CSNbbs

ESPN Football Blog. Nothing really new here.:odie:

Ranking the non-AQ conferences
May, 24, 2010 May 2411:00AM

By Graham Watson

If the season started today, where would you rank the nonautomatic qualifying conferences?

The notion of ranking the conference didn’t serve as more than braggin’ rights until recently when the BCS announced that conference standing in the computer rankings would be a part of the criteria for determining automatic qualifying status.

So where would you put each of the non-AQs?

ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach ranked each of the FBS conferences, but I decided to weigh in on where I thought the nonautomatic qualifiers should fall if the season were to start today.

No. 6 Mountain West: This is a tough call because the Mountain West isn’t going to start the season as strong as it has in the past. TCU likely will be the only preseason ranked team, but it will probably be ranked higher than any Big East team. However, the Big East will probably be better across the board to begin the season. Utah, BYU and Air Force all have the talent to end up in the rankings at some point this year and the schedules should give those teams -- with undefeated seasons -- another opportunity at a BCS bowl berth.

No. 8 WAC: Boise State is the gem of the WAC and it will open the season ranked in the top three nationally. However, the rest of the conference leaves a little something to be desired. Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii all have shown flashes of being contenders, but none have been able to sustain it, especially against better competition. However, there’s a little more overall strength in this conference than some of the conferences below it. Idaho should once again be a bowl contender, and Louisiana Tech and Utah State should have better seasons.

No. 9 Conference USA: C-USA and the WAC could be interchangeable if it weren’t for Boise State. Similar to the WAC, C-USA has a lot of strength across the board, but it has yet to have a team really dominate the way Boise State has done in the WAC. Tulsa, East Carolina and Houston have had opportunities to really move the conference into the upper tier, but none of those teams have been able to sustain their momentum once the spotlight shined in their direction. There are good teams, though. In addition to the aforementioned, Central Florida, SMU and Southern Miss all have an opportunity to win the league and UTEP and Marshall could be dangerous.

No. 10 Mid-American Conference: The MAC has made some definite strides in the past few years, but with the loss of some of the more publicized players, it will once again be struggling for national attention. This league has a long way to go to catch up to some of its non-AQ brethren, but there are some talented teams with Northern Illinois, Temple and Ohio. This conference will have many opportunities to prove itself, especially against AQ foes, but there has to be a level of consistency by more than one team before it can overtake any of the conferences ahead of it.

No. 11 Sun Belt: The Sun Belt is celebrating its 10th season and it’s definitely made some major progress during that time. There have been a lot of key upsets and stellar games that have put this conference on the map, but the overall talent level is still lacking. It’s good that the Sun Belt has more bowl opportunities this year because it will be able to showcase some of the teams that have been nationally neglected such as Louisiana-Lafayette, Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State.

It's a perception thing with the SBC. We are perceived as being bad going into eavery season due to the number of BCS OOC games each team in the SBC plays. It is true that we have made extraordinary strides in the 10 years of our existence. Now, we must continue to land mid-week nationally televised games in order to increase our brand. We must also work to reduce the number of BCS OOC games each team plays every year. Doing this will allow the true talents of the SBC to shine through, and change the perceptions of the media. The thing now is to find out how we can reasonably reduce the number of BCS OOC teams each team plays. The main reason for such games is money. Therefore, the league officials need to work with the schools to determine ways in which revenue can be increased throughout the league in order to substitute for the revenue received from playing the BCS OOC games.

I don't view us beneath the MAC, CUSA or all but a couple of WAC teams.
If you give us a home and home, I'll be surprised if we don't split them.

I definitely see us above the MAC.... I'd sad we're on the save level as C-USA, but in no way better.

Once UNT and WKU start winning games and when Troy starts winning bowl games we (the SBC) will be on the right track. GO SBC!!

I definitely think CUSA is making strides. The days are gone when a 6-6 team is the Belt champ. I guess a few potential MAC BCS busters keep them ranked ahead...I think the Belt could make the case that they are ahead.

Surely the Sun Belt talent level isn't behind the MAC?

Troy, UNT, MT, FIU, WKU, and ASU have had some pretty sweet recruiting classes the past 2-3 seasons.. better than most of the MAC teams in that span.

Head to head, I say we hang with the MAC and Conf USA. It's really a matter of perception at this point. It has been for three years. It's just a matter of time before it's very obvious we are as good, if not better than most or all Non AQ conferences. We make huge strides every year and I don't see it stopping. We are a South Eastern oriented conference. This will eventually help us surpass most others.

(05-24-2010 07:09 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]Surely the Sun Belt talent level isn't behind the MAC?

Troy, UNT, MT, FIU, WKU, and ASU have had some pretty sweet recruiting classes the past 2-3 seasons.. better than most of the MAC teams in that span.

No, the talent level in the SBC is not behind the MAC. The MAC has been playing football for something like 60 years and the SBC has been playing football for 10 years. The MAC is a better known football name and that is all and that will change.

(05-24-2010 10:00 PM)ManzanoWolf Wrote: [ -> ]

(05-24-2010 07:09 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote: [ -> ]Surely the Sun Belt talent level isn't behind the MAC?

Troy, UNT, MT, FIU, WKU, and ASU have had some pretty sweet recruiting classes the past 2-3 seasons.. better than most of the MAC teams in that span.

No, the talent level in the SBC is not behind the MAC. The MAC has been playing football for something like 60 years and the SBC has been playing football for 10 years. The MAC is a better known football name and that is all and that will change.

Agree 100%. A brand recognition thing.

I agree. On the field our teams are at least as good as the MAC. But I don't know the formual these people use when ranking the Non-AQ conferences. If we are even on the field what formual is used to break the tie?

As a conference, we do have a problem with perception. Is some of it deserved?

Many of our universities don't fund their athletic programs at a level respected by the other non-AQs. I think Arkansas State had an athletic budget of around $9 million. My school North Texas only budgets around $16 million, and I think that is too little. Fair or not, it reflects poorly on our conference. I hear all the time about the academic standards at Troy. Again, it reflects on all of the Belt schools. Some of our teams play in stadiums that are worse then the local high schools in their area (North Texas, but we are fixing that). And half of our teams can't draw flies.

We can't control what others think about our conference, but we can control the facts upon which we will be judged. If we are truely going to build the Sun Belt into a stronger conference, these issues must be overcome.

We're probably ranked behind the MAC because our champ got pantsed by MAC teams twice last year.

(05-25-2010 09:00 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote: [ -> ]I agree. On the field our teams are at least as good as the MAC. But I don't know the formual these people use when ranking the Non-AQ conferences. If we are even on the field what formual is used to break the tie?

As a conference, we do have a problem with perception. Is some of it deserved?

Many of our universities don't fund their athletic programs at a level respected by the other non-AQs. I think Arkansas State had an athletic budget of around $9 million. My school North Texas only budgets around $16 million, and I think that is too little. Fair or not, it reflects poorly on our conference. I hear all the time about the academic standards at Troy. Again, it reflects on all of the Belt schools. Some of our teams play in stadiums that are worse then the local high schools in their area (North Texas, but we are fixing that). And half of our teams can't draw flies.

We can't control what others think about our conference, but we can control the facts upon which we will be judged. If we are truely going to build the Sun Belt into a stronger conference, these issues must be overcome.

I seriously doubt anyone at ESPN gives a crap about APR's.

Troy laid a huge egg at Bowling Green and lost a tight one in double overtime to the #25 ranked team. The first was horrible, especially after driving 14 hours to watch it. The second, CMU made one more play then we did.