(11-01-2020 10:48 AM)Eldonabe Wrote: Sarcasm Quo.....
Just to throw my hat into the P6 thing.... as another poster noted, there are a few (quite a few) schools that are probably worthy of being in a P6 basketball league. Their league; however is not worthy as a whole.
There is no shame in that, it is what it is. I am making up a word so I apologize in advance:
There is a pereniality to the P6, that the other conferences and their programs cannot maintain. As good a program as Cincinnati (or Memphis or St Louis for example) may be they have 2 or 3 year runs, then they fall back - sometimes for a while. Gonzaga is THE notable exception. Their conferences may get 3 or 4 teams in the big dance 2 or 3 years in a row, then they stumble again and go back to 2 teams. A bad year for a P6 in only 4 teams qualifying.
This overstates the case. Programs like Memphis and Cincinnati have had consistent success in various different leagues--Metro, CUSA, Big East, American. A program like Temple is one good coaching hire away from being back.
To use your term, half the basketball programs in the American have that perenniality. It's an inherent quality of those programs, not derived from their conference membership. (It can change over time, but for the next 5 or so years, Temple, Memphis, Cincinnati are all safely big-time.)
The difference is, in the power leagues, just by being a member, you have automatic credibility. A Virginia Tech can go to 4 NCAAs in 20 years, but--they're an ACC school. Hire a Buzz Williams, recruit kids with the lure of playing Duke, Carolina, Syracuse, Louisville etc and you get three straight NCAA trips.
South Florida can't work that plan. Half the AAC can point to their dusty banners in the rafters (or not so dusty), and invoke their ghosts and make their pitch. South Florida can't do that either.
Quote:The other part of the equation is eyeballs on the TV. P6 gets move viewers than the AAC or A-10 or any other Mid Major wannabe. You can claim the AAC is a P7 conference, but the people who tune in beg to differ, and the money the national TV carriers are willing to pay for the product beg to differ as well.
We've gone round the mulberry bush many times on these numbers, but when a solid AAC (or top mid-major) school is playing a solid AAC school, the numbers are comparable to a random P6 vs P6 school.
Quote:There really is no shame in it, but it is taken as a huge slight by everyone. Case in point is UConn trying to regain basketball cache` by leaving the AAC. The beauty of College basketball is that everyone who deserves a chance to prove it, gets the chance (unlike football) regardless of what your conference "status" is.
The reality is, in basketball, the AAC and A-10 *are* what the AAC claims to be in football, a tweener league.