The AAAAAAAC and Advanced Marketing (or Self-Kidding)

[stever20]

The problem is that the AAC has at least 5+ teams that are legitimate mid major programs playing in a so-called "power" conference. The Big East has 1 team that consistently plays like a true mid major and that's DePaul. You can keep adding top 25 mid major programs, but until they purge the dead weight it will keep them from being taken too seriously. True power conferences don't need to have a campaign to scream from the rooftops that they are one. It's like an ugly person trying to convince everyone else they are attractive. The Big East quietly holds their own with the big F5 conferences every year. The only thing we can possibly do better IMO is our tourney performances. We need to get more than just Nova, Xavier, and Butler past the second round.

So who exactly are these 5+ teams that are legit mid major programs?

Right now, the AAC has only 5 teams that are outside the top 70 in KP ratings this morning. And with how they are at 12 teams- here's how many times those top 7 schools play those schools:
Wichita- plays 6 games(2 with 108 Tulsa)- 2 with sub 200 teams
Cincy- plays 6 games(2 with 136 Memphis)- 2 with sub 200 teams
SMU- plays 8 games(2 with 138 Tulane, 219 ECU, 272 USF)- 4 with sub 200 teams
Temple- plays 6 games(2 with 138 Tulane)- 2 with sub 200 teams
Houston- plays 8 games(2 with 138 Tulane, 219 ECU, 272 USF)- 4 with sub 200 teams
UCF- plays 7 games(2 with 136 Memphis, 272 USF)- 3 with sub 200 teams
UConn plays 8 games(2 with 108 Tulsa, 136 Memphis, 219 ECU)- 3 with sub 200 teams

When Tulsa and Memphis are 2 of your worst 5 teams- your conference isn't that bad. The fact is with the AAC that programs like SMU, Houston, UCF have grown quite a bit- and now we're starting to see the same thing with Tulane of all teams(they're 4-0 and jumped 55 KP spots this year so far)- Dunleavy looks like he was a great hire.

At the very least the AAC has graduated to being the 1 true tweener conference. just look at the current ken pom ratings:
AAC- 3 top 25, 4 top 50, 7 top 75, 7 top 100, 10 top 150, 10 top 200
MWC- 0 top 25, 0 top 50, 2 top 75, 5 top 100, 7 top 150, 10 top 200
MVC- 0 top 25, 0 top 50, 0 top 75, 3 top 100, 8 top 150, 10 top 200
A10- 0 top 25, 0 top 50, 3 top 75, 5 top 100, 7 top 150, 12 top 200

The AAC the only one of the 4 that has any top 50 teams- and then 4 more top 75 teams than any of the others. That's huge with the new classifciations for wins- remember it's top 30 home wins and top 75 road wins for tier 1 wins. So right now, Wichita could have for example 8 tier 1 conference wins along with another 5 tier 2 conference wins.

[Hall2012]

CBS Conference RPI Rankings:
1. SEC (?? It's early...and I believe they recently hired someone to advice scheduling for the purpose of manipulating RPI)
2. Big East
3. Big XII
4. PAC 12
5. B1G
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
15. Northeast Conference
16. Atlantic 10
17. American Athletic Conference

[stever20]

far more important
OOC winning percentages- So when teams play each other in conference play- this is what's added to the 50% pot each and every game.
1 Big 12 .9062
2 Pac 12 .8810
3 Big Ten .8654
4 SEC .8605
5 Big East .8438
6 ACC .8077
7 AAC .7750
8 MVC .7188
9 MWC .6562
10 MAC .6452
11 WCC .5926
12 A10 .5909

The actual RPI right now flips around so much it's not funny. I mean right now, Ole Miss is #1 in RPI. They've played 3 games and are 3-0. They beat Louisiana, Eastern Kentucky, and Georgia State. That should tell you all you need to know about the actual RPI right now.

[BigmanU]

CBS Conference RPI Rankings:
1. SEC (?? It's early...and I believe they recently hired someone to advice scheduling for the purpose of manipulating RPI)
2. Big East
3. Big XII
4. PAC 12
5. B1G
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
15. Northeast Conference
16. Atlantic 10
17. American Athletic Conference

Hilarious. AAC is a true clown show, thanks for posting.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Bottom line, AAC and Big East doing well IMO like I've said is great for college basketball. I don't want to just have the P5.

I mostly agree with this sentiment from a macro level. It is probably better, on a whole, to limit the power and influence (in college hoops) of the P5 conferences. If those 5 leagues at any point start to completely dominate the college hoops landscape, it gives them all the more reason to take their ball and just play among themselves.

On the micro level though, I want X to be the premier program in OH; for Creighton to be one of the only two powers (along with Kansas) in the Great Plains; for PC to own the NE region; for VU to never battle Temple for recruits or the Philly limelight; etc. Bottom line these individual programs are rivals and you never root for rivals to be successful if it could hurt your own program in some way.

So far it is very safe to say that the BE schools (other than maybe G'town) mostly have benefited from realignment and the AAC schools mostly have not. After Calhoun's BE players all graduated, UConn has been a shell of it's former self; Memphis is down; USF is almost non-existent; Temple is down; Cincy may be the same but their March success has been unremarkable at best. SMU has been decent but you wonder about long term after losing a HOF coach.

On the flip side, PC, SHU, even SJU have experienced resurgences; Nova has taken off and become a national power; recruiting at Creighton and X have soared; bids are up, etc. In short, we are thriving. The AAC is hoping that WSU can elevate the league back up to respectability. They really needed to do something so I applaud them being aggressive. I guess we'll all see...

[GumbyDamnit!]

CBS Conference RPI Rankings:
1. SEC (?? It's early...and I believe they recently hired someone to advice scheduling for the purpose of manipulating RPI)
2. Big East
3. Big XII
4. PAC 12
5. B1G
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
15. Northeast Conference
16. Atlantic 10
17. American Athletic Conference

To be fair, RPI means absolutely nothing after 3 games. Afterall, Temple is #3 RPI now, and Nova is #99. Wait until after the OOC and you'll have a better picture.

[Xudash]

Bottom line, AAC and Big East doing well IMO like I've said is great for college basketball. I don't want to just have the P5.

I mostly agree with this sentiment from a macro level. It is probably better, on a whole, to limit the power and influence (in college hoops) of the P5 conferences. If those 5 leagues at any point start to completely dominate the college hoops landscape, it gives them all the more reason to take their ball and just play among themselves.

On the micro level though, I want X to be the premier program in OH; for Creighton to be one of the only two powers (along with Kansas) in the Great Plains; for PC to own the NE region; for VU to never battle Temple for recruits or the Philly limelight; etc. Bottom line these individual programs are rivals and you never root for rivals to be successful if it could hurt your own program in some way.

So far it is very safe to say that the BE schools (other than maybe G'town) mostly have benefited from realignment and the AAC schools mostly have not. After Calhoun's BE players all graduated, UConn has been a shell of it's former self; Memphis is down; USF is almost non-existent; Temple is down; Cincy may be the same but their March success has been unremarkable at best. SMU has been decent but you wonder about long term after losing a HOF coach.

On the flip side, PC, SHU, even SJU have experienced resurgences; Nova has taken off and become a national power; recruiting at Creighton and X have soared; bids are up, etc. In short, we are thriving. The AAC is hoping that WSU can elevate the league back up to respectability. They really needed to do something so I applaud them being aggressive. I guess we'll all see...

My quick thought about this point is this: they're kind of pinning their hopes on the addition of this one school. Also and importantly, they're still a bunch of football-centric schools. The key ones among them want to escape badly. Severe stress on them financially in their athletic departments.

Not a great recipe for success.

As an abstract comparison, I wonder how much Pitt is enjoying the ACC at this point. Pitt's business suites are enjoying it for the money; its fanbase, not so much.

BTW, the A-10 is an absolute dumpster fire.

[MullinMayhem]

It's really amazing what happened to Pitt. They are exhibit A for what happens if you try to fix something that's not broken. Remember, they were the ones who got up in the middle of the night with their bags packed for the ACC with Cuse. Very fitting for this to happen to them...and even Cuse is miserable now by Cuse standards. Both programs took steps back but obviously Pitt even worse. It wasn't long ago when Pitt was a top 5-6 team on occasion...now they can't even consistently beat mid majors and they are not competitors in the ACC. Pitt has to be up there with the biggest losers of realignment but UConn still takes the cake for #1 biggest loser.

[kayako]

It's really amazing what happened to Pitt. They are exhibit A for what happens if you try to fix something that's not broken. Remember, they were the ones who got up in the middle of the night with their bags packed for the ACC with Cuse. Very fitting for this to happen to them...and even Cuse is miserable now by Cuse standards. Both programs took steps back but obviously Pitt even worse. It wasn't long ago when Pitt was a top 5-6 team on occasion...now they can't even consistently beat mid majors and they are not competitors in the ACC. Pitt has to be up there with the biggest losers of realignment but UConn still takes the cake for #1 biggest loser.

Boston College too

[Jet915]

It's really amazing what happened to Pitt. They are exhibit A for what happens if you try to fix something that's not broken. Remember, they were the ones who got up in the middle of the night with their bags packed for the ACC with Cuse. Very fitting for this to happen to them...and even Cuse is miserable now by Cuse standards. Both programs took steps back but obviously Pitt even worse. It wasn't long ago when Pitt was a top 5-6 team on occasion...now they can't even consistently beat mid majors and they are not competitors in the ACC. Pitt has to be up there with the biggest losers of realignment but UConn still takes the cake for #1 biggest loser.

Pitt football and basketball stinks now.