By MONTE DUTTON

It’s funny how many times common results and scores, otherwise lesser means of comparison, are cited when the choices of who gets in and who gets left out are defended.
For all the formulas and analytics, the selection committees swap more horses than the Pony Express ever did.
In college football last year this time, Texas got in because it beat Alabama, and Georgia couldn’t get in because it lost to Alabama. Then Washington beat Texas, and Michigan beat Alabama, and Michigan won it all.
This year the bracket holds 12, and the doors of opportunity have multiplied the comparison shopping.

As a drunk said at a rodeo, If I had a horse, I could keep my cattle in, but I ain’t got no cattle.
The first domino sets the tone of how the others fall.
If Clemson hadn’t made it into the ACC title game, it couldn’t have gotten in because it lost to South Carolina, which can’t get in because it lost to Alabama, which can’t get it because it got toasted in Norman and Nashville. …
Or vice versa.

Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin would be happy to resolve this mess himself. He’s a great coach. Just ask him.
It’s really impossible. In professional sport, a relatively orderly process winnows all the teams out.
In college athletics, the winnowing out occurs ultimately in the decisions of an august body, a blue-ribbon panel, a league of extraordinary gentlemen lobbying for the league that sent them.
Committees are commonly flawed. Sometimes committees fall in line behind one domineering presence. One way or another, it winds up agreeing to agree.
It’s good for ratings. Current humans live to raise hell.

Furman concludes its four-game men’s basketball road trip on Wednesday night when it travels to Fort Myers, Fla., for a Southern Conference-ASUN battle against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
Tip-off 7 p.m. at Alico Arena.
The Furman-FGCU match-up is a part of a two-year scheduling alliance, announced last summer, which sees each SoCon team play a pair of games against ASUN opposition. The alliance was created to help each league’s schools play meaningful games against a similar conference within its regional footprint. The Paladins defeated Jacksonville at the Well last month in its first game as a part of the alliance.

Furman enters Wednesday’s contest at 7-1 after absorbing its first defeat of the season, 86-51, at top-ranked Kansas Saturday night.
Red-shirt freshman Eddrin Bronson paced the Paladins with a career-high 14 points while forward Garrett Hien added 12 points and seven rebounds. Leading 39-31 early in the second half, the Jayhawks connected on 10 consecutive shots to pull away.
The Paladins are ranked No. 12 in this week’s College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 Poll and debuted at No. 77, the best of any SoCon school, in the initial NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) Rankings.

FGCU is 3-5 after scoring back-to-back victories over instate rivals FIU and FAU. The Eagles hold a 2-0 lead in the all-time series versus Furman and captured an 83-78 decision in the most recent meeting on Dec. 19, 2014, at Alico Arena.
Following Wednesday’s game, Furman is back home at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Saturday at noon to host Princeton.
Wednesday’s game will be streamed on ESPN+ and fans can listen to all the action on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg, and via the Audacy app.

Women’s basketball seeks to continue its early-season success when it faces Elon on Wednesday in an 11a.m. Education Day road contest at Schar Center.
Furman (6-3) is coming off two impressive wins last week at the Georgia State Thanksgiving Tournament in Atlanta. After falling to Campbell, 82-72, in the first of three contests in as many days, the Paladins bounced back to defeat host Georgia State, 85-74, and Purdue-Fort Wayne, 88-84, in overtime.
Major factors in the wins over Georgia State and PFW were 3-point shooting and rebounding as the Paladins combined to connect 27/59 treys (.457) while posting a 98-54 advantage on the glass in the victories.

Furman’s balance was on display in Atlanta as four players posted double-digit scoring, and two Paladins registered double-figure rebounding averages, led by junior guard/forward Sydney Ryan (18.0 ppg, 11.3 rpg), who on Monday was named SoCon Player of the Week. Ryan scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Georgia State and had 18 points and 10 boards versus PFW, highlighted by a game-tying, buzzer beating 3-pointer that tied the game at 77-77, forcing overtime. She is averaging 13.0 points and 6.2 rebounds for the season and is Furman’s top 3-point shooter (.396) and leader at the free-throw line (.813).

Tate Walters, a graduate guard, also delivered solid numbers in Atlanta, averaging 16.0 points while contributing 14 assists, as did junior guard Niveya Henley, who tallied a team-high 22 points against PFW while converting 9/18 three-pointers in the three games.
Walters heads into the Elon contest with 987 points, putting her in position to become the 27th player in Furman history to reach 1,000 points. The Buford, Ga., product also has 368 assists in her career, which ranks fifth in program history. Both Walters and Henley are averaging double figures in scoring this year, contributing 13.1 and 11.9, respectively.

The play of 6- 4 senior All-SoCon forward Kate Johnson proved huge last week as she averaged 12.7 points and 10.3 rebounds, spiced by a 15-point, career-high 20-rebound performance versus PFW. She is Furman’s top scorer (13.1) and rebounder (8.1), and also leads the Paladins in field-goal percentage (.597).
Furman has contended this season without the services of 6-foot-1 senior All-SoCon forward Jada Session, whose return from injury appears to approaching. Last year she paced the Paladins in scoring (12.1) and rebounds (8.1).
Elon (4-2) last saw action on Nov. 26 with a 74-67 road triumph over Longwood.
The Paladins claimed a 73-47 win over the Phoenix a year ago in Greenville. Elon holds a 16-12 edge in the series between the two former SoCon rivals.
Sydney Ryan is Southern Conference Player of the Week.

Ryan, a 5 -10 junior guard/forward from Nashville, Tenn., fashioned a superb week in helping Furman to a pair of victories at the Georgia State Thanksgiving Tournament in Atlanta, averaging a double double (18.0 ppg, 11.3 rpg) while shooting .471 from the field (16/34) and .478 from 3-point range (11/23). She also drained 11/14 free throws (.786) and contributed four assists and three steals.
The player of the week citation is the second of her Paladin career.
“I guess that I’ve fought tougher men, but I really can’t remember when.” – Shel Silverstein, “A Boy Named Sue”
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