Big East - A-10 NCAA Tourney

[cm5yz6]

So this isn't a good look, let's improve next year please.

Number of NCAA Bids
A-10 - 6
BE - 4

% of Teams with NCAA Bids
A-10 - 46%
BE - 40%

Record in the Tournament (through 1st weekend obviously)
A-10 - 3-5
BE - 2-4

# of Guaranteed Units (through 1st weekend obviously)
A-10 - 9
BE - 6

Guaranteed Units Per Conference Team
A-10 - 0.62
BE - 0.60

Teams in the S16
A-10 - 1
BE - 0

[jayelan]

And the 1 sweet sixteen was the most unlikely, go figure. That's March Madness for ya.

[MackNova]

Pretty safe to say year 1 for the new Big East was a disaster, unfortunately...

[LeMoyne00]

It wasn't bad basketball throughout the year -- it just flew under the radar. No one saw our teams on tv because of piss poor FS1 viewership until they were flopping in the tournament. I wish more saw the regular season, cause that was fun!

[MackNova]

It was fun, but mostly irrelevant on a national scale. Only 2 teams were good enough to be ranked all season (and I don't think there was ever a time where a team was snubbed from the top 25 all year other than Creighton at times early on). This league really needed a big tournament for the national perception to change, and instead, Nova and Creighton both laid eggs against teams that finished lower in their respective conference standings.

[Xudash]

We need to do better. I agree with that completely.

First year or not, it obviously would have been better had we at least smashed a couple teams into the round of S16. We didn't get there; so be it.

Having noted that, and understanding that this should never be about "misery loves company" we should remember that the ACC didn't exactly overpower this tournament as well. Yes, a 1 seed moves on, but still.

Fox will get stronger. The conference needs to perform on the court more strongly. We still have plenty of time to make this work.

[SJHooper]

I'm very disappointed with how this year played out. The Big East fell flat. That much is clear. Just a flop year.

BUT look at the ACC...they are literally the best conference you can assemble and they have 1 team in the Sweet 16 and that team is not a traditional power (UVA). The A-10 had a year for the ages like we did in 2011 when we got like 9 bids or whatever it was. But the truth is that many of the teams namely Dayton, GW, UMass, etc. overachieved. No way they can continually get 5-6 in every year. They are not consistent enough. We had the worst possible year. They had the best possible year.

[cm5yz6]

I'm very disappointed with how this year played out. The Big East fell flat. That much is clear. Just a flop year.

BUT look at the ACC...they are literally the best conference you can assemble and they have 1 team in the Sweet 16 and that team is not a traditional power (UVA). The A-10 had a year for the ages like we did in 2011 when we got like 9 bids or whatever it was. But the truth is that many of the teams namely Dayton, GW, UMass, etc. overachieved. No way they can continually get 5-6 in every year. They are not consistent enough. We had the worst possible year. They had the best possible year.

Best possible year probably would have seen either Richmond or St Bonnie winning the tourney (getting 7 bids) and having the higher seeded UMass and VCU at least make it out of the first round, but a very good year all the same

[Data1000]

I'm a fan of the new Big East and look forward to a very successful future. However, for this initial year, it was exposed in the NCAA tourney. Looking back, this first year happened to be a down year for Marquette, Georgetown, Butler, and Xavier. As a whole, aside from Nova and Creighton, the league was offensively challenged, which in my opinion, helped to mask Creighton's defensive liabilities. As a Big East fan, I have no problem acknowledging that the league isn't currently as strong as we believed it was two months ago. UConn and Baylor would have probably finished one and two if the were in the Big East.

That said, the growth of the new Big East may likely correspond to the growth of Fox Sports 1. As a unique basketball driven league with many proud programs, I think the league will be much better in three years than it is now.