RPI Ratings for Conferences through 11/28

[UConnDan97]

The AAC is a mid-major league and the Big East is a big step up. The RPI says so, the W/L against P5 conferences says so, the TV contracts say so, and anyone who has the slightest idea what they are talking about with basketball says so.

The fact that UConn agreed to an 18 game schedule against this mess shows that Herbst and Manual either don't care about the basketball program or have no idea what they are doing. The AAC should have a 16 game schedule MAX, and I would prefer a 14 game schedule.

SMU:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/connecticut/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2013/smu-82
http://rivals.yahoo.com/connecticut/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2014/smu-82
Includes the #2 overall player of 2014 (Mudiay)
Coached by one of KO's mentors, Larry Brown

Houston:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/connecticut...2/houston-80;_ylt=ArPmFvn_AL.NAZtQJlIz4KHwOrF_
Includes the #20 and #54 players overall in 2012 (House, Knowles)

You know, so that you don't think that I haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about...

(*We are also "getting rid of" Big East driftwood by the name of Rutgers...)

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Houston should be a lot better. It is probably the best Southern city for basketball talent, and has tremendous history, albeit distant history. It is also a cautionary tale of what can happen when a school takes a big step down in conference affiliation. If Houston can drop that far after leaving a major, what could happen to UConn?

 

[UConnDan97]

Houston should be a lot better. It is probably the best Southern city for basketball talent, and has tremendous history, albeit distant history. It is also a cautionary tale of what can happen when a school takes a big step down in conference affiliation. If Houston can drop that far after leaving a major, what could happen to UConn?

DePaul should be a lot better, too. They are a large city with a load of talent, having played in the greatest conference in the history of NCAA basketball (winning 5 of the last 14 championships). Yet they aren't good either. If the OLD Big East couldn't save them, why on earth would the NEW Big East?

 

[Excalibur]

Can't you see the stands? Casual fans are already walking away. These early season matchups would sell ot Gampel and come close to selling out HCC. Is there a single game that is sold out yet? I hope florida is.

I'll repeat. How can you comment on how fans are reacting to the conference games (or suggest that the fans aren't coming because of the conference affiliation) when we haven't played a conference game yet?

 

[Excalibur]

It always seems to come back to the Exit Fees. I also believe that was the driver of this conference affiliation decision. Short term thinking. They are a one time windfall that will not be replicated again.

The thinking here is that any one of your scenarios is, long term, just as much of a death sentence as staying where we are. So we stay, keep the exit fees to keeps us afloat financially for the next three years, and see whether there ends up being further movement on realignment that could work in our favor. If we're dead either way, this thinking makes the most sense.

 

[upstater]

I think Nelson is right to be concerned.

USF lost to Detroit tonight. Remember what UConn did to Detroit? Villanova beat Kansas and Iowa in a 48 hour span. I think it's pretty clear the old BE is going to be a better hoops league compared to the AAC once Louisville leaves.

When Louisville leaves, UConn will not be properly prepared for NCAA play in the AAC. Memphis is a terribly coached team and just plain dumb. Attendance will suffer and our preperation for top NCAA play will too. There's really nothing that can be done about it. I'd be lying if I wasn't as concerned as Nelson.

You take a bad loss by a cruddy AAC team and compare it to the conference's best win of the season. Hmmmm. There are cruddy BE teams too, with cruddy losses.

 

[UConnDan97]

And the NelsonMuntz Curse continues for the NBE:

Providence loses big to Kentucky
Creighton loses to George Washington (guaranteeing that they will be out of the top25 for a little while with back-to-back losses)
Butler loses to LSU
Marquette currently losing by 4 to SDSU with less than 2 minutes left (ESPN2)

And a side note: Memphis (a team that a certain mod thinks is s---), beats #5 Oklahoma State to help improve the American status.

Like I said....only marginally better...

EDIT: Marquette just lost to SDSU. They'll drop out of the top25 as well. The curse continues...

 

[whaler11]

In his defense he said Memphis was except for the 40 minutes they spend playing basketball.

 

[UConnDan97]

In his defense he said Memphis was except for the 40 minutes they spend playing basketball.

That's true. My apologies on that one...

 

[nelsonmuntz]

And the NelsonMuntz Curse continues for the NBE:

Providence loses big to Kentucky
Creighton loses to George Washington (guaranteeing that they will be out of the top25 for a little while with back-to-back losses)
Butler loses to LSU
Marquette currently losing by 4 to SDSU with less than 2 minutes left (ESPN2)

And a side note: Memphis (a team that a certain mod thinks is s---), beats #5 Oklahoma State to help improve the American status.

Like I said....only marginally better...

EDIT: Marquette just lost to SDSU. They'll drop out of the top25 as well. The curse continues...

And despite all that, the Big East is still the #3 RPI conference.

But heah, you are all in on the AAC (without UConn) = Big East. No backing down now. Let's see where this goes.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Nelson, do you believe the American is a better league this year than the vaunted ACC? Because according to the conference RPI as of 12/2, they are a better league.

 

[upstater]

Nelson, do you believe the American is a better league this year than the vaunted ACC? Because according to the conference RPI as of 12/2, they are a better league.

LOL. As always, the important thing with RPI is to play the first place cupcakes instead of the last place cupcakes.

The NBE had kind of a rough weekend: New Big East
Great:
Villanova takes down 2 Kansas and 24 Iowa

Bad:
Butler loses to LSU
Creighton loses to George Washington
Creighton loses to San Diego St.
Seton Hall loses to Fairleigh Dickinson
Xavier loses to USC
Xavier loses to Tennessee
St. John's loses to Penn State
Marquette loses to San Diego St.

Ho Hum:
PC loses to Kentucky
St. John's beats Georgia Tech
DePaul beats Oregano State
Butler loses to Okie State


For the life of me, I can't understand why people put such stock in the mid to bottom of the BE with PC and Seton Hall and the like. Who cares? So what that they might be better than UCF and USF? Both these conferences suck at that level. Look at the top.

I'll be willing to bet that Memphis, UConn, and Cincy will all have better seasons than Creighton, Marquette and Villanova.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Upstater,

You can't use UConn in the comparison of the AAC to the Big East if we are debating which is the better home for UConn. If UConn was in the BIg East right now, that league would be really doing well.

The bottom being as bad as it is does matter. That is a lot of home and home games against team ranked worse than 150 or even 200.

 

[upstater]

Upstater,

You can't use UConn in the comparison of the AAC to the Big East if we are debating which is the better home for UConn. If UConn was in the BIg East right now, that league would be really doing well.

The bottom being as bad as it is does matter. That is a lot of home and home games against team ranked worse than 150 or even 200.

Silly argument since I am not debating which conference is better for UConn. The very idea of UConn in the BE is farcical. UConn needs Cincy, Memphis and SMU to be strong. The rest is all meaningless. The BE can fade into obscurity on Fox as its teams fall out of the top 25. For UConn, they need 4 other teams to play well in the AAC. End stop.

 

[Husky25]

Herbst made a decision to chase the exit fees instead of do what was best long-term for the university's athletic program. There is little to no evidence to show that the AAC has been a good move for UConn, even when compared to options like splitting the football and basketball conferences. .

Aiming for the Big Ten is what is in the best long-term interest of the university's athletic program. Almost everyone else except you is capable of thinking longer term than just the year after next.

 

[businesslawyer]

Aiming for the Big Ten is what is in the best long-term interest of the university's athletic program. Almost everyone else except you is capable of thinking longer term than just the year after next.

This. One thousand per cent.

We can always move hoops to the A Ten - if not the NBE - in five years, and give up on football (whether that means Indy, MAC or just give up). There is no need to do it today. And today, unfortunately, this is the best offer we got.

 

[uconnell]

Imagine a thread where Nelson and Whaler are the only posters. Oh the humanity!

 

[ZooCougar]

This. One thousand per cent.

We can always move hoops to the A Ten - if not the NBE - in five years, and give up on football (whether that means Indy, MAC or just give up). There is no need to do it today. And today, unfortunately, this is the best offer we got.

We're not going to give up on football. With the B1G as a strategic aimpoint, we're going to keep strengthening everything across the board. At some point it will create some opportunities for us.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Aiming for the Big Ten is what is in the best long-term interest of the university's athletic program. Almost everyone else except you is capable of thinking longer term than just the year after next.

Anyone who thinks staying with the status quo gives UConn its best chance to get into the Big 10 is not thinking long term.

 

[metsfan2323]

Anyone who thinks staying with the status quo gives UConn its best chance to get into the Big 10 is not thinking long term.

So what is the Nelson plan? Please tell us.

BTW UCONN basketball really looked like it was dying last night. It's just not exciting anymore.

 

[Adios]

So in closing, you're a clown. And unlike you, I don't have to remember your arguments because you repeat them every hour of every day on every thread in the Boneyard. Now, feel free to go back to talking about Tulane and football independence...

And he calls other message board posters drama queens...?

 

[Husky25]

Anyone who thinks staying with the status quo gives UConn its best chance to get into the Big 10 is not thinking long term.

1. I defy you to point out in any of my posts where I even intimate remaining status quo...

2. Is willingly reducing athletic status to mid-major (divest football to FCS and beg to join the Newly aligned Big East does exactly that) your idea of advancing the department as a whole?

3. Do not pontificate. Answer "Yes" or "No" to the following:
3a. Does adding 165 new faculty as a part of, "one of the most ambitious plans of its type in U.S. higher education," indicate status quo?
3b. Does hiring Joshua Newton indicate status quo?
3c. Does the UConn Foundation purchasing a $600,000 house for the sole and expressed purpose of fund raising and increasing the endowment indicate status quo?
3d. Does building a state-of-the-art basketball training facility indicate status quo?
3e. Does authorizing the Athletic Director to spend $multiple millions for a new qualified dynamic football coach indicate status quo?

If you answer Yes to any of these then I guess I do want the status quo, but you cannot answer Yes, because it just ain't factually correct. You can't even give me a "yeah, but," on the academic goals because a big piece to achieving athletic goals is success on the academic side.

The reality is that this is only a sample of what we know about. The truth is there are a million moving parts going on behind the scenes that we are not even aware, and the culmination of those moving parts is the attainment of AAU status and an invite to the most lucrative athletic conference in the country. It's amazing, Nelson. For someone who is so liberal and progressive in the Cesspool, you are the most staunch conservative (bordering on regressive) here.

 

[fgbrault]

I don't believe you are correct, as to why Herbst made the decision. She made it because going to the AAC was a better choice for the football program and the athletic program as a whole.

As to the conference RPI's I don't think they have a lot of meaning, while the FINAL RPI of each team does. I rate conferences by the number of teams they have in the Top 10 and the Top 25 in the AP and Coaches polls. Currently, the AAC wins that battle with the New Big East, and I expect they will at the end of the season.

1) Big 12 - .6096
2) Big Ten - .5972
3) Big East - .5923
4) Pac 12 - .5735
5) Atlantic 10 - .5561
6) Missouri Valley - .5452
7) ACC - .5444
8) West Coast - .5403
9) American Athletic - .5359
10) SEC - .5337
11) Horizon -.5287
12) MWC - 5211

There was some debate over how big a gap there would be between the AAC and the Big East. Now we have some data that proves definitively that the gap between the two leagues is huge. And imagine how big the gap would be if UConn would in the Big East instead of the AAC.

UConn currently has an RPI ranking of 5. That RPI is going to get hammered when UConn starts playing conference games against Houston, USF, UCF, SMU and Rutgers. I have been consistent in that virtually any other realistic conference affiliation would be better than the one we are in. We are already seeing the impact of this crappy schedule on ticket sales, and we will certainly feel the pain in the RPI ranking in February.

Herbst made a decision to chase the exit fees instead of do what was best long-term for the university's athletic program. There is little to no evidence to show that the AAC has been a good move for UConn, even when compared to options like splitting the football and basketball conferences. .

1) Big 12 - .6096
2) Big Ten - .5972
3) Big East - .5923
4) Pac 12 - .5735
5) Atlantic 10 - .5561
6) Missouri Valley - .5452
7) ACC - .5444
8) West Coast - .5403
9) American Athletic - .5359
10) SEC - .5337
11) Horizon -.5287
12) MWC - 5211

There was some debate over how big a gap there would be between the AAC and the Big East. Now we have some data that proves definitively that the gap between the two leagues is huge. And imagine how big the gap would be if UConn would in the Big East instead of the AAC.

UConn currently has an RPI ranking of 5. That RPI is going to get hammered when UConn starts playing conference games against Houston, USF, UCF, SMU and Rutgers. I have been consistent in that virtually any other realistic conference affiliation would be better than the one we are in. We are already seeing the impact of this crappy schedule on ticket sales, and we will certainly feel the pain in the RPI ranking in February.

Herbst made a decision to chase the exit fees instead of do what was best long-term for the university's athletic program. There is little to no evidence to show that the AAC has been a good move for UConn, even when compared to options like splitting the football and basketball conferences. .

 

[itgoeslike]

Comparing basketball in the NBE to basketball in the AAC is like comparing a Toyota Camry and a Buick Regal. Neither is going to win Le Mans, but both will provide slightly better than average transportation. Even if the Toyota gets a couple of better ratings, occasionally, they're the same class of car. Now, if you compare NBE football with AAC football. . .well there's no comparison. And it's the football part of this equation that is a prerequisite if UCONN aspires to compete at the highest and broadest level athletically, financially and academically with peer, national, research, flagship universities.

 

[pj]

RPI update through games of 12-02:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology/conference

Conference RPI
Rank Non-ConferenceWL RPI
1 Big 12 Conference 55-15 0.6067
2 Big Ten Conference 71-16 0.5890
3 Big East Conference 50-22 0.5766
4 Pacific 12 Conference 66-19 0.5610
5 Atlantic 10 Conference 60-26 0.5590
6 American Athletic Conference 50-17 0.5569
7 Atlantic Coast Conference 79-28 0.5537
8 Missouri Valley Conference 36-26 0.5486
9 Southeastern Conference 66-26 0.5459

The AAC is ahead of the ACC and the SEC. It's doing creditably. Why should marginal differences in RPI drive conference alignment decisions? If a low conference RPI doesn't hurt North Carolina, Duke, Syracuse, Kentucky, or Florida, why should it hurt UConn?