bill dazzle
Craft beer and urban living enthusiast
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RE: The AAC has had more AP Top 25 FB teams than some Power conferences have had.
(09-12-2020 10:35 AM)jedclampett Wrote: (09-11-2020 01:21 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: (09-11-2020 12:20 PM)CliftonAve Wrote: (09-11-2020 11:15 AM)cuseroc Wrote: (09-11-2020 09:18 AM)UCGrad1992 Wrote: If we're going to be critical of less competition for postseason play then please make sure you apply that criticism across the board to all of the remaining conferences. For some the AAC can never be seen in a positive light LOL. The red headed, coke bottle glasses wearing stepchild of the college football family LOL. It's all good gents. Obviously, COVID has made this a weird season but I'm thankful my Bearcats and our league is able to play and hopefully finish with some high visibility success. 
Remember when the MWC had BYU, Utah and TCU? Remember the constant chirping from their fans about them being better than the BE, and how they constantly bragged about being the best non BCS conference? They drove all the other conference fans crazy about how great they were. Most other conference fans, bcs and non bcs respected that league for their accomplishments on the field but were weary of them constantly telling everyone how great they were. No one treated the MWC as a red headed stepchild. Their fans felt that way because no one agreed with them about deserving to be part of the BCS. There is a hugely striking resemblance between the MWC of the early 2000's and todays AAC and their fans.
I’m extremely jaded, but IMHO there has been a long standard bias against the urban public schools rooted in the MVC and Metro Conference, particularly Louisville, UC, Memphis and Houston. The urban metros in the MWC like Boise and Fresno State don’t get nearly the flack and are championed as the underdog. Schools like UC are constantly told they are second class citizens, but then never get the “lovable underdog” support.
There is some validity to this argument, C-Ave. By the late 1970s, I was watching lots of Metro hoops on TV. I would talk to my white and black friends in high school at the time about how I liked the Memphis Tigers (for family reasons) and even, to a degree, the Cincinnati Bearcats and Louisville Cardinals (this was before my family members associated with those two schools). The white kids and black kids reacted very differently to me. The white fans (mainly Tennessee Vol fans) strongly disliked UL, UC and what was then Memphis State and the cities in which those three schools are located. In contrast, the black kids (mainly Tennessee State University and pro sports fans) liked the trio of schools and cities. There clearly was a "demographic dynamic" at that time — and that bias you note that remains to this day is, at least an extent, rooted in racial considerations.
I would hope things have improved a good bit at this point. Of note, I even see some of this bias from TV broadcasters (both black and white). The black analysts and commentators overwhelmingly like the Memphis Tigers. Many of their white counterparts ... not as much.
We are all human and have are biases. Myself included.
Interesting discussion, Bill.
In a lot of ways, the force that has driven the strong ratings for NCAA basketball since the 1960s has been the theme of the underdogs rising up to challenge the bluebloods.
Examples of the underdog/overachievers that made college basketball so exciting in the 1970s and 1980s were the Marquette Warriors, coached by the great Al McGuire in the early 1970s and the Detroit Titans, coached by Dick Vitale in the late 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Temple Owls were among the pre-eminent underdog/overachievers. In the 21st century, Gregg Marshall's WSU Shockers fulfilled that role.
There are many other examples, but very often, the underdog/overachievers had a large contingent of African-American players. Thus, the upward mobility of college basketball reflected the increasing visibility of African-Americans in athletics and in television, more broadly. A perfect illustration of the American dream in action.
Excellent points, Jed.
That Marquette championship team coached by McGuire was strong.
The 1970s saw the emergence of many men's college hoops programs at universities located in cities (both public and private schools) feature as many African-American players (sometimes up to eight or so) as not. Conversely, and I recall this well, lots of large public universities during that decade had men's programs with no more than four or five Black players.
As I see it, the "city college programs" have never been (in a general sense) as fully respected or understood by the average fan of a state university men's hoops program. There are various explanations for this — some legit and others not. On a positive note, that dynamic has soften a bit.
Years ago, I spent some time on the Indiana University campus when my brother attended for six years. During those visits, I talked to some of his friends who were big college hoops fans. Generally speaking, they respected and related to, for example, the Kentuckys, Michigans and North Carolinas more so than they did, for example, the Marquettes, Syracuses and Louisvilles.
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The AAC has had more AP Top 25 FB teams than some Power conferences have had.
