Rooting for the AAC

[UConnDan97]

I am pretty sure Louisville won games and UConn didn't. If UConn went 9-3 last year and beat quality teams they would be perceived as being better as well.....Atleast we can agree on one thing, go UCONN baseball. Great win last night!

We even agree on your 9-3 assessment! Yes, if UConn went 9-3 last year (against Big East competition), we would also have been ranked. That's the point I'm trying to make to you. If we go 9-3 against a bad AAC, with wins against the current Tulane or the current Memphis or the current East Carolina, people aren't going to give a crap and we likely WON'T be ranked! They would rather rank a 7-6 South Carolina team than a 9-3 team from the AAC with a perceived SOS of 120. You feel me now?

Go UConn baseball!

 

[Marty Jackson]

So can UConn. I think this is a selling point that is never talked about. Look what UConn has accomplished in so short of a time, and consider that in light of the fact that they consistently have had the lowest recruiting rankings in the conference over that time. UConn has outperformed what they are supposed to be, and imagine what UConn can be when 1) the administration is behind the sport (look how men's basketball turned out), 2) they are replacing the Big East conference stench with a Big 12 conference veneer (and kids actually want to play in the conference), and 3) they add better academics, presence in NYC, a closer partner for WVU, a market that they alone dominate, and successful brand-name basketball, mediocre regional competition, and growth potential that the other schools cannot match. UCF/USF are never going to become the big 3 (they will never win enough recruiting battles with UF/FSU/Miami/UGA/Bama to grow that much), but UConn has the potential with the right circumstances to grow exponentially, considering there is no dominant power in its region, save possibly for Penn State.

the florida reference was in regard to recruiting...
would be in the big12's interest to have fl recruits see texas and oklahoma play in fl every year.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I'm much more concerned with basketball.

UConn has been recruiting at the bottom of the BCS for awhile now, and surviving. There is enough talent out there for a coach to develop. It does need to beat Syracuse for local talent now--so that gets harder. Otherwise, I don't expect much to change. If anything, they may look harder down south. That Lagow kid, for instance, might get to play in Texas a lot. The level of competition is about the same (and if Houston, SMU and Tulsa ramp up, it will be BETTER than the old BE).

Basketball has a competition problem, and that could hurt recruiting.

not worried at all about BB. The AAC has at least 4 solid BB schools in Temple, cincy, Memphis and uconn. That will create opportunities for at least one or two other schools to step up.
Second, WM has shown that he is willing to step up the OOC schedule to offset the lack of depth in the conference.
Lastly, and most important, BB is settled on the court unlike fb where public opinion, polls, and tradition mean more than results. As long as Uconn makes the tourney, the level of competition won't change.

 

[pj]

You become ranked when you have good records against good teams. If you are Northern Illinois and you are playing against the MAC, then you have to literally go 11-1, whereas if you are playing against Big East competition, you can have 3 losses. If you are playing against SEC competition, you can have 5 losses.

That's how it works. You are measured by your competition, in large part. Although I hate the concept, the polls factor in "good losses."

So it doesn't matter at all how good your competition is, because a team of equal quality will go 11-1 in the MAC, 9-3 in the Big East, or 7-5 in the SEC, and the polls will correctly account for that? So it only matters how good your team is, not how good the competition is?

You are measured against your competition, but SOS counts as a quality adjustment factor, not a factor on which the team is directly judged. You have to prove your good.

The quality of the conference matters when it starts to cease to have opportunities to play the big programs. Then people have no way of judging quality. With quality of schedule mattering more than before, it's important that the AAC be good enough to be on the radar nationally.

 

[UConnDan97]

So it doesn't matter at all how good your competition is, because a team of equal quality will go 11-1 in the MAC, 9-3 in the Big East, or 7-5 in the SEC, and the polls will correctly account for that? So it only matters how good your team is, not how good the competition is?

You are measured against your competition, but SOS counts as a quality adjustment factor, not a factor on which the team is directly judged. You have to prove your good.

The quality of the conference matters when it starts to cease to have opportunities to play the big programs. Then people have no way of judging quality. With quality of schedule mattering more than before, it's important that the AAC be good enough to be on the radar nationally.

You misunderstood my comment. Just because you are in the SEC doesn't guarantee that having 5 losses will still lead to you being ranked. Nor does it guarantee it for the 3 losses in the Big East. The point is that the quality of competition changes (in the eyes of the voters, fortunately or unfortunately) the way that the wins and losses are viewed.

Let me give you another "what if". What if Boise State had played in the Big East rather than the Mountain West / WAC for the last decade and still had the wins/losses that they had? Aren't they playing for at least one national championship during that time? Well, they never played for the national championship, and the reason was strength of schedule as perceived by the voters. West Virginia with a similarly skilled team was an inch away from the National Championship until Pitt beat them 13-9. Since 2002, Boise State has finished undefeated twice and with 1 loss six times. No chance to play for it. Strength of schedule, strength of schedule, strength of schedule...

 

[pj]

You misunderstood my comment. Just because you are in the SEC doesn't guarantee that having 5 losses will still lead to you being ranked. Nor does it guarantee it for the 3 losses in the Big East. The point is that the quality of competition changes (in the eyes of the voters, fortunately or unfortunately) the way that the wins and losses are viewed.

Let me give you another "what if". What if Boise State had played in the Big East rather than the Mountain West / WAC for the last decade and still had the wins/losses that they had? Aren't they playing for at least one national championship during that time? Well, they never played for the national championship, and the reason was strength of schedule as perceived by the voters. West Virginia with a similarly skilled team was an inch away from the National Championship until Pitt beat them 13-9. Since 2002, Boise State has finished undefeated twice and with 1 loss six times. No chance to play for it. Strength of schedule, strength of schedule, strength of schedule...

I agree that the upside is limited, in that there's no way to get to the national championship game from a weak conference. From the AAC, a BCS bowl is the upper limit. But since UConn has only been to that once, I'm not going to worry about being shut out of national championships yet.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I'm not saying UConn should turn down the B12. I'm arguing the opposite, that the big12 doesn't want to travel to Storrs!!!

On this I agree. But their options are few, and travel now sucks in most leagues. The reality is that sevral 8-10 team leagues are much better for college sports.

 

[huskymedic]

If you're bored...

American_Conf 11:22am via TweetDeck
Commissioner Mike Aresco sat down with WREG-TV in Memphis yesterday. Scroll down to find the four-part interview. http://wreg.com/category/news/

 

[jbdphi]

If you're bored...

American_Conf 11:22am via TweetDeck
Commissioner Mike Aresco sat down with WREG-TV in Memphis yesterday. Scroll down to find the four-part interview. http://wreg.com/category/news/

When asked about the football programs in the AAC, he mentioned UConn among several others:

"You look at UConn, very strong program. They went out and beat Louisville at Louisville last year."

He also mentioned UConn when he said that the AAC would have had five teams in the NCAA's last year saying that UConn would have been in if they had been eligible.

He also mentions the WBB program as you might imagine. I know the conspiracy kitties of the world don't want to hear it, but I don't think Aresco is avoiding talking about UConn because he knows we have one foot out the door.