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(08-21-2018 10:45 AM)stpnum4 Wrote:  

(08-21-2018 10:32 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(08-21-2018 10:06 AM)stpnum4 Wrote:  The AAC has become pretty fascinating. No doubt that the brands in the conference are not big as we had in the Big East. WVU and Louisville football coming to town moved the needle a bit more than UCF and Memphis.

That said, the AAC might be better from a competition standpoint than the old Big East. It's a debatable issue. The bottom of the AAC can be pretty bad (see Tuberville's last couple of teams), but the upper echelon has exceeded my expectations. I didn't think it was possible to have teams like UCF, Houston and Memphis play as well as they have the last couple of years.
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Winning consistently is the best marketing for the people of Cincinnati. In the meantime, it would be great to see more creativity from the UC marketing department.

No...it really isn't. This is not a discussion.

Just look at BK's time here.

Going by Sagarin
2007 the Big East was ranked forth ahead of the ACC and Big 10
2008 the Big East was ranked fifth ahead of the Big 10 and less than a point behind the Pac 10.
2009 the Big East was ranked second ahead of the Pac-10, ACC, Big 12 and Big 10. The SEC was way ahead in first.

Top to bottom the Big East was an incredibly solid league. I defend the AAC plenty because its clearly above all the other non-P5 leagues and has held its own OK with the P-5 though has been clearly behind those leagues. The last 3 years for example.

2015 The AAC ranked 6th and both divisions were behind all the divisions in the other major conferences (though both were ahead of any division among the non-P5)
2016 The AAC again ranked 6th... Again each AAC division was behind every division among the p5. This time The AAC west ranked ahead of the MWC-Mountain, but the AAC East was behind the MWC-Mountain.
2017 The AAC again ranked 6th... Again each AAC division was behind every division among the p5. This time The AAC west ranked ahead of the MWC-Mountain, but the AAC East was (very slightly) behind the MWC-Mountain.

The AAC has clearly been the #6 conference by a good margin (both clearly ahead of the other non P5s but clearly behind the P5s). The Big East was competing at a P5 (then BCS 6) level. Over that 3 year span I pulled just to coincide with the BK era the Big East finished with a better Sagarin rating than every conference except the SEC at least once. It finished ahead of the Big Ten all 3 seasons.

That's good perspective. I guess I'm too enamored with the big wins the top teams of the conference have had over the likes of Oklahoma and Auburn.

That's fair. I think people look back and really undervalue what the Big East was in those days. Maybe if UC had performed as it should have against VT people would view the run differently. I still think watching that game UC had every chance to win it and just made mistakes they typically didn't make.

The Florida game the next year was an impossible situation based on the lack of coaches preparing for the game, the loss of their head coach, and a game against the clear second best team in the country and a national title type team (that was really motivated as it was the last game for many historic players).

In the 2007 season that WVU just rocked Oklahoma's world in their bcs bowl game. The prior seasons before that included Orange Bowl wins by Louisville and WVU. Frankly, I think UC fans remember their losses in some of those kind of games, but the league as a whole did really well in them.