(02-26-2016 11:05 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: (02-26-2016 10:53 AM)mtmedlin Wrote: (02-26-2016 06:28 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: Here are the final 2015 power ratings by conference:
SEC .680
Pac-12 .653
B1G .651
Big XII .609
ACC .607
AAC .533
MAC .468
MWC .461
C-USA .418
Sun Belt .416
Difference between the AAC and the ACC: .074
Difference between the AAC and the MAC: .065
In other words, there's almost as much difference between the American Athletic Conference and the next best G5 league as there is between the AAC and the bottom of the P5. It's even further ahead of the Mountain West, and C-USA and the Sun Belt might as well be FCS leagues...
[the bar chart doesn't show up here; to see it, click on the link]
http://americanrx.blogspot.com/2016/02/f...rence.html
This clearly shows what some have been saying for a while... theres three tiers, not 2.
The SEC, Pac 12 and Big 10 are mathematically closer, whereas the Big 12, ACC and AAC are the next tier and the the G4 rounds it out.
Hold on there, partner!
SEC -- .027 -- Pac, B1G -- .042 -- Big XII, ACC -- .074 -- AAC -- .065 -- MAC, MWC -- .043 -- CUSA, Sun
I count 6 tiers... also, the gap between P5s is smaller than between the ACC and the AAC (sorry). As much as I like the American, let's not get ahead of ourselves!
Call it what you may, but the ACC is .073 away from the SEC and the AAC is .074 from the AAC. By any metric, the ACC has as the same right to be with the SEC as the AAC has to be with the ACC.
The fact that the ACC is the arbitrary floor of P5 makes little sense especially when discussing the massive income inequality.
The B1G is .042 ahead of the Big 12. Thats a decent sized gap. The Top 3 are seperated by .049, The next three are seperated by .076 and then theres a gap of .065 before getting to the bottom tier.
As far as groupings, I think this shows that there is a significant gap between the P5s and then there is a single entity out of the G5 that is an outlier. When factoring in the income inequality and rather unfair distribution of playoff, bowl and tv money I think a fair extrapolation would be that the AAC would be much closer to the ACC/B12 grouping if all income was similar or even somewhat equal.
The numbers dont lie. With roughly 1/12th the money that the Big 12 and ACC make, we are statistically within range and definitely not equal to the other G5.
At present the playoff pays each P5 conference $50 million and then lets the G5 split $75 million amongst themselves,or roughly $14 million per conference. So just for the playoffs based off an average of 12 teams, that means a G5 makes a bit over a million and a P5 makes over $4 million.
If the P5 were to include the AAC into the group and divide the total evenly ($250 million + $14 million) then each conference would get $44 million. Again based on 12 teams, that means each would only lose about $500k and the AAC would increase their income by $36 million, giving each team an increase of over $3 million.... bowls would also pay more and tv rights would also go up afterwards.
The AAC wont be looked at like an equal and were not even asking to, but getting our income up over $10-12 million (1/2 of the ACC and Big 12) would increase our competitiveness and I guarantee you would see the gap shrink massively, making the AAC numerically equal to the ACC and Big 12.