I posted some stuff on the realignment board this morning that some of you may be interested in. You can see it there, titled "C7+ = A10?" where I attempt to make the point that comparisons between the C7+ and the A10 are simply not legitimate.

You can see the full post there, but here are some of the key factoids:

Final Four Ten Year Comparison

C7+ === 6
New BE = 4

Big East = 8
Big Ten = 6
ACC === 6
SEC === 5
Big XII = 5
Pac Ten = 3
CUSA == 3
Colonial = 2
Horizon = 2
A10 === 0

8 members of the C7+ have made it to a Final Four in the past 25 years and a 9th (DePaul) has made it in the last 35 years. The 10th (Xavier) has made the Elite 8 twice in the past decade & has made the Sweet 16 five times in the decade. Four members of the C7+ are past national champions.

NCAA Bids 10 Year Comparison:

C7+ = 46 (average per year = 4.6)
nBE = 30 (average per year = 3.0)

Every member of the C7+ has made the tournament at least once in the past decade. Six members have made it a minimum of 5 times.

Three members of the nBE have failed to make the tournament even once in the past decade. Four members have made the tournament a minimum of 5 times.

St. John's hasn't been to a final four in 28 years unfortunately.

I think the nBE and BE7 on top are similar (top 4 teams) but after that, the middle and bottom teams of the BE7 are far and away better than the nBE.

(02-18-2013 04:16 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  St. John's hasn't been to a final four in 28 years unfortunately.

They almost did 14 years ago. Didn't they lose to Ohio State by just one point in 1999? And didn't OSU have to vacate that Final Four? So, can't we just slide St. John's into that spot in their place?

(02-18-2013 04:22 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(02-18-2013 04:16 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  St. John's hasn't been to a final four in 28 years unfortunately.

They almost did 14 years ago. Didn't they lose to Ohio State by just one point in 1999? And didn't OSU have to vacate that Final Four? So, can't we just slide St. John's into that spot in their place?

Ha! I wish

(02-18-2013 04:18 PM)Jet915 Wrote:  I think the nBE and BE7 on top are similar (top 4 teams) but after that, the middle and bottom teams of the BE7 are far and away better than the nBE.

I think that's a fari statement, but perhaps a little overly generous to the nBE if we're looking at the past 10 years.

UConn is head & shoulders above anyone in either league, making the tournament 8 of the past 10 years with 3 Final Fours & 2 national championships. Marquette with 8 appearances & 1 FF is the best the C7+ can put up against them.

Here's how the rest of the 2 leagues match up with number of bids & best finish in parentheses:

New Big East vs C7+

Memphis (8 bids + Final 4 vacated) - Xavier (9 bids + 2 Elite 8)
Cincinnati (5 bids + Sweet 16) - Butler (6 bids + 2 Final 4)
Temple (5 bids + Round of 32) - Villanova (7 bids + Final 4)
UCF (2 bids + Round of 64) - Georgetown (6 bids + Final 4)
USF (1 bid + Round of 32) - VCU (5 bids + Final 4)
Houston (1 bid + Round of 64) - Seton Hall (2 bids + Round of 32)
Tulane (0 bids) - DePaul (1 bid + Round of 32)
ECU (0 bids) - St. John's (1 bid + Round of 64)
SMU (0 bids) - Providence (1 bid + Round of 64)

So, I would say that UConn is better, Memphis is even, and after that the C7+ is better from teams 3 through 10.