Big East vs. AAC

[MattMang23]

LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss, Okie State, UCLA. That is an awful lot of suck getting at-large bids, while Temple who beat Kansas and had an RPI in the 30's stays home.

They're not staying home, they're playing Bucknell Wednesday and then probably going to NYC.

 

[The Funster]

ZLS disagrees. He thinks the AAC is better because the handful of AAC games that were not on public access or wherever ESPN dumped them got decent ratings on ESPN. That is pretty much his whole argument.

Why employ reason and logic when you could just create a straw man?

 

[smudubs]

Out of conference, SMU played 4 teams that looked like they would be legitimate: Indiana, Arkansas, Gonzaga, and Michigan. Michigan turned out to suck.

Guess which one SMU beat?

Is Xavier over-seeded? Sure. But that conference beat teams OOC. Temple beat Kansas. That's really the one OOC game the whole conference could hang it's hat on. And that is reflected in our seeding.

Without question we crapped the bed at the beginning of the season, but you have to remember we played those OOC games without Kennedy or while he was far from in playing shape. It's not an excuse, but I think you all would agree that we are a much better team with MK than we are without him.

 

[nychuskyfan]

Remember that most current players were recruited when the real BE was still intact pre-2013. So let's look forward based on recruiting. Per 247 sports, the an NBE has 29 commits: 2 5-star, 7 4-star, 18 3-star and 2 <3 star. The AAC has 33 commits and is at 1 / 7 / 19 / 6. So pretty similar aside from the 6 <3-star, all of whom are signed by ECU, Tulane and Tulsa. It's only 1 year and the rankings are highly subjective but directionally it shows that the AAC is generally holding its own in recruiting relative to the NBE. Although the bottom programs have some work to do, which is a big problem. I think the NBE will be better for the foreseeable future, but seems reasonable to expect the gap to close.

 

[tzznandrew]

Without question we crapped the bed at the beginning of the season, but you have to remember we played those OOC games without Kennedy or while he was far from in playing shape. It's not an excuse, but I think you all would agree that we are a much better team with MK than we are without him.

Agreed. And it's not like UConn did a great job OOC this year. Dayton as our marquee win?

I've said multiple times, our league got screwed because of injuries and suspensions. Temple had issues too. Hell, Purvis barely played the West Virginia game, Boat missed the Yale loss. Those are just OOC issues.

 

[UconnFanDC]

Look, I'm not here to say we need to leave the AAC for the Big East, because I still have faith in Diaco that he can turn our football program around. However, one thing is clear to me after last nights selection show...

The committee CLEARLY believes the BE is equivalent to a P5 conference and has no respect for the AAC what so ever (2 years in a row now).

Nova: 1 seed - deservingly so
Gtown: 4 seed - 4 seed at 21-10?!?
Xavier: 6 seed - 21-13 and they earn the same seed as our conference's top team that finished 27-6
Providence: 6 seed - 22-11
Butler - 6 seed - 22-10
SJU: 9 seed - 21-11 is a fair seed and a seed the others should have received. At least closer to 8/9.

SMU: 6 seed - 27-6 and a 6 seed. Should've been 4, at worst 5.
Cincy: 8 - whatever, I dislike Cincy. Goodluck with Kentucky.

Between Temple getting snubbed hard and these insanely high seeds BE teams received, it is clear we're not going to get respect anytime soon. Rooting for Bobby D REAL hard to get us to .500, a bowl game, and some P5 conference to take us in. Need out ASAP because 27-6 for a 6 seed scares the out of me.

I do not see a real problem. AAC had really bad loses. Xavier beat Cincy at Cincy. Butler beat Carolina, Providence beat Notre Dame an Yale (lol), Seton Hall beat Murray State a team most (not I) thought should have gotten in. Face it, they are a better conference and won great games out of confrence

 

[lange10]

I think it should be known that I 100% think the BE is better than the AAC. I have been a believer of this since the beginning of the year. However, the seeds the BE received were insane especially Georgetown - definitely undeserving.

 

[lange10]

What I was mainly implying was that while I believe the BE is a good basketball conference, I think some of the seeds were a bit off. Also I was implying the obvious - the committee does not respect the AAC and won't until the bottom of the conference can pick up the slack, but I don't see that happening....we gotta get out of here (obviously)

 

[Redding Husky]

The Big East got several teams in last year and they all fell on their face. If that happens again and again, people will lose faith in them.

The AAC had a down year with UConn & Memphis. Temple & SMU had good years. Cincy did what they always do. The conference is only 21 months old; it will get better.

I don't even want to think about UConn's future if we pull the plug on football. That is not an option, now or ever.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

Pretty much every single AAC game anywhere outrated 90% of BE games. Even ESPNU games.

The nation has spoken: they would rather watch the AAC. By a lot.

You are forgetting how powerful ESPN is on this business. Its scary how much power they have to draw viewers to their channels. You put the Big East on ESPN with a bit of hype from SportCenter and they would draw higher ratings than most leagues in America.

 

[uconnfan68]

Look, I'm not here to say we need to leave the AAC for the Big East, because I still have faith in Diaco that he can turn our football program around. However, one thing is clear to me after last nights selection show...

The committee CLEARLY believes the BE is equivalent to a P5 conference and has no respect for the AAC what so ever (2 years in a row now).

Nova: 1 seed - deservingly so
Gtown: 4 seed - 4 seed at 21-10?!?
Xavier: 6 seed - 21-13 and they earn the same seed as our conference's top team that finished 27-6
Providence: 6 seed - 22-11
Butler - 6 seed - 22-10
SJU: 9 seed - 21-11 is a fair seed and a seed the others should have received. At least closer to 8/9.

SMU: 6 seed - 27-6 and a 6 seed. Should've been 4, at worst 5.
Cincy: 8 - whatever, I dislike Cincy. Goodluck with Kentucky.

Between Temple getting snubbed hard and these insanely high seeds BE teams received, it is clear we're not going to get respect anytime soon. Rooting for Bobby D REAL hard to get us to .500, a bowl game, and some P5 conference to take us in. Need out ASAP because 27-6 for a 6 seed scares the out of me.

Disrespected 2 years in a row...and only won the whole thing both times. The ONLY games I will watch are SMU and Cincy. John Oliver said it much better than I could about the NCAA.

 

[CTBasketball]

Disrespected 2 years in a row...and only won the whole thing both times. The ONLY games I will watch are SMU and Cincy. John Oliver said it much better than I could about the NCAA.

I'm really pulling for Cincy, if they deliver a solid right hook to UK they can take them. I could care less about SMU - their program will plummet when the sanctions arrive, or when Larry Brown retires. Whatever comes first.

 

[Windsorlocks]

You could ask yourself, what choice did the BE teams have but to schedule strong OOC resumes? Very high risk/reward as Higgens stated in the quote earlier. Well, the American is in the same position. It's new and there is certainly no reason to just assume it's going to be a great basketball league. The league cannot have so many teams with RPI's that high, or a league RPI of 8 is the result.

If a league can just get it's member teams in a position where say 7 or 8 out of 11 have RPI's below 50 when league play commences, you basically protect the RPI's of those highly regarded teams. In a sense, it allows you to game the RPI system among yourselves in league play. So you get a good % of your teams in. But then your league needs to demonstrate it's teams with those high RPI's really deserved them in the regular season, or not. If 5/6 BE teams all fail to get out of the round of 32, their whole season blows up in their face. They maintained high RPI's among their teams, but if they fail miserably in the postseason, it says your RPI's were not really accurate after all, apparently. They have to make noise this year. But what choice did they have? High risk/reward in scheduling OOC is required if they are to earn respect again. Well, it's the same with the American. The league cannot enter league play with that many real bad teams and expect to do that well on Selection Sunday. The NBE may fail in March, but they set up their member teams to get to March in the first place. Smart planning, even though ya gotta be good, and ya gotta be lucky. The NBE is probably both.

If seeing the league champ earn a 6 seed doesn't wake this conference up to the fact that you can't do it without improving the overall RPI of the league, then nothing will wake the conference up. As long as the damn RPI is so important, do whatever it takes to boost it. We simply cannot be an 8 at the end of the regular season. Do that every year, and our goose is cooked. Cooked very well done. That may happen to the NBE, they may fail this year. But it's likely they will continue to try and max out their RPI's in the manner described, fail this year or not. You've got to roll the dice and schedule schools you know will be huge victories as seen by the committee in March.

The league and it's member schools need to help themselves more if it wants better results come selection time. I don't blame the committee for concluding the American was a weak league or the NBE a strong league. RPI and SOS mean a great deal, whether they are true measures or not. If those are the measures used, then do what ya gotta do to boost RPI and SOS.

No reason the American can't do a whole lot better. The NBE succeeded following the "formula" described in the USA article I left a link to above. There is absolutely no reason the American cannot do the same. It has to if it wants to avoid being labeled a low Mid-Major. That's a ridiculous outcome, completely avoidable.