(09-09-2020 08:13 PM)colohank Wrote:  

(09-09-2020 05:49 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-09-2020 04:08 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(09-09-2020 12:13 PM)Keswick_Crusaders_Forever51 Wrote:  Here's the deal:

Being considered a Power conference has to do with the power in your conference, current & historic.

When people mention the Big 10, you think of Ohio State, Penn State, & Michigan's football teams, & Michigan State, OSU, & Indiana's runs in basketball.

When you think of the ACC, you think of Florida State, Clemson, & Miami's runs as football powers, & UNC & Duke's historic success in basketball.

When you think of the Big 12, you think of Texas & Oklahoma's football teams, & Kansas & Texas' basketball teams.

The SEC: Bama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, & Auburn's football teams, & Kentucky & Florida's basketball teams.

The PAC-12: USC & Oregon in football, & UCLA & Arizona in basketball.

But who in the AAC is viewed or has been viewed as a power in the major sports?

You had UConn with their four national titles for basketball, but outside of a couple hot seasons in the last few years by individual teams like UCF & Houston, who has done enough to be considered a power in one of the major sports?

I would argue no one, though there certainly are teams that might could fit into a power conference as a mid- to lower-tier team.

I look forward to seeing which AAC team will show up hot each year in football & basketball, but honestly, none are powers in those sports, & so the conference can never be heralded as a power conference until there is at minimum of one or two in each major sport that can be, or have been considered, a power.

In football, I agree. No one of the AAC is even close to the equal of Oregon or Tennessee.

But in basketball? There's 3 truly elite programs that sit just outside the top-6 all time (Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, UCLA, UNC, Duke). In recent years they've performed similarly to the top PAC teams, and better overall than any SEC program outside Kentucky.

Memphis is regularly top-10 in attendance, and has a recent Final-Four.

Wichita has been consistently ranked for the past 8 years, other than 2018-19. They've sold out every game since 2004 in a 10,000 seat arena, and have a recent Final-Four.

Cincinnati is a top-15 all time program by almost every measure, and has been consistently ranked for the past 9 years. They've had 3 1st team All-Americans in the 2000s, including the consensus Player of the Year in 2000.

Why don't you give us some of those measures? Realistically, they don't seem to have done much since Big O left. 5 final 4s in a row was pretty impressive, so it gets them up on some lists, but they need more than just that.

UC won two national championships after the Big O left.