Conference realignment discussion - v. 2015

[GoldenWarrior11]

Any expansion means the end of the round-robin, which means "Goodbye" to the home and home matchups this season of Xavier/Providence, Vilanova/Xavier and Villanova/Providence (not to mention really exciting other home/home games thus far that haven't included the top-10). And there are "fans" that want to end that so as not just to add a school like St. Bonaventure, but maybe perhaps get another school into the tournament come March?

Excuse me while I go take a walk...

[Barley]

No kidding. I get that realignment discussion is internet porn for some, but we are in the middle of an awesome big east season with 3 top 10 teams.

This league isn't expanding anytime soon so let it go and enjoy the present.

[Xudash]

Nothing earth shattering, but some activity bubbling below the surface, at least as far as the Bearkittens are concerned:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2016/02/03/what-uc-hiding-big-12-conference/79713442/

[GoldenWarrior11]

Could mean something. Could mean nothing. Cincinnati is doing the right thing by not going public with intentions and patiently waiting. They're doing all they can to move up. They don't need to make waves by having correspondence leak out about behind-the-scenes discussions.

[NovaBall]

No expansion!! The formula is working!!

[JPSchmack]

No expansion!! The formula is working!!

It is? Explain how.

For Nova, I’m sure it’s great. For Marquette, Creighton and Georgetown it is not. For Hall, it was terrible last year and check back in a month on this season.


You’ve got SEVEN NCAA caliber programs this year, and at least two are gonna be left out. Once again, you’re wailing the tar out of each other for no good reason other than “double-round robin is fun.”

Look at what each team team 4-7 needs to do in their remaining games to feel safe for an NCAA bid.
It adds up to about 23-12 for four teams. The best the bottom three can do for you is 3-25, leaving 17-16 for three Top 20 teams that are 21-7 so far. How likely is that? Not at all.

Seven bids is a pipe dream. For six bids you need:

Georgetown, Butler and Seton Hall to go 16-10 or better. But they have 10 games against each other, and they will go 5-5.
Sweep 8 games vs the bottom four (who’ve beaten them three times already) and they need 2-5 vs the Top 3, when they are 2-9 so far. And even then, Georgetown is 13-10 on the year and only has two games vs the bottom four left, and five games vs the Top 4 of the league.

So you’re looking at five bids… IF Georgetown, Marquette and Creighton cooperate and lose to Hall and Butler; who’ve already lost three times to those guys.

You see what I’m getting at? 3rd and 8th in the Big East are separated by two games.
The 7th and 8th place teams are just as post-season caliber as 5th and 6th, the only difference is how they all do in their FOURTEEN GAMES against NCAA caliber teams in conference.



Let’s look at Butler and the nameless team right behind them in the RPI. If both teams lose their games to NCAA locks, split vs NCAA bubble teams (home wins), win out against 75+ teams…

Butler is looking at 4-5, 6 seed at BET (likely vs 3 PC who’s beat them twice) = 19-13 projected RPI 68-75
Nameless team is looking at 7-3, 5 seed at Tourney (vs 4 seed they beat at home) = 22-11 or 21-11 projected RPI of 43-51.

And every single one of you thinks Butler would wipe the floor with that nameless team. And I kinda agree.

[hoopstar]

BIG 12 is having a showdown this week which will lead to the next version of realignment. The Big East will be involved. You will see expansion for the 2017/18 season.

[stever20]

Any expansion means the end of the round-robin, which means "Goodbye" to the home and home matchups this season of Xavier/Providence, Vilanova/Xavier and Villanova/Providence (not to mention really exciting other home/home games thus far that haven't included the top-10). And there are "fans" that want to end that so as not just to add a school like St. Bonaventure, but maybe perhaps get another school into the tournament come March?

Excuse me while I go take a walk...

If the league expanded to 12 teams, teams would see everyone 2x and 4 teams once. So Xavier/Providence, Villanova/Xavier, and Villanova/Providence would all be home and home matchups almost guaranteed. The AAC with 11 teams made it where the projected top 4-5 teams all were guaranteed to play each other 2x. So the fatalistic saying if we expand we won't see Nova/Xavier home and home is pretty silly quite frankly.

[HoosierPal]

Any expansion means the end of the round-robin, which means "Goodbye" to the home and home matchups this season of Xavier/Providence, Vilanova/Xavier and Villanova/Providence (not to mention really exciting other home/home games thus far that haven't included the top-10). And there are "fans" that want to end that so as not just to add a school like St. Bonaventure, but maybe perhaps get another school into the tournament come March?

GLADLY. Yes, I would give up one of those DePaul - 'Dawg match-ups in a "New York minute'". Seton Hall doesn't bring much buzz to the Midwest either. No round robin works just fine for every other major conference so why not the Big East?

So you would rather see the Demons twice a year than have one, two or three more teams in the NCAA? Give me 14 teams....St. Louis, Dayton, Richmond and someone else. Not hung up on the 'geographic balance' nor the 'what have you done for me lately' that is so popular to some on this board. Give me markets that like hoops. I said it on another thread, anything that maximizes Butler's chance to get to the NCAA's is good.

[DudeAnon]

Any expansion means the end of the round-robin, which means "Goodbye" to the home and home matchups this season of Xavier/Providence, Vilanova/Xavier and Villanova/Providence (not to mention really exciting other home/home games thus far that haven't included the top-10). And there are "fans" that want to end that so as not just to add a school like St. Bonaventure, but maybe perhaps get another school into the tournament come March?

GLADLY. Yes, I would give up one of those DePaul - 'Dawg match-ups in a "New York minute'". Seton Hall doesn't bring much buzz to the Midwest either. No round robin works just fine for every other major conference so why not the Big East?

So you would rather see the Demons twice a year than have one, two or three more teams in the NCAA? Give me 14 teams....St. Louis, Dayton, Richmond and someone else. Not hung up on the 'geographic balance' nor the 'what have you done for me lately' that is so popular to some on this board. Give me markets that like hoops. I said it on another thread, anything that maximizes Butler's chance to get to the NCAA's is good.

You realize it is just as likely that you would be giving up a second game with Nova etc. in order to play SLU and DePaul twice?