ESPN is at it again

[billyjack]

Think of it this way re: the Big East...

The 10 of us are on a road trip in wintertime, driving from Syracuse to Providence. We've made this trip a bunch of times and are familiar with the route pretty much. Although we know that there's the likelihood of snow, and that it will be dark by the time we cross the Hudson, we're pretty confident that we can make the trip safely...

So we're coasting along at a safe speed, and our timing is only a pinch behind schedule. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, the snow starts to fall at the Mass border, just as we enter the Berkshires. Ok, in seeing the white stuff, 9 of us are cool with it and keep on the lookout for any danger... meanwhile 1 guy (we'll call him "Steve Hooper") absolutely freaks out in the passengers seat screaming "Look!!! A snowflake!!! Look, three more snowflakes!!! We're all gonna die!", "we'll never make it cuz the road is getting icy!", "let's turn around and go back!", "hey guys, let's pick up those 4 guys who are stuck in a snowbank cuz in my opinion adding 4 more guys to join us will make us safer", "aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!"... he continues this nonstop for the next hour until someone slips him a mickey.

Meanwhile the other 9 of us take turns at the wheel, sensibly following our well planned route and strategy. We arrive safely a few hours later. Someone carries a sleeping Steve Hooper into the house to go nite-nite. End of story.

[admin]

Think of it this way re: the Big East...

The 10 of us are on a road trip in wintertime, driving from Syracuse to Providence. We've made this trip a bunch of times and are familiar with the route pretty much. Although we know that there's the likelihood of snow, and that it will be dark by the time we cross the Hudson, we're pretty confident that we can make the trip safely...

So we're coasting along at a safe speed, and our timing is only a pinch behind schedule. Suddenly, but not unexpectedly, the snow starts to fall at the Mass border, just as we enter the Berkshires. Ok, in seeing the white stuff, 9 of us are cool with it and keep on the lookout for any danger... meanwhile 1 guy (we'll call him "Steve Hooper") absolutely freaks out in the passengers seat screaming "Look!!! A snowflake!!! Look, three more snowflakes!!! We're all gonna die!", "we'll never make it cuz the road is getting icy!", "let's turn around and go back!", "hey guys, let's pick up those 4 guys who are stuck in a snowbank cuz in my opinion adding 4 more guys to join us will make us safer", "aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!"... he continues this nonstop for the next hour until someone slips him a mickey.

Meanwhile the other 9 of us take turns at the wheel, sensibly following our well planned route and strategy. We arrive safely a few hours later. End of story. Parables always work well.

That's pretty funny.

[TheHall]

Recruiting rankings a lot of times are meaningless. You as a PC fan should know that after the last 2 years.

You act like everything is just rosy. It's not. For gosh sakes our 3rd place team was in the PIG this year, and our 4th place team only got in the tourney because they won the conference tourney.

Bottom line- it's not as rosy as you make it out to be, but it's not as bad as Hooper makes it out to be. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I personally think it's a smidge closer to Hooper, just because of how poorly we performed on the court this year. I do think if that happens again, we see some changes in terms of getting up to 12 teams, which helps somewhat artificially getting extra teams in the tourney. Also, I think FS1 is another reason why I would say it's a bit closer to Hooper...

....and that fact you usually don't have any idea what you're talking about closes the deal for you Hooper. You say rankings are meaningless but in another thread you were quick to point out that the BE is 5th according to ESPN's waaay too early 2015 rankings.

So far Big East with 4 recruits. 5th best behind ACC(7), B10(7), SEC(5), and P12(5). So far 32 recruits signed. 14 of the top 50.

[Bearcat_Bounce]

I love the comments from AAC member schools about our TV ratings.

Those ratings certainly don't seem to have hurt us in recruiting. My understanding is that the availability of our games has been an overwhelming hit with recruits and their families. Every team in our league can boast about having every single conference game on TV along with most of the nonconference games.

As far as I can tell AAC fans are jealous of the money our TV package pays and jealous of our success in the recruiting game. Otherwise why would they feel the need to come here?

Lol. Why do I have to be jealous? I have no problem with any of the schools in the Big East (yes, even Xavier). I used to post on the NCAABBS boards and a lot of the guys from the Big East schools are on this board now, so I occasionally stop by to read up on how the Big East is doing.

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not. While many AAC fans were upset with the low TV deal, from an exposure stand point you could argue that Cincinnati is now in a better spot.

In the last year of the Big East Cincinnati was picked to finish in the top 4, so they got one of the "premier" schedule from the network yet still got better exposure in the AAC's first year television wise. In the Big East games against DePaul or USF were on either local channels or MASN while now they were on ESPNNEWS or CBS Sports Network. Maybe for you guys that isn't a huge deal but I do not live in the area anymore so games on our local CW affiliate can now be seen nationally.

[paulxu]

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not.

This certainly explains how the BE is #2 in recruiting this year, and the AAC is #7.

[Bearcat_Bounce]

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not.

This certainly explains how the BE is #2 in recruiting this year, and the AAC is #7.

Most of that recruiting was done years before. We will see how that fares going forward, I think the two will be both be in the 4-7 range.

Seems like Buzz Williams saw my point of view and left for a bottom feeding ACC school citing the lack of exposure on ESPN (not in just games but also coverage of the good teams). Has there ever been a less talked about "great" team (maybe they weren't great after losing to the 4th place AAC team) than Villanova last year?

[TheHall]

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not.

This certainly explains how the BE is #2 in recruiting this year, and the AAC is #7.

Most of that recruiting was done years before. We will see how that fares going forward, I think the two will be both be in the 4-7 range.

Seems like Buzz Williams saw my point of view and left for a bottom feeding ACC school citing the lack of exposure on ESPN (not in just games but also coverage of the good teams). Has there ever been a less talked about "great" team (maybe they weren't great after losing to the 4th place AAC team) than Villanova last year?

You have no shortage of doubts, criticisms and overall negativity about the current state & future of the BE, but the thing is we already have 2 posters handling that job here. So there's no real need for you to keep running over here b/c outside of those 2 posters no one else is buying what you're schlepping.

[Bill Marsh]

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not.

This certainly explains how the BE is #2 in recruiting this year, and the AAC is #7.

Most of that recruiting was done years before. We will see how that fares going forward, I think the two will be both be in the 4-7 range.

Seems like Buzz Williams saw my point of view and left for a bottom feeding ACC school citing the lack of exposure on ESPN (not in just games but also coverage of the good teams). Has there ever been a less talked about "great" team (maybe they weren't great after losing to the 4th place AAC team) than Villanova last year?

So, you're buying Buzz's feeble excuses and ignoring the reports out of Milwaukee that the administrations was tired of his act, greased the skids for his departure, and held the door for him on his way out?

You're buying the idea that lack of exposure was so bad that Buzz took a million dollar cut in pay to go to a school that has been a graveyard for college coaches? Where I come from, when you take a pay cut, that's normally considered a demotion, not a step up. Please explain to me how a football-first school in the rural foothills of western Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains In a basketball conference where VA Tech is looking up at North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, Syracuse, etc is a better job than Marquette. I don't get that one at all.

It was only a few months before he left that we were reading about Buzz becoming the next head coach at Texas after Rick Barnes was fired. Apparently Buzz isn't as highly regarded as he thought. Barnes is still at Texas and Bizz is not. With all the other jobs that were out there, Virginia Tech is the best he could do.

Sorry, but I'm not buying his B/S.

[Xudash]

Whether you like it or not, ESPN is the most powerful entity for college basketball and having several games in primetime on their main channel is a major recruiting tool. Maybe someday FS1 will have that type of power as a network but currently they do not.

This certainly explains how the BE is #2 in recruiting this year, and the AAC is #7.

Most of that recruiting was done years before. We will see how that fares going forward, I think the two will be both be in the 4-7 range.

Seems like Buzz Williams saw my point of view and left for a bottom feeding ACC school citing the lack of exposure on ESPN (not in just games but also coverage of the good teams). Has there ever been a less talked about "great" team (maybe they weren't great after losing to the 4th place AAC team) than Villanova last year?

How do you reconcile the bolded statement with Xavier's incoming recruiting class?

[TheHall]

Most of that recruiting was done years before. We will see how that fares going forward, I think the two will be both be in the 4-7 range.

Seems like Buzz Williams saw my point of view and left for a bottom feeding ACC school citing the lack of exposure on ESPN (not in just games but also coverage of the good teams). Has there ever been a less talked about "great" team (maybe they weren't great after losing to the 4th place AAC team) than Villanova last year?

How do you reconcile the bolded statement with Xavier's incoming recruiting class?

Also Isaiah Whitehead the Big East's top rated incoming recruit choose between SHU & SJU late last summer, not years ago.