(02-14-2018 06:27 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: In the last five years the Missouri Valley, A-10, Mountain West, and C-USA lost Xavier, Butler, Creighton, Wichita, Memphis, and Utah. These 6 teams probably averaged 3 bids in most years. Those bids are no longer going to mid-major conferences.
But it's not because the remaining mid-major schools are any further behind. Rather, the remaining mid-majors (with the exception of Gonzaga, Dayton, and a few more) never had the fan support or resources to compete. They just used to get routinely blown out by the Butlers and Creightons who dominated their conference.
No doubt. Realignment hasn't been kind to the Missouri Valley and A10.
The MWC's problem is that UNLV, San Diego State, and New Mexico have been down the last 4 or 5 years. I don't think it's because of a comparative lack of resources...but more on poor coaching, watered down schedules, and P6-leaning NCAA selections. These schools still beat out most P6 teams in attendance and have some pretty decent recruiting classes.
I note that UNLV has two 4-star commits in its current class and its leading scorer and rebounder this season is a 5-star player; SDSU is #61 in the current rankings (ahead of at least 18 P6 programs) and has 4-star players on its current roster.
Last year's recruiting rankings saw Western Kentucky and UNLV in the top-20. Memphis, Cincinnati, and Buffalo also grabbed top players. Saint Louis, SMU, Houston, Temple, UTEP, Tulsa, VCU, and even Middle Tennessee and Stephen F. Austin had recruiting classes as strong as (or stronger than) many P6 programs.
If you look at the 2018 team recruiting rankings, you see Rhode Island, Wichita St., UConn, Harvard, Santa Clara, Gonzaga, Saint Louis, UNLV, Houston, and Buffalo have grabbed 4+ star talent. UAB, San Diego State, Old Dominion, USF, Buffalo, UCSB, UMass and even ECU are beating out plenty of P6 programs.
As mentioned in a previous post, it appears the article's author puts too much focus on some upset wins - like St. Johns' wins over Duke and Villanova - to try to prove an overstated perspective.
The author could have focused his analysis on Temple's wins over projected 2-seed Auburn and 3-seed Clemson...or SMU's wins over 4-seed Arizona and USC and created a completely different story line.