Add Dayton and VCU

[stever20]

Stay at 10. 10 is the perfect number.

This year has the potential to show that's not always the case. Providence, Marquette, and St John's could all 3 finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, and NIT. With 2 more teams, at least 1 if not 2-3 of those teams could be going to the tournament.

[xusandy]

Surely we have more interesting things to discuss than possible expansion, for which there seems to be NO enthusiasm whatsoever among our member institutions. If expansion ever happens, the chosen one(s) will indeed have to be a perfect fit, and there is currently NO school that works on every criterion. St. Louis probably hits the most criteria, but they SUCK at men's basketball.

[MarquetteRustler]

Stay at 10. 10 is the perfect number.

This year has the potential to show that's not always the case. Providence, Marquette, and St John's could all 3 finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, and NIT. With 2 more teams, at least 1 if not 2-3 of those teams could be going to the tournament.

I'm not a NCAA tournament KenPom robot so I'm able to take other factors into account when it comes to what the perfect number of conference teams is. A double round robin every year is perfect. Playing good teams nearly every game of conference season is perfect. I doubt you even watch the games, so your opinion on the subject is irrelevant.

[DudeAnon]

Stay at 10. 10 is the perfect number.

This year has the potential to show that's not always the case. Providence, Marquette, and St John's could all 3 finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, and NIT. With 2 more teams, at least 1 if not 2-3 of those teams could be going to the tournament.

Maybe not, you are just making up theoreticals that can't be tested. Fact is, had we expanded last year almost every legit candidate is awful this year except for Gonzaga. Right now all 10 teams are in the top 100 kenpom. This is a good league, there is no need to try cheap tricks to get into the tournament.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Stay at 10. 10 is the perfect number.

This year has the potential to show that's not always the case. Providence, Marquette, and St John's could all 3 finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, and NIT. With 2 more teams, at least 1 if not 2-3 of those teams could be going to the tournament.

Maybe not, you are just making up theoreticals that can't be tested. Fact is, had we expanded last year almost every legit candidate is awful this year except for Gonzaga. Right now all 10 teams are in the top 100 kenpom. This is a good league, there is no need to try cheap tricks to get into the tournament.

^^^^^^Thank you.^^^^^^^^

[stever20]

Stay at 10. 10 is the perfect number.

This year has the potential to show that's not always the case. Providence, Marquette, and St John's could all 3 finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, and NIT. With 2 more teams, at least 1 if not 2-3 of those teams could be going to the tournament.

Maybe not, you are just making up theoreticals that can't be tested. Fact is, had we expanded last year almost every legit candidate is awful this year except for Gonzaga. Right now all 10 teams are in the top 100 kenpom. This is a good league, there is no need to try cheap tricks to get into the tournament.

Actually not any longer- DePaul is 112.

If those 3 schools all finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, you can't say the round robin didn't cost the league at least 1 bid.

Round robins make it where you are going to have teams finishing in 6th place with only 7 or 8 wins in a lot of the years. Compare that to 12 team leagues where they can get 6 or 7 teams with winning records. Or even bigger leagues where 9 or 10 teams can finish at .500 or better. There are plusses and minuses to the round robin.

Big East fans have been spoiled in some ways that they haven't seen the downside of the round robin yet. Big 12 for instance in 2/4 years has had 6th place team finishing with 8 wins. That can and does happen. Not having round robin is hardly a cheap trick.

[Hall2012]

Trying to replace a Tier 1 loss with a Tier 4 win thinking it's the difference that'll get you into the tourney is the cheap trick. The committee will see right through that.

[stever20]

Trying to replace a Tier 1 loss with a Tier 4 win thinking it's the difference that'll get you into the tourney is the cheap trick. The committee will see right through that.

But they don't. And the thing is lets say Marquette, Providence or St John's is 8-10....
Marquette is 17-13 62.9 RPI
St John's is 17-13 44.4 RPI
Providence is 17-14 59.3 RPI

Only one who would have a real chance with that record is St John's- but even there they would have to win a home game in the BET.

18-12 teams get in fairly often. 17-13 teams don't. Just like 18-13 teams get in the tourney some. 17-14 teams never do.

[Bluejay]

Different year, same argument. At some point if one really wanted to be accurate instead of just a troll, they would take reality into consideration. Stever doesn't want to be real though; he's here purely to troll. (I still can't understand why the site owner allows him to do so, but that is another matter entirely).

Creighton fans came from a conference where we played a double round robin and generally loved the set up. We sorta knew that once everybody in the conference was exposed to it (fans, coaches and players), they would all love it too. There are no unbalanced schedules, you get the chance to see every school on your on floor every year and it naturally builds intensity and rivalries. Most of all, it is just more fun. We have something special going -- ignore the troll and take it all in.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Actually not any longer- DePaul is 112.

If those 3 schools all finish in the 8-10 or 7-11 range, you can't say the round robin didn't cost the league at least 1 bid.

Round robins make it where you are going to have teams finishing in 6th place with only 7 or 8 wins in a lot of the years. Compare that to 12 team leagues where they can get 6 or 7 teams with winning records. Or even bigger leagues where 9 or 10 teams can finish at .500 or better. There are plusses and minuses to the round robin.

Big East fans have been spoiled in some ways that they haven't seen the downside of the round robin yet. Big 12 for instance in 2/4 years has had 6th place team finishing with 8 wins. That can and does happen. Not having round robin is hardly a cheap trick.

I fail to see how it can be a downside that every single conference game being meaningful, competitive and entertaining. The Big East does not have a Clemson, a Rutgers, a Washington State, or a TCU - programs that have historically struggled in men's basketball and do not place an athletic priority with it. Every institution's athletic program places men's basketball first and foremost - and each is pretty successful doing it (even DePaul is making strides to improving their program).

The round robin is a strength, not a weakness, for the Big East. If there was an institution (Private/Catholic), in a big city (Midwest/East Coast) with an athletic department that prioritizes men's basketball (non-FBS), they would be in the Big East right now - and we would have 11, or even 12, schools that were all the same. It wouldn't change the fact that every game is as strong as any current Big East game.

And, for the record, you complained last year that the Big East shouldn't celebrate getting 7 bids because the seeds were unfavorable. This year, you are critiquing the Big East having a round robin and it being difficult for teams #6, #7 and #8 to have a realistic shot at getting into the tournament. You are literally contradicting your own mathematically-based logic. You can't have it both ways (more teams/lower bids v. less teams/higher bids).