re: how was LSU an 8 seed in 2009?(Basketball)

2006: won SEC conference, lost semifinal game of conference tournament, ranked 19th in final AP poll, 18th in final Coaches poll. RPI 13
result=4 seed

2009: won SEC conference, lost semifinal game of conference tournament, ranked 20th in final AP poll, 16th in final Coaches poll. RPI 34
result=8 seed

so basically our non-conference schedule was extremely important to our seeding in 2006 and detrimental to our seeding in 2009. In 2006, LSU played 3 road non-conference games against ranked teams (beating WVU and losing on the final possession to tOSU and UCONN). In 2009, LSU played 1 home non-conference game against a ranked team (lost to Xavier).

The SEC was dreadful both years. Florida was the only ranked conference team LSU played in 2006 while LSU was the only ranked team in the SEC in 2009.

Key lesson: non-conference is extremely important