Week 2 Rankings

[stever20]

The problem with the AAC is that half that league is complete trash. They don't have any institutional support for basketball nor any fan base. Same problem that old c-usa had.

Top of the league will be fine. But the overall conference rpi is always going to lag behind the major conferences. They won't be getting a higher percentage of bids than other conferences. And their tv deal is atrocious.

What we have going is a great thing. Should almost always be top 6 rpi, should avrage about 40-45% of our leage with bids (usually 4 bids, sometimes 5 bids, occassionally 3 bids), and should usually have 70-80% of our team in the top 100oh yeah, and our tv deal is freaking amazing!!

Anyone jealous of the AAC is not looking at the big picture.

Thing is- look this year. They have the 8th RPI right now, we have the 3rd. But they are clearly closer to getting a 5th team in the tourney than we are. If they got 5 teams in this year- that would be very possibly the top 3 best ratio of teams in the tourney(maybe behind the Big 10/Big 12) Even at 40% which is very possible next year- that's still very high up. SEC doesn't get 40% in the tourney. P12 doesn't.

And, i'm sorry but compared to other conferences- their tv deal is not atrocious. You just want to compare to us which is a joke.

[stever20]

There's questions about us next year. How does Creighton rebuild? St John's and Providence won't get the same respect preseason they got this year. Butler hasn't beaten anyone good- and is likely looking NIT.

Also, the tourney this year will be huge. RIght now we are looking at somethign like 3/7/8/8. If we got a 2nd team in the 2nd weekend- it'd be a major upset. And folks view the tourney big time now. For a lot of people- it is the season.

[XU85]

There's questions about us next year. How does Creighton rebuild? St John's and Providence won't get the same respect preseason they got this year. Butler hasn't beaten anyone good- and is likely looking NIT.

Also, the tourney this year will be huge. RIght now we are looking at somethign like 3/7/8/8. If we got a 2nd team in the 2nd weekend- it'd be a major upset. And folks view the tourney big time now. For a lot of people- it is the season.

Oh my gosh you are right again Stever! The Big East should fold after one season, Creighton should go back to the MVC, and the rest should merge with the A-10. Do you have any extra room in your doomsday shelter?

Seriously, I wish the administrators would limit you and your alter egos to a maximum of 10 posts a day.

[notkirkcameron]

Also what RPI's are you using? Those aren't the current RPI's, and they aren't the projected RPI's.

The ones listed on ESPN.com. They are updated pretty frequently.

[milwaukeejedi1]

There's questions about us next year. How does Creighton rebuild? St John's and Providence won't get the same respect preseason they got this year. Butler hasn't beaten anyone good- and is likely looking NIT.

Also, the tourney this year will be huge. RIght now we are looking at somethign like 3/7/8/8. If we got a 2nd team in the 2nd weekend- it'd be a major upset. And folks view the tourney big time now. For a lot of people- it is the season.

Next year, Marquette will rebound, Georgtown, Villanova, and Xavier will stay the course, Seton Hall has as one of the most dynamic high school players (and likely McDonals's All American) joining the team and Butler will have a healthy Roosevelt Jones.

The AAC will still lose Louisville to the ACC.

[Friarfan2]

I'm sorry, but you clearly have some sort of aAC man love that isn't based in reality. But go ahead and keep posting about how awesome that conference is.

And no, I am not an AAC hater, but I can see the flaws of that group of teams.

[stever20]

Also what RPI's are you using? Those aren't the current RPI's, and they aren't the projected RPI's.

The ones listed on ESPN.com. They are updated pretty frequently.

Those ones have been kind of weird this year. Just don't look right.... I mean just look at Butler's line.... Used to be very accurate- not sure what is wrong with them this year... CBS has Butler at 61.

CBS(Jerry Palm- very good with things- probably the best in the business quite frankly)
Villanova 6
Xavier 19
Creighton 29
Georgetown 47
St John's 53
Butler 61
Providence 82
Marquette 104
DePaul 123
Seton Hall 127

[Bluejay]

I don't get stever's obsession with being the #1 ranked conference. Who cares? Of course the ACC will get more bids than us -- they have a helluva lot more teams!!!! They better get more teams than us or it would be an epic failure.

Conference strength is cyclical. As long as we are in the top 4 or 5 year in and year out, that is perfectly fine.

[Friarfan2]

Exactly. Who care about being the #1 conference? We just need to remain among the top conferences.

Would you rather be rutgers out of the big east, virginia tech out of the acc, or a better team from a lesser conference this past decade like kansas out of big 12 or arizona out of the pac 10?

And it wasn't that long ago that the big 10 was deemed a struggling conference. (5 yrs ago?). Obviously they turned it around.

Just keep our conference rpi consistently in the top 5 (and sometimes better), keep sending 40-45% of our teams to the dance, keep up our major market presence, keep winning tourney games, and we will be fine.

And the best thing we ever did was split away from the american conference teams. Way too much slop at the bottom to keep up our mission. Uconn will be fine. Memphis will be fine. Cincy will make the tournament in a good number of years. Remains to be seen how tough shape temple is in. I am sure they will have a team ocassional jump up to tourney quality (like usf did out of the big east a couple of years ago). But overall that conference has a lot of flaws. They have horrible media financial support and an equally as bad media exposure deal (unless you like espn news and internet streamed games), and the bottom of that conference is never really going to pull themselves out of the basement with them chasing football glory with all their resources.

American conference isn't the worst conference, just like old c-usa wasn't the worst. But it is a very good thing we split, and anyone looking objectively will agree. (Cue stever claiming that I am comparing the american to the southwest or the neac, even though I acknowledge that their top teams will still compete)

[stever20]

Exactly. Who care about being the #1 conference? We just need to remain among the top conferences.

Would you rather be rutgers out of the big east, virginia tech out of the acc, or a better team from a lesser conference this past decade like kansas out of big 12 or arizona out of the pac 10?

And it wasn't that long ago that the big 10 was deemed a struggling conference. (5 yrs ago?). Obviously they turned it around.

Just keep our conference rpi consistently in the top 5 (and sometimes better), keep sending 40-45% of our teams to the dance, keep up our major market presence, keep winning tourney games, and we will be fine.

And the best thing we ever did was split away from the american conference teams. Way too much slop at the bottom to keep up our mission. Uconn will be fine. Memphis will be fine. Cincy will make the tournament in a good number of years. Remains to be seen how tough shape temple is in. I am sure they will have a team ocassional jump up to tourney quality (like usf did out of the big east a couple of years ago). But overall that conference has a lot of flaws. They have horrible media financial support and an equally as bad media exposure deal (unless you like espn news and internet streamed games), and the bottom of that conference is never really going to pull themselves out of the basement with them chasing football glory with all their resources.

American conference isn't the worst conference, just like old c-usa wasn't the worst. But it is a very good thing we split, and anyone looking objectively will agree. (Cue stever claiming that I am comparing the american to the southwest or the neac, even though I acknowledge that their top teams will still compete)

The AAC is like CUSA was- back when Marquette, Louisville, Cincy etc. were in there. That was a VERY good conference. It's exposure is light years better than you want to give it credit. A conference that can get 4-5 out of 10 teams in the tourney is nothing to sneeze at.