CSNbbs

http://espn1420.com/sun-belt-basketball-...irds-nest/

Part one of two. Part two offers solutions.

I must say, I find it interesting that the writers who support the teams that were in the finals of the conference championship last year are saying that the conference is broken this year.

Interesting read BoP

It's interesting that a man who has called just about every cajun game for 30 years, watched every sunbelt team court side for 30 years couldn't possibly have an informed opinion of the league without doing just because a team who has been in the league for 15 games leads it. Yall have some paranoid fans. Regardless of what anyone thinks, our league RPI and only have 1 team in the top 100 speaks for itself. We are staying a play in game right in the face, that's how far the league has fallen. It's been happening for a couple years now, it isn't just this year.

If y'all would've just let us run away with the conference this year we wouldn't be in this mess!

(02-03-2015 10:10 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]It's interesting that a man who has called just about every cajun game for 30 years, watched every sunbelt team court side for 30 years couldn't possibly have an informed opinion of the league without doing just because a team who has been in the league for 15 games leads it. Yall have some paranoid fans. Regardless of what anyone thinks, our league RPI and only have 1 team in the top 100 speaks for itself. We are staying a play in game right in the face, that's how far the league has fallen. It's been happening for a couple years now, it isn't just this year.

Oh I'm not saying he's wrong. It's just interesting coincidence to me.

At least he didn't make any veiled (or poorly veiled) jabs at us like someone else did. I did think it was a good article.

(02-03-2015 10:00 AM)eaglewraith Wrote: [ -> ]I must say, I find it interesting that the writers who support the teams that were in the finals of the conference championship last year are saying that the conference is broken this year.

Jerk....the numbers don't lie.

(02-03-2015 10:30 AM)eaglewraith Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2015 10:10 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]It's interesting that a man who has called just about every cajun game for 30 years, watched every sunbelt team court side for 30 years couldn't possibly have an informed opinion of the league without doing just because a team who has been in the league for 15 games leads it. Yall have some paranoid fans. Regardless of what anyone thinks, our league RPI and only have 1 team in the top 100 speaks for itself. We are staying a play in game right in the face, that's how far the league has fallen. It's been happening for a couple years now, it isn't just this year.

Oh I'm not saying he's wrong. It's just interesting coincidence to me.

At least he didn't make any veiled (or poorly veiled) jabs at us like someone else did. I did think it was a good article.

This was the first year of the 20 game conference schedule. Might have something to do with it.

(02-03-2015 10:00 AM)eaglewraith Wrote: [ -> ]I must say, I find it interesting that the writers who support the teams that were in the finals of the conference championship last year are saying that the conference is broken this year.

Why? Maybe you are happy with this being a one bid conference. We are not. More bids equals more conference recognition and more $$$ for conference teams. I would figure everyone would like.

Lol.

And it's easy to get Georgia Southern fans riled up?

Besides, wasn't there discussion in the Sun Belt meetings about changing the scheduling next year anyway?

A league rule needs to be passed to limit non-d1 games to 1, that needs to be done yesterday.

(02-03-2015 10:48 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]A league rule needs to be passed to limit non-d1 games to 1, that needs to be done yesterday.

+1

(02-03-2015 10:48 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]A league rule needs to be passed to limit non-d1 games to 1, that needs to be done yesterday.

I'm hoping the reason we played more than one is shuffling our schedule due to moving up, but we've had a history of that in the past.

I just hope it gets better. We'll see.

APP State played ARK stAte on one trip and UALR on a totally different trip.WHY??


I do not see the reason or logic for this.It is moronic.

WHO made that decision and what possible reasoning could they have used?

(don't tell me it was because of a twenty game sched.--not true)

(02-03-2015 10:48 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]A league rule needs to be passed to limit non-d1 games to 1, that needs to be done yesterday.

I agree that conference perception is hurt by non-D1 games, but doesn't league RPI suffer more from playing weak D1 opponents (since non-D1 games don't count)? I could be wrong there.

EDIT: Not saying we shouldn't pass that rule...just noting that there's a separate issue that may need to be addressed.

(02-03-2015 11:29 AM)Pounce FTW Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-03-2015 10:48 AM)Louisiana99 Wrote: [ -> ]A league rule needs to be passed to limit non-d1 games to 1, that needs to be done yesterday.

I agree that conference perception is hurt by non-D1 games, but doesn't league RPI suffer more from playing weak D1 opponents (since non-D1 games don't count)? I could be wrong there.

EDIT: Not saying we shouldn't pass that rule...just noting that there's a separate issue that may need to be addressed.

Hard to find weaker D-1 opponents than ourselves... We can't posfibky hurt our RPI any worse, by scheduling non-d1 we aren't giving ourselves as a league a chance to improve rpi, it pads mediocre coaches stats so they stay longer being mediocre. Overall it just isn't good for the league. A couple years ago sunbelt baseball was down and had a bad year across the board. The baseball coaches vowed together at the media days to return the SBC to a strong conference, to schedule better and make sure to not allow the SBC to become a 1 bid league. They refused to accept mediocrity collectively.

In a lot of ways, basketball should follow the baseball example of scheduling. As of right now, I've yet to find a single non D1 on the schedule, and every team has several OOC games against Top 100 RPI teams.

If we dont send at least three in baseball this year, it's our own fault.

I say keep the 20 game schedule-- just play 2 conference games at the end of December each year. I also strongly support limiting the non D1 games to 1. I think as a conference we played something like 25 non-D1 games this year, led by ULM with 4 and us with 3 (and maybe other teams with 3). 25 should be reduced to 11--- 1 per team. That frees up 14 more games vs. D1 competition.

Even if those extra 14 games are vs. below 200 RPI teams it is an improvement.

20 game schedule only hurts the conference in both RPI and perception, I get that it helps some individual schools with scheduling home games and travel cost, but its horrible for the conference as a whole, which in the end still hurts the individual schools.

My stance is that if you don't play home/home vs. everyone then you don't need to exclude teams from the tourney. If we go to 16 or 18 conference games then I would suggest all 11 make the tourney: Teams 6-11 play 1st round on home courts with 6 hosting 11, 7 hosting 10 and 8 hosting 9. That gets you to 8 teams-- the 5 byes and the 3 others that won in the 1st round. Then you could do it the same way we do now in New Orleans.