CSNbbs

Since CMU is good for the first time in forever, it would have been fun to see who they might have been matched up with. I always liked the event because it was cool seeing some of the better mid-majors go head to head.

(02-15-2015 08:05 AM)arrows80 Wrote: [ -> ]Since CMU is good for the first time in forever, it would have been fun to see who they might have been matched up with. I always liked the event because it was cool seeing some of the better mid-majors go head to head.

Here are the Sagarins by team.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/2015/team/

Maybe some one like IL. State, Memphis, Richmond, etc.??

Fun to consider the possibilities. Anyone remember why the event was discontinued? Am I the only one who misses it?

(02-15-2015 08:37 AM)arrows80 Wrote: [ -> ]Fun to consider the possibilities. Anyone remember why the event was discontinued? Am I the only one who misses it?

Yup
Mostly uninspiring match ups that took the steam out of the conference season


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It didn't do much for the bottom teams in each conference. Lousy teams vs. lousy teams with a return game the next season. Ugh. It was great for the top teams, though.

KSU had some classic match-ups over the years: Creighton, SIU, St. Mary's, Hawaii (when they were good, came to the MACC) etc. I remember the BB fondly, but I think it just ran its course. It became a bit unwieldy. In the first year, there weren't so many teams involved. It got too big and for the majority of the teams, pointless. I can see why they didn't like it.

I don't miss it, all it did was guarantee loses to the mid-majors to other mid-majors so at tournament time they could downgrade them either further when reviewing those looking for at large bids or for seeding purposes. A win over another mid-major doesn't give you as much leverage as you'd think, probably less than a tight loss to a power conference team. Instead of matching our mid-majors up they should take the top half of the teams in the mid-major conferences and pair them with the bottom half of the major conferences.

I liked BracketBusters. It seems like the MAC schedules a Big 10 school or 2 and a lot of cupcakes and rarely plays the best the other MAC-like schools have to offer.

(02-15-2015 08:27 AM)emu steve Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-15-2015 08:05 AM)arrows80 Wrote: [ -> ]Since CMU is good for the first time in forever, it would have been fun to see who they might have been matched up with. I always liked the event because it was cool seeing some of the better mid-majors go head to head.

Here are the Sagarins by team.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/2015/team/

Maybe some one like IL. State, Memphis, Richmond, etc.??

Memphis didn't play in Bracket Busters. They aren't in a P5 conference but they aren't a mid-major either.

I liked Bracket Busters too - but maybe it got to involve too many teams. In the end, though, it wasn't going to do what it intended to do. I don't think it would have ever brought the MAC a second tournament bid

(02-15-2015 07:41 PM)Bronco14 Wrote: [ -> ]I liked BracketBusters. It seems like the MAC schedules a Big 10 school or 2 and a lot of cupcakes and rarely plays the best the other MAC-like schools have to offer.

This. I liked that it gave us return games with mid majors that probably wouldn't schedule us otherwise. We got a home game against a very good Green Bay team last year because of it.

Since most of the perennial at-large contending mid majors are now in power conferences (Butler, Creighton), or in the A10 tier (VCU, George Mason), I don't think we'll ever see "BracketBusters" again. However, I'd love to see a similar format with a different name, and perhaps have the game at the very end of the OOC season. I know it's hard to gauge how good teams are in OOC play (prime example, my school), so match ups may be tough to form, but it would be a great way to get ready for conference play. Not to mention the return game.

That's just what I'd like to see. It won't ever happen though.

My opinion is BracketBusters have been replaced by something better: the plethera of in-season tourneys that are exempt from the number of games played by a team. MAC coaches who think their squad will be good need to schedule into a tourney on a neutral court against some P5 competition. It worked for Akron this year, except the Zips have been too inconsistent to have it pay off.

Nobody has mentioned it, but 2 or 3 or 4 MAC teams always got an ESPN or ESPN2 game against a top team from another conference. That is something we no longer have. I personally miss it and think it was good for our conference, maybe not for some others.

I'd like to see the MAC have some conference vs conference challenges. Horizon, Summit, Mo Valley, Sun Belt, CUSA etc... Have 4 or 6 of our teams play 4-6 of theirs over a weekend. Equal number of home/away games. Late in the OOC so we have a little experience by then. It might give us a leg up on other conferences if we do well but of course the reverse is also true. If we can get a couple on TV or ESPN3, all the better.

I also like the holiday tournaments. They are good exposure and can sometimes get us a game on a neutral floor against a P5 team.

I think we already do that with the Horizon league and perhaps the Summit already in terms of number of teams. We just don't make it an event or do it all at the same time but we play a lot of those teams.