Stever the Bracketologist

[stever20]

Billyjack,
The fact is that SMU games DO count and do benefit the AAC. I don't see any non cheater RPI's out there anywhere. Tulsa and Temple DO benefit from beating SMU. Houston as well(as now they're top 100). The committee isn't going to say wait, that win was vs SMU- it shouldn't count. If Cincy or UConn beat them- same thing. Maybe it should- but it doesn't.

[RxJay]

OK "Mr What If" how good would SMU be without all the cheating that they do every year. I am sure you can find some numbers to support your case. I don't understand the NCAA, if a team cheats there should be no metrics for them that year.

[stever20]

OK "Mr What If" how good would SMU be without all the cheating that they do every year. I am sure you can find some numbers to support your case. I don't understand the NCAA, if a team cheats there should be no metrics for them that year.

It'll be interesting to see if an AAC team or 2 makes the tourney as a direct result of SMU if there's any talk of a change.

It's a strange situation though. Normally when a team is on probation, they aren't that good.

[billyjack]

Billyjack,
The fact is that SMU games DO count and do benefit the AAC. I don't see any non cheater RPI's out there anywhere. Tulsa and Temple DO benefit from beating SMU. Houston as well(as now they're top 100). The committee isn't going to say wait, that win was vs SMU- it shouldn't count. If Cincy or UConn beat them- same thing. Maybe it should- but it doesn't.

If we're looking at bracketology, the committee may take SMU's cheating into consideration. Not sure, but it could be a factor.

If we're looking at overall conference strength, or "closing the gap", then SMU absolutely should be subtracted out. I'd be curious to see where the AAC falls.

Note that simply subtracting out SMU's ratings doesn't go far enough, since SMU has affected a boatload of team rating numbers.

[edit: i agree with what what RxJay said just above]

[stever20]

Billyjack,
The fact is that SMU games DO count and do benefit the AAC. I don't see any non cheater RPI's out there anywhere. Tulsa and Temple DO benefit from beating SMU. Houston as well(as now they're top 100). The committee isn't going to say wait, that win was vs SMU- it shouldn't count. If Cincy or UConn beat them- same thing. Maybe it should- but it doesn't.

If we're looking at bracketology, the committee may take SMU's cheating into consideration. Not sure, but it could be a factor.

If we're looking at overall conference strength, or "closing the gap", then SMU absolutely should be subtracted out. I'd be curious to see where the AAC falls.

Note that simply subtracting out SMU's ratings doesn't go far enough, since SMU has affected a boatload of team rating numbers.

[edit: i agree with what what RxJay said just above]

true, but then in the spirit of what RxJay said, you would have to take out the losses that teams took against SMU as well. That would keep the teams pretty close to where they are now.

What's interesting about the SMU situation is that they've lost 1 time to 3 teams. Helping those teams out- but still keeping SMU's numbers high. If they lose to Cincy and UConn- they would finish with 5 losses. #14 RPI.

I don't think there's anything in the rules allowing them to take SMU into consideration. SMU is a team just like every other team.

[Xavier4036]

The American is not a good basketball conference. Noone is saying they are low-major like the America East conference but there is a significant and substantial difference between the P5+BE conferences and the American.

The ONLY reason people on here are talking about the American, is because you repeatedly bring it up. You resurrected a 2 week old thread to brag about how "strong" (again, your word) the American conference is and how they are "closing the gap" to the Big East - when has been pointed out repeatedly, are still closer to the Colonial, Mountain West, Summit, MAC than to the Big East.

The other reason people are posting about the American is.....

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5146

Your obsession with the American and overly-rosy, optimistic viewpoint of that conference last year in which every single one of your predictions turned out to be absolutely not true. It's odd for a fan of Georgetown to have this intense, continued obsession with another conference that you'll post wild and outlandish claims in favor of that conference and against your own conference that everyone knows likely won't happen .... and then you have to get called out on it the following year when you are just wrong ... and start with vintage Stever antics .... "If only UConn had beat SMU, they'd be in!" or "If Wyoming had lost, Temple would be in!"

Instead of living in reality, you live in this warped world where either everything will go exactly right for the American in the future or when your inaccuracies from the past are called out you have excuse after excuse of ifs, ands, onlys and buts.

Stever - in case you missed it .... YOU are why there is all this talk about the AAC.

[billyjack]

OK "Mr What If" how good would SMU be without all the cheating that they do every year. I am sure you can find some numbers to support your case. I don't understand the NCAA, if a team cheats there should be no metrics for them that year.

It'll be interesting to see if an AAC team or 2 makes the tourney as a direct result of SMU if there's any talk of a change.

It's a strange situation though. Normally when a team is on probation, they aren't that good.

If we find that cheating isnt considered by the committee, then this is what we should do:
1. invite NYU into the Big East... great market.
2. tell them that we'll split all money evenly with them.
3. tell them to pay their players... actually have them use D-League players.
4. tell them to schedule top teams each year, get a #1 SOS, and go 13-0 in non-conf.
5. tell them to cut their D-Leaguers for Big East games, and play D-3 walkons.
6. voila... the Big East get another couple of bids each year.
7. NYU stays permanently ineligible, but we fork over their cut.
8. If NYU gets banned from the NCAA, then we replace them with John Jay or Yeshiva or any other D-3 major metro school. NYU appeals and gets their hoops team back in a couple of years. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[Xavier4036]

That's the problem, folks here want to make the AAC out to be like the American East conference or something like that.

Question, and I'd like you to give it some thought before you respond; Why do you care what we think about the AAC? Why is it so important to you to right this evil? It's an awful odd justice campaign to choose when there are so many worthy causes out there where your massive free time could be put to better use.

Stever, can you answer this, please?

[AACguy]

There is a noticeable frustration toward stever20 and AAC discussion and I get that. In fact I apologize if I have encouraged or enabled it at all.

I don't have permission to post this on the board and the admin or mods can remove this post if they like, but I mentioned to stever that I was going to add a new forum within our AAC board for general college hoops talk with the thought that some of the discussion here which irritates many of you could be relocated there. That way if you enjoy the exchanges with stever we welcome you to join on in the discussion there and I don't have any plans to moderate people's posts as the area will be open for whatever people want to discuss so it won't feel like trolling if you want to rant about something non AAC.

Anyway you can visit if you like and maybe we can get stever to focus his time there. I actually like the detail with which he posts but I understand why on a Big East specific board many of you may not.

[stever20]

That's the problem, folks here want to make the AAC out to be like the American East conference or something like that.

Question, and I'd like you to give it some thought before you respond; Why do you care what we think about the AAC? Why is it so important to you to right this evil? It's an awful odd justice campaign to choose when there are so many worthy causes out there where your massive free time could be put to better use.

Stever, can you answer this, please?

I don't understand why folks here want to demonize the AAC quite frankly. And no, it isn't just because of me. The way folks talk about the AAC here- you'd think their standings were what the MWC is right now. The MWC is a complete and utter dumpster fire. 2 teams in the RPI top 100. 1 in the top 90(and that #48). Meanwhile the AAC has 5 teams in the top 100(even removing SMU), with 2 in the top 50. But no one talks at all about the MWC at all.

and before you say well the AAC is closer to the MWC than the Big East....

The Big East is closer to the AAC than they are the Big 12. I don't see folks saying the Big East isn't competitive with the Big 12 here now do I?