(01-29-2019 10:59 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(01-29-2019 10:33 AM)ken d Wrote:  As the rich get richer, the poor fall further and further behind. As of today, 22 of the 32 D-I basketball conferences do not have a single team ranked in the Sagarin Top 50. The Massey rankings are very similar. The MAC has one (Buffalo), the Mountain West has one (Nevada) and the WCC has two (Gonzaga and St Mary's). Seven conferences account for 46 of the Top 50.

Some of the rich aren't doing as well as the others. Based on the Sagarin rankings and the current autobid rules, the PAC would only place two teams in the 68 team NCAAT field. Given their weak football performance of late, they have really fallen on hard times.

I wish I could say these ratings are an anomaly, that we will see more parity in the future. But frankly, I just don't feel that in my bones.

I really don't want to see an elite breakaway. 24-32 teams in a super league turn me off, frankly. But if the P5 conferences, along with the AAC, MWC and Big East were in a division by themselves, I believe we would have enough inclusiveness to keep top level college sports as interesting as I would want it to be. Add Gonzaga, BYU and New Mexico State to the MWC, and you would have a great 32 team tournament field - the top one third of that division - without excluding anyone with a realistic chance of competing for the championship.

That's where I see us heading.

This is evidence of a divide.

But it's not evidence of a "growing divide."

There has always been a divide. But if anything, the divide is smaller than it used to be.

I don't agree. There was a smaller gap in the 70s and 80s and its been growing ever since as the biggest conferences have effectively unlimited resources for basketball.