(02-23-2014 01:46 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Ok. Let's take the proposition that UALR cannot be a year in and out Top 25. That's not a program killer. 325 schools will finish outside the Top 25. That requires being in the top 7% of the country.

What if the target were being top 115 in RPI and more seasons than not playing in the NCAA or NIT?

115 RPI is top third. Top 25 you have to beat out 325 other schools. Top 115 you have to beat out 235.

There are 100ish schools that can out-spend you and have better name recognition but half of them will be .500 or worse in conference and at least one-third of them will finish sub .500 so you really have about 70 that are very difficult to pass.

The NCAA Tournament has 37 slots to compete for, the remaining 31 go to the auto winner of the other conferences. There are another 32ish slots in the NIT depending on how many regular season champs fail to get an auto and fail to be selected to the NCAA.

That's not easy but it is attainable out of the Sun Belt. MTSU did it. If someone can attain what MTSU did then you are in a single elimination tournament where one great night can make or break a reputation.

It's not easy but it is a realistic target and when UALR previously reached that level, local TV did cover, the newspaper did cover, fans did come.

The worst thing the Sun Belt did was divisional play in basketball. Administrators could say woo-hoo look a banner we are doing a great job. Fans yawned and said, "Yeah third place in the conference, not on anyone's post-season radar, barely even in the top half of the country."

Fans are historically slow to notice success but they are discerning enough to know the difference between being good or just OK in conference play and actually being relevant.

Being in the Top 115 in the RPI seems to be a reasonable goal for a Sun Belt team. If we had an administration that was would support the men's team in going to postseason (CBI or CIT) that would get us into postseason most years. I would be quite pleased with that. But, realistically, and NIT bid requires, at least an RPI of 90 or higher. We were left out, twice when we were in that range. So probably, 80 or higher would be needed to be a reasonably sure shot. So being in the top 20-25% of all DI teams is quite a bit more difficult. Really, in the past 10 years, has any Sun Belt team other than MTSU been relevant nationally? Even they are miles from being a "household" name. And by next season, there is no one in the Belt that has any kind of basketball "pedigree" left basketball. So achieving any relevance or reasonably high RPI will be that much more difficulty.