First Season In The Books: How Did The Big East Do?

[BillikensWin]

The fact that an A-10 poster feels the need to come on here to say they are better tells you all you need to know about which conference is better. Does the A-10 have a message board?

Yes.

Here's the 10 second synopsis: There are A-10 fanbases that would like to get into the Big East. That will not happen, so fans argue.

[BEX]

Every Bills fan I have ever met has been great. Attended many X games @ the 'Fetz and had a great time. Our League isn't even a year old. 100% of the A-10 would join the BE in a heartbeat.

[BillikensWin]

Every Bills fan I have ever met has been great. Attended many X games @ the 'Fetz and had a great time. Our League isn't even a year old. 100% of the A-10 would join the BE in a heartbeat.

Most of us at Billiken games are always very close to the beer. It helps at times.

[notkirkcameron]

From the article:
“All the talk that the Atlantic 10 might be on par or even better than the Big East because they got 6 teams into the NCAA Tournament is beyond ludicrous.”

The A-10 had more top 100 RPI teams than the Big East and had a team make it to the Elite 8. The Big East was looking realistically of only getting two bids to the dance. The A-10 got a solid 6 bids. The only thing ludicrous is thinking the Big East was even as good as the A-10 this year – because it was not – not even close. Next Year – the Big East if they are lucky will be on Par to the A-10. The only thing that gets the Big East ahead of the A-10 at this point is them Raiding the A-10 for two teams (Dayton & St. L) outside of that – best case on 2014/15 – Big East = A-10. Just because the New Big East has a better media deal – does not mean it is actually better and it is definitely not the old Big East.

Every A-10 team would jump at the chance to join the Big East, and the A-10 Commissioner would be laughed out of the office of every Big East President/Athletic Director/Coach he tried to convince to join the A-10.

That's pretty much the end of discussion.

But if A-10 fans want to make comparisons to the old Big East, fair enough, but then we're also going to compare the A-10 to the "old A-10" and frankly, in that regard, A-10 fans should enjoy their statistical outlier banner year once they look at who's been making the tournament out of the current membership of each conference. By "current membership" I mean giving each conference credit for its current stable of teams who made the tournament even if they made it while not a member of the conference (For example, in 2012, the A-10 gets credit for VCU, but doesn't get credit for Xavier).

Number of Tournament berths with current membership
A-10
2014: 6 (UMass, Dayton, GW, VCU, SLU, St. Joe's)
2013: 3 (VCU, SLU, LaSalle)
2012: 3 (SLU, St. Bonaventure, VCU)
2011: 3 (George Mason, VCU, Richmond)
2010: 1 (Richmond)
2009: 2 (VCU, Dayton)
2008: 2 (George Mason, St. Joe's)
2007: 2 (GW, VCU)


Big East
2014: 4 (Xavier, Creighton, Providence, Villanova)
2013: 5 (Creighton, Butler, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette)
2012: 4 (Marquette, Georgetown, Creighton, Xavier)
2011: 6 (Marquette, Xavier, Butler, Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova)
2010: 5 (Georgetown, Marquettte, Villanova, Xavier, Butler)
2009: 4 (Butler, Xavier, Marquette, Villanova)
2008: 5 (Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, Butler, Xavier)
2007: 6 (Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova, Xavier, Creighton, Butler)

Current A-10 teams who failed to make the tournament in each of those years: Duquesne, Rhode Island, Fordham.
Current Big East teams who failed to make the tournament in each of those years: DePaul, Seton Hall

DePaul is getting a new arena built for them and Seton Hall has a top recruiting class coming in next year. Can Duquesne, Rhode Island, and Fordham say the same thing?

The Big East is always going to command the better recruits. This year, despite the turbulence in the Big East the past few years, FIVE Big East teams have recruiting classes regarded among the Top 25 in the country (Georgetown at #11, Seton Hall at #12, Xavier at #16, Marquette at #20, and Providence at #21)(source) The Atlantic 10 has 1 (VCU at #25).

Put another way, if VCU were in the Big East, their recruiting class would be the SIXTH-best recruiting class, and they're the class of the A-10 on the recruiting trail. The second-best recruiting class in the A-10 for next year is St. Joe's at #60, which finds itself behind Creighton and Villanova's classes as well as the aforementioned five.

[Bostonspider]

Probably should add Davidson..

Number of Tournament berths with 2014/15 membership
A-10
2014: 6 (UMass, Dayton, GW, VCU, SLU, St. Joe's)
2013: 4 (VCU, SLU, LaSalle, Davidson)
2012: 4 (SLU, St. Bonaventure, VCU, Davidson)
2011: 3 (George Mason, VCU, Richmond)
2010: 1 (Richmond)
2009: 2 (VCU, Dayton)
2008: 3 (George Mason, St. Joe's, Davidson)
2007: 3 (GW, VCU, Davidson)

[notkirkcameron]

Probably should add Davidson..

Number of Tournament berths with 2014/15 membership
A-10
2014: 6 (UMass, Dayton, GW, VCU, SLU, St. Joe's)
2013: 4 (VCU, SLU, LaSalle, Davidson)
2012: 4 (SLU, St. Bonaventure, VCU, Davidson)
2011: 3 (George Mason, VCU, Richmond)
2010: 1 (Richmond)
2009: 2 (VCU, Dayton)
2008: 3 (George Mason, St. Joe's, Davidson)
2007: 3 (GW, VCU, Davidson)

[bman95]

Listed Attendance: 13,000 for lousville game VS RU in the ACC tourn. from watching on TV I would guess 1,300
http://espn.go.com/ncb/photos?gameId=40 ... Id=3675072

Listed attendance: 21,000 Acc tournament game CU vs GT. From watching on TV more like 8,000
http://www.trbimg.com/img-532281a9/turb ... 13-002/960

Listed attendance for the A10 final: 8,886 (which I was surprised because the Barclays was louder than the ACC tourn)

Because all the talk of the death of the BE, I watched all the other tournaments this year....And I'll take 14,000 at the Garden any day of the week.

[marquette]

Probably should add Davidson..

Number of Tournament berths with 2014/15 membership
A-10
2014: 6 (UMass, Dayton, GW, VCU, SLU, St. Joe's)
2013: 4 (VCU, SLU, LaSalle, Davidson)
2012: 4 (SLU, St. Bonaventure, VCU, Davidson)
2011: 3 (George Mason, VCU, Richmond)
2010: 1 (Richmond)
2009: 2 (VCU, Dayton)
2008: 3 (George Mason, St. Joe's, Davidson)
2007: 3 (GW, VCU, Davidson)

I don't think Davidson is on the A10's level. We'll see, but I expect them to fail to qualify most years.

[GoldenWarrior11]

I honestly don't understand all the comparisons and fascinations with the A-10. Compare yourself with an inferior opponent, and you lower your standards. We should be comparing ourselves with the ACC and Big 10.

[marquette]

I honestly don't understand all the comparisons and fascinations with the A-10. Compare yourself with an inferior opponent, and you lower your standards. We should be comparing ourselves with the ACC and Big 10.

ACC and B1G fans don't bombard our board with posts about how they are equal to/better than us. Power conferences don't need to do that. Same reason we don't post on a MWC board about how much better we are than them.