Conference of the Americas......one-bid

[X-man]

I remain at a loss as to why the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC continues to be discussed, at least by anyone other than stever who is a fan of that league. I understand why some residual interest remains because some AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC programs used to be in the Big East, but c'mon.....that is in the rear view mirror at this point.

[adoraz]

I remain at a loss as to why the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC continues to be discussed, at least by anyone other than stever who is a fan of that league. I understand why some residual interest remains because some AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC programs used to be in the Big East, but c'mon.....that is in the rear view mirror at this point.

Then don't post in this thread? To answer your question, there's 3 reasons.

1. Fans of AAC teams continue posting here (this isn't a justified reason, but it is one reason why the discussion continues)
2. When you break up with someone... Or a conference.... You'll always have interest in how things turned out for them. You're an Xavier fan but some AAC members are still relevant to some of us fans of the Catholic 7.
3. A lot of us, myself included, are hoping the league continues to falter and UConn joins the Big East. Obviously unlikely, but at this point it's a possibility.

[stever20]

I think the thing that's interesting with the perception of the AAC is that folks want to act like SMU is invisible and doesn't count at all.

If SMU counts, the AAC is much stronger now than it was last year..... The fact that the AAC could still get 2 in(with neither being auto bid level even) is big because then the league would have gotten 3 in with SMU. That is VERY different than last year.

Right now the gap between AAC and Big East is only .0398.

compare to:
2013-14
BE - .5645
AAC - .5449
Gap - .0196

2014-15
BE - .5690
AAC - .5248
Gap - .0442

2015-16
BE - .5742
AAC - .5348
Gap - .0398

UConn and Cincy are both positioned very well to make the tourney. If they both avoid the landmines(UConn with 4 and Cincy with 4)- they would only need really 3 for Cincy and 4 for UConn other wins to get to 22 wins which positions them in the top 45 RPI- which along with their KP rating pretty much gets them in the tourney pretty easily.

[Xavier4036]

If you are in the RPI top 70 right now, you are in contention. So right now the AAC has 3 teams in contention for at larges and the Big East has 6. Things have got to play out for any of those.

To put in perspective. Right now- Butler 59, Tulsa 61, UConn 63. But I don't see ANYONE on here saying that Butler doesn't have a shot now do I?

So just to "put in perspective" as you say.... Using your logic, 60% of Big East teams are in "contention" for a NCAA bid, while 27% of AAC teams are in "contention" for a bid. Of these 3 teams, none are in the top 25, none are in the top 50... Rather, they are 61, 63 and 70.

Why a self-proclaimed Georgetown "fan" is ultra-obsessed with a conference that has not a single team eligible for the NCAA in the Top 60 is perplexing when the team you are allegedly a fan of plays in a conference that 60%+ of teams are in contention for a bid

[stever20]

If you are in the RPI top 70 right now, you are in contention. So right now the AAC has 3 teams in contention for at larges and the Big East has 6. Things have got to play out for any of those.

To put in perspective. Right now- Butler 59, Tulsa 61, UConn 63. But I don't see ANYONE on here saying that Butler doesn't have a shot now do I?

So just to "put in perspective" as you say.... Using your logic, 60% of Big East teams are in "contention" for a NCAA bid, while 27% of AAC teams are in "contention" for a bid. Of these 3 teams, none are in the top 25, none are in the top 50... Rather, they are 61, 63 and 70.

Why a self-proclaimed Georgetown "fan" is ultra-obsessed with a conference that has not a single team eligible for the NCAA in the Top 60 is perplexing when the team you are allegedly a fan of plays in a conference that 60%+ of teams are in contention for a bid

That seems pretty spot on right for now- 60% for Big East in contention while 27%(30% of eligible) of AAC teams in contention...

Really there is no difference between 59-63. It's a gap of .0026. The gap between 59-70 is .0091. The gap between Butler at 59 and Georgetown at 73 is only .0094.

I'm a very numbers driven person. So to me for folks to act like the AAC is awful and guaranteed to have 1 team is just a joke to me. The numbers don't back it up. You say no one is in the top 60. AS of 6 hours from now, there will be at least 1 team in the top 60, if not 2(Tulsa sliding up).

Also you want to talk about top 50 teams. Right now, do you know how many top 50 RPI teams the Big East has? How about 3.

[adoraz]

Stever, nobody is acting like the AAC is guaranteed to get 1 bid. We're acting like it's a possibility, which it is, and that in and of itself speaks volumes.

Personally I'm expecting 2 bids, 1 auto 1 at large. That'd still be a horrible outcome.

If Big East ends up with 3 bids, which I doubt, they'd all be very, very high seeds.

[X-man]

If you are in the RPI top 70 right now, you are in contention. So right now the AAC has 3 teams in contention for at larges and the Big East has 6. Things have got to play out for any of those.

To put in perspective. Right now- Butler 59, Tulsa 61, UConn 63. But I don't see ANYONE on here saying that Butler doesn't have a shot now do I?

So just to "put in perspective" as you say.... Using your logic, 60% of Big East teams are in "contention" for a NCAA bid, while 27% of AAC teams are in "contention" for a bid. Of these 3 teams, none are in the top 25, none are in the top 50... Rather, they are 61, 63 and 70.

Why a self-proclaimed Georgetown "fan" is ultra-obsessed with a conference that has not a single team eligible for the NCAA in the Top 60 is perplexing when the team you are allegedly a fan of plays in a conference that 60%+ of teams are in contention for a bid

That seems pretty spot on right for now- 60% for Big East in contention while 27%(30% of eligible) of AAC teams in contention...

Really there is no difference between 59-63. It's a gap of .0026. The gap between 59-70 is .0091. The gap between Butler at 59 and Georgetown at 73 is only .0094.

I'm a very numbers driven person. So to me for folks to act like the AAC is awful and guaranteed to have 1 team is just a joke to me. The numbers don't back it up. You say no one is in the top 60. AS of 6 hours from now, there will be at least 1 team in the top 60, if not 2(Tulsa sliding up).

Also you want to talk about top 50 teams. Right now, do you know how many top 50 RPI teams the Big East has? How about 3.

I don't think about AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC one way or the other. Please stop your incessant posting about a conference that is not the conference for this board.

[stever20]

I have no problem about that at all. Let's lock this thread up, and no one post about the AAC at all whatsoever. I'm 100% fine with that.

[GoldenWarrior11]

The argument of "If SMU was eligible, then the AAC would be doing great" is both empty and comical. SMU not only cheated and got caught, not unlike other infamous eras of the Mustangs athletic program, but it hired a known cheater and program sanction-overseer in Larry Brown. Brown was the head coach of the only championship basketball program in NCAA history (Kansas) that was banned from participating in the proceeding NCAA Tournament. He also was the head coach of UCLA when they had to forfeit a Final Four appearance due to ineligible players, one of the few times that has ever happened. Let that sink in - a program with a history of cheating and rule-breaking hired a coach with a history of a failure to properly oversee an athletic program and failure to report cheating and rules violations.

The only reason, and it is the only reason, SMU is competitive right now is because they have a coach that has repeatedly broken the rules and tried to go around the system. He gets caught wherever he goes - UCLA, Kansas and now SMU. As soon as he leaves (and it will be in the next year or so), the program will revert back to the program that made two NCAA tournament appearances in the last 30 years. If the AAC is counting on SMU to be a regular top-dog of the conference with UConn and Cincinnati, they are in much bigger trouble that I thought.

SMU is banned from postseason not because the NCAA is out to get the AAC schools (or any of the G5). They are banned because the program is filled with rich history in cheating and rules violations, and that they hired a well-known cheater and rule violator. I suppose you can say it's a match made in heaven.

[adoraz]

/\ Exactly. SMU is doing well BECAUSE they cheated. They won't rebound from this, they're not UNC. They'll go back to being irrelevant.