How does the schools OOC rank look? Remember, last year that was used against big east schools. I have no dog in this hunt. I was just wondering. I also think the NIT will effect all bcs conferences.

gdayre Wrote:How does the schools OOC rank look? Remember, last year that was used against big east schools. I have no dog in this hunt. I was just wondering. I also think the NIT will effect all bcs conferences.

Th RPI has had the BE as the #1 sos conference almost since basketball started at the beginning of the season and before conference play started, and it is still ranked #1 even after conference play started.

Last season, I think the BE had the #5 SOS. And we were dismal vs the top 100. We have a great record vs the top 100 this season with some great wins vs the top 15.

PirateMarv Wrote:The problem is Louisville; Cincy; Marquette; Nova; ND; Syracuse and WVU. How do you pick the remaining teams from this crowd? I can not get more than four (4) tournament teams from that group. None of those teams stood out during the OOC portion of their schedule, so how you guys arrived at five (5) additional teams is beyond me. A lot of their statiscal analysis and ratings that you guys have pointed too is derived from the fact that these people play against each other, but OOC none of these guys looked that good.

Excluding Duke and NC, the ACC has 5 top 50 RPI, non-conference wins and 1 non-conference, top 30 win total. Including Duke and NC, the ACC only has 4 non-conference top 30 wins. Also, every team in the ACC but Duke has lost to a team outside the top 75 and every team but for Duke, NC and Virginia has lost a non-conference game to a team outside the top 75.

MU, ND and WV alone have 3 non-conference top 30 wins. In addition, MU VU, ND, SU and WVU did not lose a non-conference game to a team outside the top 60, and MU, WV and SU did not lose a non-conference game to a team outside the top 30. Finally, MU and ND have not lost to any team outside the top 60.

You obviously haven't looked at the numbers. BTW, except for Memphis, CUSA has a grand total of 3 top 75 wins (2 by ECU and 1 by Tulsa). None of those teams have beaten a team in the top 40 in RPI. The bottom 4 teams in the BE (VU, USF, Rutgers and SJU) have seven top 75 wins, including 3 top 40 wins.

cuseroc Wrote:

gdayre Wrote:How does the schools OOC rank look? Remember, last year that was used against big east schools. I have no dog in this hunt. I was just wondering. I also think the NIT will effect all bcs conferences.

Th RPI has had the BE as the #1 sos conference almost since basketball started at the beginning of the season and before conference play started, and it is still ranked #1 even after conference play started.

Last season, I think the BE had the #5 SOS. And we were dismal vs the top 100. We have a great record vs the top 100 this season with some great wins vs the top 15.

No one ask the sos conference ranking, I ask how does the big east school OOC ranking of each school . Yes, that kept a few schools out of the tournament last year. Conference overall ranking doesnt matter when it comes down to the individual school. You should know better than that after the last 2 years.

gdayre Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:

gdayre Wrote:How does the schools OOC rank look? Remember, last year that was used against big east schools. I have no dog in this hunt. I was just wondering. I also think the NIT will effect all bcs conferences.

Th RPI has had the BE as the #1 sos conference almost since basketball started at the beginning of the season and before conference play started, and it is still ranked #1 even after conference play started.

Last season, I think the BE had the #5 SOS. And we were dismal vs the top 100. We have a great record vs the top 100 this season with some great wins vs the top 15.

No one ask the sos conference ranking, I ask how does the big east school OOC ranking of each school . Yes, that kept a few schools out of the tournament last year. Conference overall ranking doesnt matter when it comes down to the individual school. You should know better than that after the last 2 years.

OK smartguy, your going to have to find that info yourself, as I have no interest or time to figure each schools ooc sos.

But you can start here Sagarin

Maybe some other sight can break down the ooc and sos for you.

Bambu Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:Memphis victories probably opened the door for other schools in CUSA, CAA, MAC, MWC and MVC to get extra bids. In fact many of these leagues overall strength of schdules are rated pretty close to your league's SOS.

So I would think that Memphis took 1-2 bids from your conference. Did I miss anything?

Lastly, I am lost as to how Memphis leads to more bids for CUSA, the MVC, or CAA? Not being derogatory on this point, I simply don't see the reasoning. What am I missing?

First of all Memphis has beaten most of the teams in your conference that you all are touting for the Big Dance. I am unclear as to how in your mind Houston and maybe even a Tulane could possibly be left out, since Memphis beat the crap of everybody? How do you phathom that a BEast team can get more cred than a CUSA team for losing to a common opponent? Not only that, but have you been watching G. Mason and VCU this year? Both of those teams are going, and since ECU beat Mason and N.C. State that strenghtens CUSA's case for the second just that much more.

I saw the need to reply this individually, since it was a question directed to me. To answer the question, I am completely clear in saying Houston and Tulane are not NCAA deserving at this time. They could play their way in by winning nearly every remaining game they have left, but that is unlikely. As it stands tonight, neither team would even draw remote at-large interest. They would not even be 1 of the last 10 left out.

Houston's Profile:
-15-4 (4-1), RPI of 84, SOS of 162
-An 0-4 record against the Top 100. 3 of the 4 losses by double digits, despite 2 being home games.
-A 10-0 record against Teams 201-341. That is a very high number of sub-200 opponents. These should be sure wins for tourney teams, and I think the committee nearly ignores them, even for ACC or Big East teams.
-A 5-0 record against teams #101-200. The only redeeming aspect.

To put it bluntly, zero Top 100 wins and your top win being against a 14-8 MAAC team (Marist) isn't NCAA. It is a clear cut NIT profile, with little debate. Now, as they have shown, Houston is good enough to win nearly every time out against sub-100's, and thus will start racking up wins in CUSA play. They should finish with a gaudy record, and it will be needed to be considered for the NCAA.

Tulane's Profile:
-13-6 (4-2), RPI of 125, SOS of 210
-An 0-3 record against the Top 100
-Is there much else to say? No one here is recommending South Florida for the NCAA, despite being 1 of the 14 teams rated higher than Tulane.

As for your whole "Memphis" paragraph that I quoted, I still see no sound logic being represented. Let me say this to make it clear that I am not just hating on CUSA. Memphis hands down deserves 100% of the first place votes in both polls come Monday morning. They are playing great. That said, the Tigers' domination in no way means CUSA deserves a 2nd bid.

You claim GMU and VCU are near locks. Both are far from a sure thing. Sure, both have a shot. However, GMU has 4 horrible losses, to teams now rated #157, 173, #203, & #288. That is ugly. VCU is also a dangerous team that could also make it, but they have much work to do. ECU upsetting GMU & NCST doesn't give CUSA a 2nd bid though.

I agree, and it's bizarre to see an ECU fan waving a Memphis banner here. I'm sure most Tiger fans would prefer if he left us out of this. We have nothing to prove to the Big East fans in hoops, considering it's been over 3 years since we've lost to a BE squad.


But seriously, it was obvious when our schedules came out that CUSA
would be a one bid league again. Hell, we get a team in the NIT and it'll be a feat.

I wave the "Memphis banner", because I was born in West Tennesse and I had a large number of family members (uncles, aunts and siblings) and friends that attended Memphis, when it was still called Memphis State. And while I may have grown up in Chicago, I still spent every summer of my childhood working on my Grandparents farms in West Tennessee; in fact I still maintain a home in West Tennessee and I have countless relatives that live here. Moreover, I have performed clinical work at the University of Memphis; and I have had the opportunity to attend several Tiger games this year. So please forgive me for "waving the banner", but I believe that I have more than a passing interest in the University of Memphis.

BTW, I attended ECU while I was in the military in N.C., but I actually graduated from Illinois. So I actually root for several schools, notably: ECU, Illinois and Memphis. I also begrudingly root for UNC, NCSU and Tennesse, which stems from the fact that my Paternal Grandparents moved to Tennessee from North Carolina. I hope that I was able to shed some light on this issue for you.

Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year.

bitcruncher Wrote:Win some games and you're in. It's that simple.

They can't win gaqmes because Florida is a hot bed for FB not BB.
We knew when they were invited that BB would take longer fo0r USF to get up to speed......
Good luck bulls

PirateMarv Wrote:

Bambu Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:Memphis victories probably opened the door for other schools in CUSA, CAA, MAC, MWC and MVC to get extra bids. In fact many of these leagues overall strength of schdules are rated pretty close to your league's SOS.

So I would think that Memphis took 1-2 bids from your conference. Did I miss anything?

Lastly, I am lost as to how Memphis leads to more bids for CUSA, the MVC, or CAA? Not being derogatory on this point, I simply don't see the reasoning. What am I missing?

First of all Memphis has beaten most of the teams in your conference that you all are touting for the Big Dance. I am unclear as to how in your mind Houston and maybe even a Tulane could possibly be left out, since Memphis beat the crap of everybody? How do you phathom that a BEast team can get more cred than a CUSA team for losing to a common opponent? Not only that, but have you been watching G. Mason and VCU this year? Both of those teams are going, and since ECU beat Mason and N.C. State that strenghtens CUSA's case for the second just that much more.

I saw the need to reply this individually, since it was a question directed to me. To answer the question, I am completely clear in saying Houston and Tulane are not NCAA deserving at this time. They could play their way in by winning nearly every remaining game they have left, but that is unlikely. As it stands tonight, neither team would even draw remote at-large interest. They would not even be 1 of the last 10 left out.

Houston's Profile:
-15-4 (4-1), RPI of 84, SOS of 162
-An 0-4 record against the Top 100. 3 of the 4 losses by double digits, despite 2 being home games.
-A 10-0 record against Teams 201-341. That is a very high number of sub-200 opponents. These should be sure wins for tourney teams, and I think the committee nearly ignores them, even for ACC or Big East teams.
-A 5-0 record against teams #101-200. The only redeeming aspect.

To put it bluntly, zero Top 100 wins and your top win being against a 14-8 MAAC team (Marist) isn't NCAA. It is a clear cut NIT profile, with little debate. Now, as they have shown, Houston is good enough to win nearly every time out against sub-100's, and thus will start racking up wins in CUSA play. They should finish with a gaudy record, and it will be needed to be considered for the NCAA.

Tulane's Profile:
-13-6 (4-2), RPI of 125, SOS of 210
-An 0-3 record against the Top 100
-Is there much else to say? No one here is recommending South Florida for the NCAA, despite being 1 of the 14 teams rated higher than Tulane.

As for your whole "Memphis" paragraph that I quoted, I still see no sound logic being represented. Let me say this to make it clear that I am not just hating on CUSA. Memphis hands down deserves 100% of the first place votes in both polls come Monday morning. They are playing great. That said, the Tigers' domination in no way means CUSA deserves a 2nd bid.

You claim GMU and VCU are near locks. Both are far from a sure thing. Sure, both have a shot. However, GMU has 4 horrible losses, to teams now rated #157, 173, #203, & #288. That is ugly. VCU is also a dangerous team that could also make it, but they have much work to do. ECU upsetting GMU & NCST doesn't give CUSA a 2nd bid though.

I agree, and it's bizarre to see an ECU fan waving a Memphis banner here. I'm sure most Tiger fans would prefer if he left us out of this. We have nothing to prove to the Big East fans in hoops, considering it's been over 3 years since we've lost to a BE squad.


But seriously, it was obvious when our schedules came out that CUSA
would be a one bid league again. Hell, we get a team in the NIT and it'll be a feat.

Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year. BTW, unless Memphis is no longer a member of CUSA, wouldn't the wins of a CUSA team against another conference strengthen CUSA's overall conference position? And if CUSA's overall conference position is strengthened wouldn't that help Tulane and Houston?

So in essence, you are saying that us BE fans are relying too much on the strength of our conference to justify getting more bids (7) into the ncaa tourney? But arent you doing the same thing when you are relying on Memphis' wins to strengthen Cusa' chances of getting additional bids for Tulane and Houston?

Do you now see why noone takes you seriously over here?

PirateMarv Wrote:Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year. BTW, unless Memphis is no longer a member of CUSA, wouldn't the wins of a CUSA team against another conference strengthen CUSA's overall conference position? And if CUSA's overall conference position is strengthened wouldn't that help Tulane and Houston?

In regards to what I bolded, the strength of a conference is very much made up by what they did OOC. As for CUSA, of course upset wins by their 11 members or wins by Memphis help the league. It seems you are telling Big East fans they are judged by OOC wins. If that is the case, how in the world are Houston and Tulane even in discussion with zero Top 100 wins?

cuseroc Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

Bambu Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:Memphis victories probably opened the door for other schools in CUSA, CAA, MAC, MWC and MVC to get extra bids. In fact many of these leagues overall strength of schdules are rated pretty close to your league's SOS.

So I would think that Memphis took 1-2 bids from your conference. Did I miss anything?

Lastly, I am lost as to how Memphis leads to more bids for CUSA, the MVC, or CAA? Not being derogatory on this point, I simply don't see the reasoning. What am I missing?

First of all Memphis has beaten most of the teams in your conference that you all are touting for the Big Dance. I am unclear as to how in your mind Houston and maybe even a Tulane could possibly be left out, since Memphis beat the crap of everybody? How do you phathom that a BEast team can get more cred than a CUSA team for losing to a common opponent? Not only that, but have you been watching G. Mason and VCU this year? Both of those teams are going, and since ECU beat Mason and N.C. State that strenghtens CUSA's case for the second just that much more.

I saw the need to reply this individually, since it was a question directed to me. To answer the question, I am completely clear in saying Houston and Tulane are not NCAA deserving at this time. They could play their way in by winning nearly every remaining game they have left, but that is unlikely. As it stands tonight, neither team would even draw remote at-large interest. They would not even be 1 of the last 10 left out.

Houston's Profile:
-15-4 (4-1), RPI of 84, SOS of 162
-An 0-4 record against the Top 100. 3 of the 4 losses by double digits, despite 2 being home games.
-A 10-0 record against Teams 201-341. That is a very high number of sub-200 opponents. These should be sure wins for tourney teams, and I think the committee nearly ignores them, even for ACC or Big East teams.
-A 5-0 record against teams #101-200. The only redeeming aspect.

To put it bluntly, zero Top 100 wins and your top win being against a 14-8 MAAC team (Marist) isn't NCAA. It is a clear cut NIT profile, with little debate. Now, as they have shown, Houston is good enough to win nearly every time out against sub-100's, and thus will start racking up wins in CUSA play. They should finish with a gaudy record, and it will be needed to be considered for the NCAA.

Tulane's Profile:
-13-6 (4-2), RPI of 125, SOS of 210
-An 0-3 record against the Top 100
-Is there much else to say? No one here is recommending South Florida for the NCAA, despite being 1 of the 14 teams rated higher than Tulane.

As for your whole "Memphis" paragraph that I quoted, I still see no sound logic being represented. Let me say this to make it clear that I am not just hating on CUSA. Memphis hands down deserves 100% of the first place votes in both polls come Monday morning. They are playing great. That said, the Tigers' domination in no way means CUSA deserves a 2nd bid.

You claim GMU and VCU are near locks. Both are far from a sure thing. Sure, both have a shot. However, GMU has 4 horrible losses, to teams now rated #157, 173, #203, & #288. That is ugly. VCU is also a dangerous team that could also make it, but they have much work to do. ECU upsetting GMU & NCST doesn't give CUSA a 2nd bid though.

I agree, and it's bizarre to see an ECU fan waving a Memphis banner here. I'm sure most Tiger fans would prefer if he left us out of this. We have nothing to prove to the Big East fans in hoops, considering it's been over 3 years since we've lost to a BE squad.


But seriously, it was obvious when our schedules came out that CUSA
would be a one bid league again. Hell, we get a team in the NIT and it'll be a feat.

Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year. BTW, unless Memphis is no longer a member of CUSA, wouldn't the wins of a CUSA team against another conference strengthen CUSA's overall conference position? And if CUSA's overall conference position is strengthened wouldn't that help Tulane and Houston?

So in essence, you are saying that us BE fans are relying too much on the strength of our conference to justify getting more bids (7) into the ncaa tourney? But arent you doing the same thing when you are relying on Memphis' wins to strengthen Cusa' chances of getting additional bids for Tulane and Houston?

Do you now see why noone takes you seriously over here?

There is no need for personal attacks. I try to act with civility, so I would hope that people would extend the same courtesy to me.

No, my point was that other conferences know that they have to win non-conference games to bolster their positions. No other conference except the BE expects to get this many teams into the tournament; so in order to get there, the BE would have to distinguish themselves by showing domination of the other conferences. Where has the domination been to deserve this many bids? Additionally, head-to- head matchups are still viewed by the committee; so even though statistical rankings are nice, head-to-head still counts.

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year. BTW, unless Memphis is no longer a member of CUSA, wouldn't the wins of a CUSA team against another conference strengthen CUSA's overall conference position? And if CUSA's overall conference position is strengthened wouldn't that help Tulane and Houston?

In regards to what I bolded, the strength of a conference is very much made up by what they did OOC. As for CUSA, of course upset wins by their 11 members or wins by Memphis help the league. It seems you are telling Big East fans they are judged by OOC wins. If that is the case, how in the world are Houston and Tulane even in discussion with zero Top 100 wins?

Good point. While I have been looking at the BE OOC as a whole, I had not necessarily assigned the same weight to Houston and Tulane's showings. Excellent point. I will retract my question to that Tiger fan.

I just hope the cuse can string some wins together,we have really good RPI and SOS numbers this year. I think if SU can get 20 wins we should be good, only 6 more wins to go.

PirateMarv Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

Bambu Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:

CollegeCard Wrote:

PirateMarv Wrote:Memphis victories probably opened the door for other schools in CUSA, CAA, MAC, MWC and MVC to get extra bids. In fact many of these leagues overall strength of schdules are rated pretty close to your league's SOS.

So I would think that Memphis took 1-2 bids from your conference. Did I miss anything?

Lastly, I am lost as to how Memphis leads to more bids for CUSA, the MVC, or CAA? Not being derogatory on this point, I simply don't see the reasoning. What am I missing?

First of all Memphis has beaten most of the teams in your conference that you all are touting for the Big Dance. I am unclear as to how in your mind Houston and maybe even a Tulane could possibly be left out, since Memphis beat the crap of everybody? How do you phathom that a BEast team can get more cred than a CUSA team for losing to a common opponent? Not only that, but have you been watching G. Mason and VCU this year? Both of those teams are going, and since ECU beat Mason and N.C. State that strenghtens CUSA's case for the second just that much more.

I saw the need to reply this individually, since it was a question directed to me. To answer the question, I am completely clear in saying Houston and Tulane are not NCAA deserving at this time. They could play their way in by winning nearly every remaining game they have left, but that is unlikely. As it stands tonight, neither team would even draw remote at-large interest. They would not even be 1 of the last 10 left out.

Houston's Profile:
-15-4 (4-1), RPI of 84, SOS of 162
-An 0-4 record against the Top 100. 3 of the 4 losses by double digits, despite 2 being home games.
-A 10-0 record against Teams 201-341. That is a very high number of sub-200 opponents. These should be sure wins for tourney teams, and I think the committee nearly ignores them, even for ACC or Big East teams.
-A 5-0 record against teams #101-200. The only redeeming aspect.

To put it bluntly, zero Top 100 wins and your top win being against a 14-8 MAAC team (Marist) isn't NCAA. It is a clear cut NIT profile, with little debate. Now, as they have shown, Houston is good enough to win nearly every time out against sub-100's, and thus will start racking up wins in CUSA play. They should finish with a gaudy record, and it will be needed to be considered for the NCAA.

Tulane's Profile:
-13-6 (4-2), RPI of 125, SOS of 210
-An 0-3 record against the Top 100
-Is there much else to say? No one here is recommending South Florida for the NCAA, despite being 1 of the 14 teams rated higher than Tulane.

As for your whole "Memphis" paragraph that I quoted, I still see no sound logic being represented. Let me say this to make it clear that I am not just hating on CUSA. Memphis hands down deserves 100% of the first place votes in both polls come Monday morning. They are playing great. That said, the Tigers' domination in no way means CUSA deserves a 2nd bid.

You claim GMU and VCU are near locks. Both are far from a sure thing. Sure, both have a shot. However, GMU has 4 horrible losses, to teams now rated #157, 173, #203, & #288. That is ugly. VCU is also a dangerous team that could also make it, but they have much work to do. ECU upsetting GMU & NCST doesn't give CUSA a 2nd bid though.

I agree, and it's bizarre to see an ECU fan waving a Memphis banner here. I'm sure most Tiger fans would prefer if he left us out of this. We have nothing to prove to the Big East fans in hoops, considering it's been over 3 years since we've lost to a BE squad.


But seriously, it was obvious when our schedules came out that CUSA
would be a one bid league again. Hell, we get a team in the NIT and it'll be a feat.

Finally, the matter that I was trying to address, albeit badly, is that the posters are relying to a great extent upon the strength of their conference to justify the bids, but IMO this matter is going to be resolved by looking at the OOC work of these teams; which is what happened to the BE last year. BTW, unless Memphis is no longer a member of CUSA, wouldn't the wins of a CUSA team against another conference strengthen CUSA's overall conference position? And if CUSA's overall conference position is strengthened wouldn't that help Tulane and Houston?

So in essence, you are saying that us BE fans are relying too much on the strength of our conference to justify getting more bids (7) into the ncaa tourney? But arent you doing the same thing when you are relying on Memphis' wins to strengthen Cusa' chances of getting additional bids for Tulane and Houston?

Do you now see why noone takes you seriously over here?

There is no need for personal attacks. I try to act with civility, so I would hope that people would extend the same courtesy to me.

No, my point was that other conferences know that they have to win non-conference games to bolster their positions. No other conference except the BE expects to get this many teams into the tournament; so in order to get there, the BE would have to distinguish themselves by showing domination of the other conferences. Where has the domination been to deserve this many bids? Additionally, head-to- head matchups are still viewed by the committee; so even though statistical rankings are nice, head-to-head still counts.

OK, I apologize for getting a little personal with you. This is all in fun as far as I am concerned, so I did not mean to offend. But you have to admit that some of the things that you were saying has no merit.

gdayre Wrote:How does the schools OOC rank look? Remember, last year that was used against big east schools. I have no dog in this hunt. I was just wondering. I also think the NIT will effect all bcs conferences.

In terms of individual teams' OOC rankings here you go, taken from jerrypalm's CollegeRPI site -

Syracuse - #5
Cincinnati - #6
St. John's - #13
UConn - #15
DePaul - #26
Providence - #29
Louisville - #30
Pitt - #39
Marquette - #44
West Virginia - #45
South Florida - #46
Georgetown - #67
Seton Hall - #68
Rutgers - #85
Notre Dame - #87
Villanova - #91

The Big East is the only conference this year with every team's OOC strength in the Top 100.

The ACC and the Big 12 are the next closest with 11 of 12 teams in the top 100. For the ACC the team that missed out was Wake Forest at 104 and for the Big 12, Nebraska at 188.

The SEC has 3 three teams with OOC SOS's greater than 100 - Georgia at 111, Florida at 151, and Auburn at 202 (the worse of the BCS conference teams).

The Pac 10 has 3 three teams out of 10 with OOC SOS's greater than 100 - Stanford at 106, Oregon State at 137, and Arizona State at 148.

Finally the Big Ten has 4 out of 11 with OOC SOS's greather than 100 - Minnesota, just missing out at 101, Northwestern at 117, and shamefully Purdue at 127 and Indiana at 131.

The teams in blue are teams I have seen in either Lunardi's or Rivals Bracketologies this past week. The two Big East teams in red are longshots, but each could make a case if they can keep on winning the way they have been.

Again, a lot can happen between now and March, but in terms of RPI numbers, overall SOS, and even non-conference SOS, a lot of Big East teams match up well against teams some think are so much better.

Cheers,
Neil

If Cincinnati keeps winning like they have, they'll be in there.

There were a lot of comments in this thread from one poster in particular who claimed the Big East had accomplished nothing in terms of OOC wins and had really, really bad losses.

So, since I am sitting at home in the midst of an ice-storm, I decided to go check out just how well or how poorly the league did OOC in comparison with other BCS leagues in terms of good OOC wins (defined as wins over teams with an RPI between 1-35) and bad OOC losses (defined as losses to teams with RPI 100+) . In no particular order -

Big 12 - The league has 6 teams that are competing for NCAA bids. Those 6 teams have good OOC wins over Arizona, Tennessee, UCLA, St. Mary's, Ohio State and Gonzaga. They also have no bad losses.

Big East - There are currently 9 teams in contention for NCAA bids. The best OOC wins for this group of 9 are Duke, Wisconsin, Kansas State, Indiana, and UNLV. The only bad OOC loss belongs to Seton Hall, who lost to Penn State.

ACC - Currently I see 5 teams in contention for bids. The best wins from this league are Wisconsin, Marquette, and Ohio State. This group however also has three bad OOC losses against Winthrop, New Orleans and ECU.

Pac-10 - This league currently has 6 teams now in contention for bids. The best OOC wins for them are Michigan State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Gonzaga, and UNLV. The bad OOC losses include Virginia, Siena, and Mercer.

SEC - The league has 6 teams in contention for bids. Their best OOC wins are against Xavier, UMass, Gonzaga, Clemson, Baylor, and South Alabama (twice). They have no bad OOC losses.

B10 - This league has 5 teams in contention for bids. Their only great OOC wins were against Texas twice. The one bad loss was by Purdue against Wofford.

Once again, in terms of this measurement, the Big East as a conference and the individual teams within the conference vying for bids stack up well. Are they the best in this area? No. But this measurement hardly makes the conference or the potential tourney teams appear weak, as claimed.

Cheers,
Neil

Omni, I look at the ECU loss for the ACC as a great loss!

Brick City Pirate Wrote:Omni, I look at the ECU loss for the ACC as a great loss!

You're one of the few.

The only ones who agree with you are in Greenville too.

This has been an interesting read. As I read it, I was struck by how much Memphis' likely undefeated run reminds me of the last two teams that made it through to the tournament unscathed, but from a conference that wasn't known for getting multiple bids. In 1991, UNLV ran the table in the Big West as well as out of conference, and entered the NCAA tournament as the #1 ranked team. Anybody want to take a stab at how many other Big West teams were invited in 1991 (when the tournament took 64 teams)?

Before UNLV, the next team to run the table heading into the tournament was Larry Bird's Indiana State squad in 1979. It's not quite fair to compare that year, because the tournament only took 40 teams back then, but the Sycamores coattails sure didn't get any additional Missouri Valley teams in the tournament.

Actually, looking back at that 1979 tournament, it's pretty remarkable that 9 current Big East teams were in the field of 40...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_NCAA_M...Tournament

USFFan