(08-31-2017 04:31 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  

(08-31-2017 07:35 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  

(08-30-2017 04:42 PM)BleedingPurple Wrote:  Nobody, and I mean nobody gives a crap about who is the better MBB conference after you get past the first 7 or 8. They are all a wash. When you get down to the CAA, CUSA, Sunbelt etc. it's like who is the best of the "not so good". It is then tossed into the hands of the individual schools to go make a name for themselves, ie UConn (AAC), Gonzaga (WCC) etc.. I'm a avid sports fan and I had to go look up the conference Gonzaga is associated with. To make a statement that the CAA is a better MBB conference versus anybody, is like saying I kissed a beautiful girl today, but it was on the cheek and she's my sister-in-law. The same applies to football, just go ask your wife (not Dolley) if she thinks the Sunbelt, MAC, CUSA, WCC, CAA, etc. is the better conference. Frankly, you could toss in the A-10 and not 1 in 100 sports fans could rank them accurately for MBB.

I think people do give a crap. How about basketball fans of the schools that play in those conferences. I seem to remember a large contingent of JMU fans showing up at The Coliseum for the CAA final a few years ago. Several CAA schools are building new arenas (COC, Elon and JMU). Are these schools investing millions because nobody cares? If your barometer is P5, then you correct. The problem is JMU will never be P5. There are plenty of people who still follow basketball outside of P5 though.

You are correct, we are absolutely not P5 material. However, most all sports fans can tell you where USC, Oregon, Purdue, Ohio State, Baylor, Texas, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Duke, NC State, Georgetown, and Marquette have each established their conference affiliations. When you look beyond these there is no point in making a reference to establish who of the remaining conferences is the best. It's simply up to the schools to establish themselves as worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as those P5's. We have established this with our Softball and WBB programs. Every HS softball player, who's good enough to play at the college level, knows that JMU needs to be considered if we call and this has absolutely nothing to do with the CAA. The CAA actually drags us down more than pulling us up when we look at Softball.

I agree with this post. I will take it a step further. What has hurt the other conferences is the continued efforts of schools like ODU trying to move up the food chain. Rivalries that have been established and could continue to grow like those in the ACC, are abandoned in hopes that these schools will move up the food chain. What you get is disruption and a lack of commitment to the conference as everyone continues to look outside their conference for the next best thing.

For a school like VT, the conference changes have brought them to a home in the ACC. For ODU, it has brought them to a home in the lowest level of FBS and the 24th power rated men's basketball conference. The difference is VT moved with other conference partners and into a conference in which it's biggest rival plays. ODU is on an island in CUSA.

All of what you posted above is why the P5 is the P5. History, tradition and commitment to conference partners.

ODU was smart to try to convince JMU and UD to join then in CUSA. JMU and UD would have been smart to do so but their leadership was in flux. When they said no, ODU should have waited. You can't go it alone when it comes to conference affiliation. Just look at the AAC for proof. Mostly former CUSA schools that left one conference only to join each other in another. Same with the Mountain West(former WAC schools)and the BE schools now in the ACC.