GoldenWarrior11
Heisman
Posts: 5,691
Joined: Jul 2015
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I Root For: Marquette, BE
Location: Chicago
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RE: Is the AAC a 'Power Conference' at least in basketball now w/t addition of WSU?
(04-10-2017 09:42 AM)CliftonAve Wrote: (04-10-2017 09:31 AM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote: Power Conference designation should really just be reserved for Football. With FBS, it is tangible and established what a Power Conference is, and who the P5 are. The networks, TV deals and bowl agreements confirm that.
With basketball, it really doesn't matter. How many teams the American can get in is not affected by how many the B1G can get in. While the conference championship winners get into the NCAA Tournament via autobids, many at-large teams from the top 8 conferences will regularly get in. There are no set parameters on how many teams from the American could, conceivably, get in. It could be as low as one (unlikely) or as many as six/seven in a great year (also unlikely). I think the average, with the addition of Wichita State, will be around 4-5.
I generally concur. IMHO there are "high resource" basketball programs and then there are not. The high resource schools span most in the P5/P6 (but not all of them) and then about another 10-15 programs in other conferences (Gonzaga, New Mexico, BYU, UConn, Cincinnati, Wichita State, Memphis, Dayton, VCU and a few others).
Sadly, I think there are those in a position of power who like things the way there are. They want to ensure that the P5 schools get all the media revenue, all the tournament credits, all the exposure, etc. while schools in the other conferences wilt.
And that's what, in my mind, makes college basketball run smoother than football. Today, in football, you have the College Football Playoff, highlighting and promoting the perceived best teams in the country (but really the P5), with one guaranteed Access Bowl Slot for the G5 (Western Michigan, Houston, Boise State). Is it fair? Probably not. Is it efficient? For the P5 it is, but the G5 not so much.
For college basketball, everyone and every conference has an opportunity. If you are unfairly left out of the NCAA Tournament, you are most likely somewhere between #45 and #60 in the country. However, there is no top-10 team left out, and the smaller conferences are not grouped together for one spot to compete. Every conference is guaranteed an opportunity in the big dance.
Having said that, logistically, it is easier to do a large-scale tournament in basketball rather than football. You can't play on back-to-back days in football like in basketball. You can only, really, play once a week in football. With basketball, however, you can play two whole rounds in a span of four days, and knock out the whole tournament in a span of three weeks. That's the beauty of the NCAA Tournament - and the big reason why wide-scale change won't be coming to affect it. The TV deal is locked into place for awhile, and the networks, IMO, would put their foot down if the P5 tried to do the same thing in basketball as they have done in football.
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