AP Voter On Reddit Not Giving BE Any Love

[SJHooper]

The AP voters and many other ESPN analysts for college hoops only care about the casual fans. The ones who wake up and say "Oh, 2 top 10 teams are playing I guess I'll watch Duke vs. whoever because their name is popular". The casual fan does not care about parity or metrics or the history of the BE or what SJ did in 85 or Nova winning in 85 or the legendary coaches or the tradition or any of that. We have to remember we are the 1% of the absolute diehards of the diehards. We eat, sleep, and breathe college hoops and get excited about exhibition games. Casual fans only lift the remote for the first time in March and only then it's because they made an office pool or filled out brackets with friends. All they know are the top 5 or 10 teams or whoever Dick Vitale talks about (if it's not Duke). So, yes the Big East is clearly still a major conference with tons of tradition and rivalries with legendary players like Mullin & Ewing, but the casual fan only cares about top 5 teams in football conferences with 50,000 students. That's what the AP voters and ESPN caters to. The sexy names will get in the top 25 and they don't do projections or look into teams and their real capabilities. The guy proved he had no clue putting Marquette at 2 and no knock on them, Marquette will be ranked within the next few years again, but it shows they don't really follow closely.

And to the Cincy fan, dude I understand the hate, I really do. I would be miserable if I was locked into a conference with UCF, Tulane, East Carolina, and co. The AAC is the old Conference USA. There is also zero stability and UConn will be plucked...it's when not if. Whether that means moving their hoops back here in the Big East or moving all sports to the B1G, they will not be stupid enough to become irrelevant in a mid major conference. Memphis will want its basketball to find a good home as well. The fact that you use one team beating another in March as an underdog as proof that a conference is stronger is proof positive that you don't follow college hoops. It's called March MADNESS for a reason. There are ALWAYS huge upsets. Upsets are the norm. Some years Nova will lose to a mid level ACC team. Other years, a mid level Big East team will beat a top 5 ACC team. The better teams/conferences do not always win. That's the point. That's why people watch.

The Big East is still very well-known and just sent 6 teams (60% of the conference) to the tourney. That is insane in such a small conference. Georgetown and Villanova are in the absurdly popular NBA 2k16 game. Last I checked, Cincy or Tulane didn't make the cut. If the Big East really was an afterthought and dead, why do we see its teams in pop culture and why did Fox pick us up? It's about quality and not quantity and that's what AAC fans can't understand. I'd rather have the rivalries, the tradition, the legends, the name recognition of the Big East, MSG, etc. than have some bottom feeder football schools dilute our brand just to get more teams.

The Big East is very well respected by those who really follow college hoops before March and look at stats including RPI. ESPN 30 for 30 made a documentary about the Big East. Last I checked, 99% of the casual hoops fans couldn't even tell you the name of the conference Cincy was in. Or if they gave an answer it would probably still be "Big East" LOL. I'm so glad we avoided that crap conference. Should be called the "Other Conference" or "Odds and Ends Conference" or maybe "Misc. Conference". Zero tradition, zero name recognition, no one cares about the AAC. And that picture of all the "raucous" AAC fans is hilarious!

[DudeAnon]

How is Cronin's arteries doing these days? Bro takes one more nasty shit and he can drop dead.

Thats not funny at all.

Troll a troll

There are limits though. Cronin's health issues were very serious. The trolling really should be aimed at UC's fanbase who despite having 10x the number of students trails XU in attendance for over 10 years now.

[SJHooper]

And by the way, just look at the different forums. Cincy, UConn, Memphis, etc. are DYING to escape the AAC. UConn fans are literally giving each other therapy on their board. They are grieving after the basketball schools picked up and left because they wanted to become a major football school. Why would any fanbase be grieving about its conference if it was so good? There are lots of UConn fans (both on the forum and ones I know personally) who admit they miss the Big East, MSG, the rivalries, and playing with other schools who are all-in for basketball. The Northeast is all about college hoops and college football is an afterthought. I think they realized this too late. People in the tri-state area only really care about the NFL for their football fix. In the NYC market, we love our Knicks, but there is also plenty of room for people to follow college hoops. St. John's is a semi-pro team in the NYC area when we are good.

You have to stick to what you are good at. UConn made one of the worst choices in NCAA sports history in trying to be something it wasn't. They paid the ultimate price: living in the embarrassing AAC.

[ivet]

Troll a troll

There are limits though. Cronin's health issues were very serious. The trolling really should be aimed at UC's fanbase who despite having 10x the number of students trails XU in attendance for over 10 years now.

I agree, Big East fans are better than that. No need to attack the mans health.