i agree, damon.... seems odd, i cant really make a case for gordon.
thier conf schedules to me seemed fairly similar,
monty st (who got left out) was 1-2 vs in conf NT teams
gordon (who snuck in) was also 1-2 vs in conf NT teams
monty st did not have any in conf bad losses, but didnt have any other games vs top100 teams in conf and had a bunch vs 300+ teams
gordon DID have a bad cofn loss to a 220 rpi team, but also was 2-0 vs PIT teams in conf.
i guess id give a slight edge to gordon just based on conference results.
non con, monty st played an insanely tough schedule... whihc i thought usually helped in projection report. they played 8 NT teams and went 2-6. they also beat the two weaker teams , so no bad losses.
gordon had a very easy non con. they lost to the only NT team they played (and that team was not really a powerhouse at rpi 34), and beat a couple of PIT teams.
so, here is what is important to me:
Monty St was 3-9 vs NT teams. and had no bad losses. kinda what id expect a nt one and done team to do... they beat all the teams that werent NT teams, and lost three to reallllly good NT teams and went 3-6 vs decent NT teams
gordon was 1-3 vs NT teams, and had a bad loss. they proved they could beat PIT teams.. but that jsut means they are a good PIT team
gordon only showed once int he entire year that they could beat an NT team, monty showed it 3 times.
usually i think the projection report does a great job of picking the right teams... and usually i thought it hinged on ability to beat good teams... but i think they whiffed this time