By Jake Fischer, News Staff
When former University of Delaware Athletic Director Bernard Muir became the AD at Stanford University in July 2012, he vacated his position as the Colonial Athletic Association-nominated member of the 10-person NCAA Tournament selection committee. Promptly, the CAA nominated Northeastern AD Peter Roby to fill the void and the NCAA accepted the league’s recommendation.
This past Sunday, Roby and the rest of the committee gathered in Indianapolis to select the 68 teams for the NCAA Tournament this March. The News spoke with Roby, who served his second year of his five-year term, over the phone on Monday before he left Boston to oversee the second and third-round games in Buffalo this weekend.
Huntington News: What’s Selection Sunday like for you, as a member of the committee, from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep?
Peter Roby: [Laughs] Well, we woke up Sunday morning, had a group breakfast and then we convened at 9 a.m. to review the work that we had done the night before, with respect to teams that we had already put into the field. Then what we did on Sunday, is what we refer to as “scrub the seed list.” What we do is we try to put the teams in the order that we feel they deserve, from one to 68. There are some sub-committees that meet to help in the organization of some of the seed list. I happened to be on the first quadrant sub-committee, which meant that we dealt with the teams at the top of the seed list from one to 16. We then submitted that in the morning, went through that entire list of 68 with the other quadrant sub committees to make sure all those seeds were appropriate.
HN: How much basketball did you watch during the season to be able to do that job?
PR: Oh, I watched hundreds of games. Between things that I watched in person, whether it was a Northeastern game and the opponents we were playing or when I would go to [UMass-Amherst] or I was at Harvard or I was at [Boston University] and watching the opponents that they were playing and watching them. I went and watched games at [Boston College]. Between in person, on television, online — hundreds of games.
HN: What has it been like to represent Northeastern on this stage?
PR: That was one of the things that I was so excited about when I first even got contacted by the conference about representing the conference on the committee was what an honor it was personal, but how cool and special it is that I can do that representing Northeastern. It’s been very significant for me and I hope it’s made people associated with Northeastern feel good.
HN: The last two years, the team that ultimately ended Northeastern’s season has moved on to appear in the Tournament. Does that add a little sting into the process?
PR: It doesn’t add any sting. I think in some ways it’s kind of affirming that we were knocked out by the eventual champion, which tells us that it took a good, strong team to end our season. I think you always want to feel as though you made a good effort and it took a special effort to beat you. I’m happy for the folks that end up getting in, I know how special it is, it’ll be special when we do it and I anticipate that the over next couple of years we’re going to have that opportunity.
HN: I personally think next year could be the year.
PR: Yea, I think if Quincy [Ford] comes back and he’s healthy and he plays the way and moves the way he did as a freshman with the experience that all of our guys gained and the talent that we have, I think our feeling is that we’ll be disappointed if we’re not playing in the [CAA] championship game next year.
