Time for Aresco to earn his $$

[cohenzone]

The OP premise that the league commissioner should be raising holy hell is dead on. The issue is not that UConn got screwed - we didn't. The larger issue is that deserving teams in the league got screwed in favor of some notable less deserving P5 teams. On the assumption that the AAC will be what we have to work with for at least a few more years if not longer, it's the league that needs perception protection so that next year and the years after a more deserving UConn or name any of the others isn't passed over based on an unmerited presumption or basis that's as thin as the disappearing hair on my head. If Aresco doesn't at least make his best efforts, he isn't earning his keep.

 

[MattMang23]

Temple, Memphis, Cincy and UConn are as rock solid tourney teams as any you can find.

One of these things is not like the others...

 

[nycscooby]

Dude he can make it the only thing he does all day every day and it won't make a bit if difference. The P5 ain't open for new members, it's all about excluding schools now. Just wait until one of the leagues mandates no non P5 scheduling or until ESPN mandates it for them. Maybe at some point something might happen to change thus system but who knows?

 

[selles]

The OP premise that the league commissioner should be raising holy hell is dead on. The issue is not that UConn got screwed - we didn't. The larger issue is that deserving teams in the league got screwed in favor of some notable less deserving P5 teams. On the assumption that the AAC will be what we have to work with for at least a few more years if not longer, it's the league that needs perception protection so that next year and the years after a more deserving UConn or name any of the others isn't passed over based on an unmerited presumption or basis that's as thin as the disappearing hair on my head. If Aresco doesn't at least make his best efforts, he isn't earning his keep.

That's very well put. It's not even a P5 issue, it's just that the conference has gotten the short end of the stick from the Committee 2 years in a row and any conference commissioner in that situation should be complaining about it at every opportunity. Aresco won't though, he's softer than Charmin.

 

[UConnNick]

If there was ever a time to launch an assault on the P5 and its manipulation of college sports competition, now is the time. They are systematically driving out competition and in bed with media to capture eyeballs and consolidate revenue. The AAC representation in the Tournament is a sham, and Aresco ought to be screaming from the hilltops for equity. He cannot sit back and allow this conference to get run over and relegated to an after thought. I'd be on every sports show in American assailing the P5 and the inequities in the system from excluding a 20 win National Champion, Temple, and Tulsa, as well as the exclusion from a BCS automatic bid.

Frankly playing nice with sharks rarely works, and he needs to get aggressive.

There is no BCS anymore, so there are no BCS auto bid conferences anymore. We have a selection process which takes the place of the BCS. Conceivably, if any P5 conference finished a season with a champion that lost a few non-conference games, and nobody else with an outstanding record, the whole conference could be left completely out of the major bowls. That's not likely to ever happen, but it could under the new selection system for the 4-team playoff and the rest of the major bowl bids.

During the 2013 season, the AAC was an auto bid BCS conference for it's very first season. The AAC is not excluded from getting a major bowl bid or participating in the four-team playoff. However, like in the old BCS days, teams from lesser conferences had to go undefeated to get a major bowl bid. That hasn't changed.

 

[uconnfan68]

We got screwed. The only real consideration by this phony NCAA committee is simple: Can this team be expected to win games and advance.
Without the justification of a losing season or a terrible schedule, we should have been in. The fact is that we could beat 8O%
of the field on a neutral court. It is a joke.

What's even worse is the past 2 champs have been AAC teams... in the only 2 years in existence of the league.

 

[Jerry1714]

UConn's play was putrid at times and also very competitive at times. Inconsistency was their main problem right down to the in-game level. This I know. If you asked an opponent whether they wanted to play UConn instead of Coastal Carolina, Belmont or pick or 14th, 15h or 16th seed of choice, the answer would be hell no.

Do you understand how the tournament works?

 

[businesslawyer]

First, Temple, Cincy, SMU, Tulsa, Memphis, and UConn are not terrible teams. Quite the opposite and they have proven that for the most part year over year.

Second, the whole P5 thing is a self fulfilling prophecy. They start out with high RPI and SOS and then play each other which reinforces the same thing. They can choose which conference to "punish" by not scheduling them, making it impossible to move up. Further, if you play a P5 it is likely early in the season so teas with raw talent recruits generally can faire better against early season teams with project talent.

Third, this about money. Nothing more. The P5 needs to squeeze these schools into a second class citizen and drive up media market presence and control, which means more $$.

Finally, you don't take a 20 win National Champion, while admittedly spotty, and exclude them for the tourney. Let me put it to you this way, if Puke was a returning National Champion with 20 wins there would be no way in hell they would be dropped.

The P-5 thing, in basketball, is not a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everyone plays at least 10 OOC games. The P-5 doesn't start the season ahead. They are ahead because the conference, top to bottom, wins more games in November and December than non-P-5 teams. And, if they don't, they don't "start out" with higher RPIs. Look at the A-Ten last year. Look at the American last year. It's not about starting out -- it's about winning games. And this year, unlike last year, the conference has incredibly few quality wins OOC.

 

[Gringo]

Do you understand how the tournament works?

He must be trolling. I don't see how someone could end up on a college basketball board and have no idea how the NCAA awards bids.

Anyone who thinks UConn got screwed out of a bid has completely lost it. We simply didn't have the resume to earn an at large bid this year. If you want to argue the AAC has gotten screwed over the past couple of years that is fine. But brining up this years UConn team as an example doesn't help prove your point.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

What determines SOS? who you play based on Preseason Rankings? I think its unfair, but I think its always been unfair, we just didn't feel it in the big east because we beat up and got beat up by other ranked teams. It kind of kept us all hovering in ranked land and with good seeds for the tournament. I truly believe if we were in the old big east or in today's ACC we would be in the tournament this year. And I bet we still would have notched 20 wins with this same exact team.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

What determines SOS? who you play based on Preseason Rankings? I think its unfair, but I think its always been unfair, we just didn't feel it in the big east because we beat up and got beat up by other ranked teams. It kind of kept us all hovering in ranked land and with good seeds for the tournament. I truly believe if we were in the old big east or in today's ACC we would be in the tournament this year. And I bet we still would have notched 20 wins with this same exact team.

This team would not have the same record in the old big east. Some of our teams from the old Big East 90's and 2000's would have beat this team by 40.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

We got screwed. The only real consideration by this phony NCAA committee is simple: Can this team be expected to win games and advance.
Without the justification of a losing season or a terrible schedule, we should have been in. The fact is that we could beat 8O%
of the field on a neutral court. It is a joke.

In the absence of the tourney championship
We would have had to win 5 more games
Texas ,Yale, Temple, Houston ,and Memphis on senior night.
25-9 . I think the total was less than a dozen points.
If we didn't get in with that record , then we have the right to be hammering Aresco.

 

[BRS24]

Today at Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, this is what Geno had to say - "They do a very good job of trying to screw anybody who's not in those Power Five conferences," Auriemma said. "They're really good at it. And they're very successful at it because that's one way to make yourself look even better than you are, is make everybody else look like they suck — and they are very, very good at that."

 

[BlueDogs]

Do you understand how the tournament works?

Nice red herring. Yes, I understand how it works. You purposely missed the missed the point which others seem capable of comprehending.

 

[whaler11]

Nice red herring. Yes, I understand how it works. You purposely missed the missed the point which others seem capable of comprehending.

UConn was going to be an 11 or 12. That is why it disrupted the play in games. Of course you'd rather play Texas Southern, but UConn wasn't going to be a 14 or 15.

 

[Jerry1714]

Nice red herring. Yes, I understand how it works. You purposely missed the missed the point which others seem capable of comprehending.

No, I got the point, it is just a terrible and misinformed one

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Today at Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, this is what Geno had to say - "They do a very good job of trying to screw anybody who's not in those Power Five conferences," Auriemma said. "They're really good at it. And they're very successful at it because that's one way to make yourself look even better than you are, is make everybody else look like they suck — and they are very, very good at that."

I just notice on the Women's board SFU is in the same bracket as UConn.
Once again Geno is right