(10-29-2015 01:29 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(10-28-2015 02:43 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  

(10-28-2015 02:07 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(10-28-2015 12:56 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-28-2015 11:34 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would the differential in quality of play between the very best FBS program (say, Ohio St) and the very worst FCS program (say Miss. Valley St or Davidson, not sure which is worse) be much different than the differential between the very best DI men's basketball program (say, Kentucky) and the very worst DI men's basketball program (no idea? there are some very tiny gyms, though ... high school gyms) ??

I don't think it would be that much different.

I couldn't find a single top basketball program without a horrible loss to a bad school since 2008:

In 2008, Kentucky lost to VMI. In 2012, they lost to Robert Morris. In 2009, UNC lost to College of Charleston and East Tennessee State. Duke lost to Leheigh in 2012. In 2009, Syracuse lost to a D-2 school (Le Moyne), and in 2008 they lost to Cleveland State (who turned out to be pretty good that year, but hadn't been to an NCAA tournament in 20 years at that point). UConn lost to Yale last year. Louisville lost to Western Carolina in 2009 and Drexel in 2010. UCLA lost to Cal State Fullerton, Portland, and Long Beach State in 2009. UCLA also lost to Montana in 2010, Loyola Marymount in 2011, and Cal Poly in 2012.

In football the top teams don't play FCS schools very often, but their dominance against the worst 3 FBS conferences is arguably better than UK, IU, etc. dominance over bad FCS schools:

Since 1960, against current MAC, Sun Belt, C-USA, and FCS schools: Ohio State is 28-0, Michigan is 32-2, Notre Dame is 5-0, and Alabama is 61-9. If you take out Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech, Alabama is 32-2. These records don't include 8 games that Alabama & Ohio State forfeited due to NCAA violations.

You want dominance? Since 1960, Notre Dame is 52-12 against Big 12, MWC, and American conference schools not named Navy.

In short, great football programs have much bigger advantages than great basketball programs.

Thanks for the analysis.

But I wasn't necessarily talking just W-L. Hence why I said "program".


Yeah, Ohio St has a huge 100k+ stadium while some FCS schools have almost high school stadiums.

But then Kentucky, Louisville and some others play in 20k+ bball arenas while some DI bball programs literally are in high school-looking gyms.

Look beyond superficial stats like stadium size - it cost a hell of a lot less money to put together a successful basketball program. There are fewer players, fewer coaching positions, and a smaller facilities footprint. The fact that there are only 13 b-ball scholarships per school seems to level the playing field - there's simply more talent to go around after the big guys get their pick.

There are many HBCU schools that have the stadiums to be FBS.
Tennessee State and Jackson State have the largests that could be P5 stadium size. I think Tennessee State plays at the Titans' stadium.
Even several D2 schools could reach close to 30,000 and some at the lower end of FBS like North Alabama for seating.

Memorial Stadium is a decrepit dump. There's more to a stadium than just nunbers of seats.