Strongest G5 conference for women's basketball?

[mudcat]

The AAC is, by a pretty wide margin, the (choose your adjective: best, strongest, financially stable) of the G5 conferences. But just looking at women's basketball, I wonder if the MAC is potentially a stronger conference in terms of depth of quality women's teams. What say ye?

 

[triaddukefan]

I'll give a vote for the MAC

 

[Centerstream]

The AAC is, by a pretty wide margin, the (choose your adjective: best, strongest, financially stable) of the G5 conferences. But just looking at women's basketball, I wonder if the MAC is potentially a stronger conference in terms of depth of quality women's teams. What say ye?

Not that it matters but did you mean ACC or AAC?
Maybe it's my fault but I have no clue what a G5 conference is nor which ones they are.

 

[Plebe]

The MAC has 7 teams currently in the RPI top 100. The AAC has 4. Where the MAC is stronger is in the range of teams 3 through 8, approximately. The bottom quartile teams are similarly bad in the two conferences. At the top, well, the AAC has UConn and the MAC doesn't.

 

[JordyG]

Maybe the ACC and the MAC conferences appear stronger. But when the smoke clears and the E8 is here I'll betcha the PAC 12 once again has the most entries, not the MAC.

 

[mudcat]

Not that it matters but did you mean ACC or AAC?
Maybe it's my fault but I have no clue what a G5 conference is nor which ones they are.

It's from the FBS and the "Group of Five" are: American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt.

 

[mudcat]

The MAC has 7 teams currently in the RPI top 100. The AAC has 4. Where the MAC is stronger is in the range of teams 3 through 8, approximately. The bottom quartile teams are similarly bad in the two conferences. At the top, well, the AAC has UConn and the MAC doesn't.

So how do you think teams like Central Florida or Cincinnati would fare in the MAC?

 

[bennyskid]

Massey says 1) AAC, 2)MAC, 3)WCC, with hardly a dimes' breadth between them. Which means that if the AAC didn't have UConn, it would be well behind the other two.

Here is where each team from each conference is rated :

AAC: 2, 46, 81, 91, 104, 134, 146, 162, 187, 193, 200, 204
MAC: 33, 41, 62, 77, 90, 112, 117, 141, 181, 205, 216, 223
WCC: 17, 59, 70, 92, 106, 122, 159, 186, 232, 241

If you took UConn out of the list, the remaining AAC teams would be a notch weaker than the corresponding teams from the other conferences all the way down until you get to the last couple bottom-feeders.

Just as a conversation-stimulant, here's the Big East
BE: 10, 20, 36, 53, 68, 78, 80, 84, 88, 137
The bottom team (Xavier) would be a 50-50 team in the AAC.

 

[Plebe]

So how do you think teams like Central Florida or Cincinnati would fare in the MAC?

UCF played a highly competitive nonconference game at Central Michigan, which is the highest-rated (RPI and Massey) team in the MAC. In fact, UCF led by 6 with under 5:00 to play but played poorly down the stretch.

UCF is currently ranked #46 in Massey. The top 4 teams in the MAC are #33 (CMU ), #41 (Ohio), #62 (Miami of OH) and #77 (Buffalo). I certainly think UCF would be right there in the mix.

Cincinnati lost 2 road games to MAC teams in late Nov./early Dec.: Ball State (not a good team) and Miami of Ohio (a pretty decent team). But Cincy is much improved since early in the season. They might be about 5th in the MAC.