary or in the last 60 days prior to a federal general election. Can anybody truly say that politics are better since McCain-Feingold? Can we really say that the influence of money is lessened? Can we really say that be restricting the rights of groups to voice an opinion about candidates that the voice of the people is being defended and preserved?

And that is what worries me most about the so-called lobbying "reform." What steps will members of Congress proposed to create a panglossian system of lobbying that can only exist in the minds of the naive? Where will this all end? Will reform do more damage than the lobbying itself? We will need to keep a keen eye on these reform proposals over the next several months. But if history has taught us anything, is that Congress, in the words of Congressman Shadegg, does two things well -- nothing and overreact. The smart money, for political purposes, will see them overreact once more.

Board Swimming Plan All Wet

While everybody everywhere wants to talk about the need to focus on better educating on students, the Anne Arundel Board of Education wants to spend at least $250,000 on making swimming a varsity sport.

I think that sports are a wonderful thing for students to participate in. They help the confidence of the student and it gives students a taste of the competitive edge that they are going to need once they get in the real world.

But does swimming need to be a sanctioned varsity sport, one that is paid for with taxpayer dollars. Not at the moment, no. If student performance at all twelve county high school were far above the statewide average, I could see it. If performance for students in all grades were above the statewide average, I could see it. But this money should not be spent on creating a new sport at a time where student performance in far too many county schools is not up to snuff. Besides, the market for this is already being served through non-varsity meets and other means.

When all students are being educated at a high level, then reconsider it. Until then, the idea of paying that much money to sanction swimming is all wet.

Boehner Now Must Walk the Walk

While John Shadegg was my choice, I am glad to see that John Boehner was elected House Majority Leader today. Boehner has been talking the good talk as a conservative choice during the course of the election. He certainly provides more of an alternative to the status quo the Roy Blunt. And his hard-line stance against the McCain-Feigngold Act is good by me.

Now that Congressman Boehner is the leader, let us hope that he walks the walk as a conservative standard bearer in the House.

Alternatives to Slots

I guess if the Democratis in the House of Delegates remain reticent to pass a meaningful slots bill, the Maryland Jockey Club can try this route:

The Kentucky Derby will have a sponsor for the first time, striking a five-year deal with a fast-food restaurant company that owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Yum Brands Inc., based in Louisville, becomes the first named sponsor of the Derby at Churchill Downs, and the race will be referred to as the Kentucky Derby, presented by Yum Brands, it was announced Wednesday.

The Yum logo will appear under the famed twin spires for the Derby on May 6, and will also be shown on a sign above the starting gate, on the jackets of the pony riders who escort the horses during the post parade, on television billboards and elsewhere around the track.

Let us hope that keeping the Preakness in Maryland does not require selling the name of the venerable race to the highest bidder.

Dump Sheehan

If the Democratic Party at the national level were serious about a debate of issues and ideas, including the handling of the War in Iraq, they need to run the other way from Cindy Sheehan and radicals of her ilk.

Once upon a time, Cindy Sheehan cut a sympathetic figure in the public eye. She had lost her son, and now she wanted to peacefully protest the conduct of the war in which he gave his life. I think that we, as Americans, share her sorrow for all of those who have died defending freedom in Iraq.

The problem came, however, when Sheehan became a darling of the media during the summer of 2005. After demanding all summer for a second meeting with the President, she unleashed this bizarre statement:

"I look back on it, and I am very, very, very grateful he did not meet with me, because we have sparked and galvanized the peace movement. If he'd met with me, then I would have gone home, and it would have ended there,” she said.

Sometime between her loss, the organizing of Gold Star Families for Peace, and the Camp Casey fiasco, Sheehan graduated from being a sorrowful mother to the latest glory hound for the left. She become the left's point-person for all things wacky; referring to an "occupied New Orleans", minimizing major hurricanes, and now getting arrested for wearing a politically charged t-shirt to the State of the Union.

How does this impact the Democratic Party? Normally, it would not; there are moonbats on all sides. However, Cindy Sheehan has been embraced by the modern "mainstream" of the Democratic Party, which has basically become the big tent for all sorts of modern peace activists and interests groups. Why else would a member of Congress give Sheehan an invitation to the address; Lynn Woolsey must have known that Sheehan was going to do something ludicrous while attending the event. It is incredible to think that Woolsey and her California colleague Pete Stark would endorse such a callous, shallow act.

What is worse for the Democrats is that the American people are seeing through this charade. They see the hate, the anger, the duplicity, and the antics of those embraced by Democratic leadership. The American people want the adults in charge at this point, and that is not the kind of leadership being espoused by national Democrats at this moment in time.

The national Democratic Party, if it wants to succeed, needs to become relevant again. Getting as far away from Cindy Sheehan as possible would be a good start for them.

Deserving or Not Deserving?

We did this with baseball's Cy Young Awards back in November, and now we will apply it to College Basketball.

Which team is most worthy of a bid in the NCAA Tournament:

• Team A: 13-5 record, 4-2 in conference, 3-5 vs RPI Top 100, Strength of Schedule(SoS) Rank: 26, RPI 29, Conference RPI: 3
• Team B: 15-4 record, 9-1 in conference, 4-2 vs RPI Top 100, SoS Rank: 79, RPI 20, Conference RPI: 6
• Team C: 14-4 record, 6-0 in conference, 6-3 vs RPI Top 100, SoS Rank: 53, RPI 32, Conference RPI: 2
• Team D: 16-1 record, 5-0 in conference, 5-1 vs RPI Top 100, SoS Rank: 245, RPI 44, Conference RPI: 9
• Team E: 13-6 record, 5-4 in conference, 3-4 vs RPI Top 100, SoS Rank: 140, RPI 100, Conference RPI: 7
• Team F: 16-6 record, 9-2 in conference, 4-4 vs RPI Top 100, SoS Rank: 103, RPI 45, Conference RPI: 10

Which of these teams is most deserving of an at-large berth? And isn't harder to determine who is in and who is out with the school names removed? To me, all but Team E should receive at-large selections, and Team D gets by only becuase of their outstanding record vs the top 100

The teams:
Team A: Maryland
Team B: Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Team C: West Virginia
Team D: George Washington
Team E: Southern California
Team F: UNC-Wilmington

Unoffiicial RPI from: http://kenpom.com/rpi.php