20 conference games

[Xavier4036]

Stever, you do realize increasing the number of conference games to 20 actually HURTS a conference's chances for NCAA bids, right? Why would a conference want 2 bubble teams to have to play each other 2 more times. Guarantees a loss for the conference every time a team plays. I know you are stating the SOS would go up as a fact; I'm not sure about that. But I do know RPI would go down.

If every other major conference went to 20 games, that is fine. Affects the Big East in absolutely no way. Actually is advantageous to the BE. There would be less guaranteed Big East losses built into the schedule than any other major conference - increasing RPI which increases SOS! It's a win win for the Big East! (I know those words are like nails on a chalkboard for you Stever)

[stever20]

Stever, you do realize increasing the number of conference games to 20 actually HURTS a conference's chances for NCAA bids, right? Why would a conference want 2 bubble teams to have to play each other 2 more times. Guarantees a loss for the conference every time a team plays. I know you are stating the SOS would go up as a fact; I'm not sure about that. But I do know RPI would go down.

If every other major conference went to 20 games, that is fine. Affects the Big East in absolutely no way. Actually is advantageous to the BE. There would be less guaranteed Big East losses built into the schedule than any other major conference - increasing RPI which increases SOS! It's a win win for the Big East! (I know those words are like nails on a chalkboard for you Stever)

Lets take last year. Va Tech was on the periphery of the bubble. They only played Duke 1x at Duke. Lets say they played Duke a 2nd time at home as one of their 2 extra conference games- and they win that game. That would probably have gotten Va Tech in the tournament....

Also, sorry but losing to a decent team is at least the same as beating a bad OOC team. It definitely is NO guarantee at all whatsoever that a win helps the RPI. And often times, we see teams that win a game against a bad team and it hurts the RPI. So your statement that you do know RPI would go down is not an accurate one at all.

Marquette last year played #299 Stetson mid season. Before their game they were RPI 119. After the game, they were RPI 125. So even though they won the game, they hurt the RPI. Now if they had lost a game to a decent opponent there is no guarantee that they would have fallen 6 spots at all. In fact there are times where a team loses a game and they see their RPI go up- or go down not by much. Georgetown same time frame lost to Providence at home. Their RPI fell from 73 to 76.

Also, the 2 bubble teams you are talking about would have already guaranteed seen each other at least once already.

Also for the one who said that Louisville, Syracuse, and ND's OOC schedules.
Louisville #160 OOC SOS
Notre Dame #70 OOC SOS
Syracuse #123 OOC SOS

The one thing at least Syracuse did- they didn't have any real bad teams. Their worst team all year long was only #260. St John's was their 2nd worst OOC game believe it or not. ND's worst game was #276. Louisville's worst was 292.

So lets take Louisville. They pick up 2nd games with #159 Wake Forest and #250 BC(the 2 worst ACC teams). That replaces 2 games from the 250-300 range. It's a pretty big SOS bump for them. And their OOC SOS improves considerably with 2 bad games removed. The dreg games aren't going away, but they would be much more limited. Instead of 6-7, 4-5.

[DudeAnon]

Stever, all a 20 conference game schedule does is reduce flexibility. If you are an ACC team you might get an extra game against Duke but you are just likely to get a game against Boston College.

I want to remind everyone that this is only happening because ESPN is forcing them to churn out more content for the new ACC channel. Shit, ESPN would prefer 28 conferences games if they had it their way. The ACC is getting a fixed amount every year and it is up to ESPN to make the ACC network make money.

[stever20]

Stever, all a 20 conference game schedule does is reduce flexibility. If you are an ACC team you might get an extra game against Duke but you are just likely to get a game against Boston College.

I want to remind everyone that this is only happening because ESPN is forcing them to churn out more content for the new ACC channel. Shit, ESPN would prefer 28 conferences games if they had it their way. The ACC is getting a fixed amount every year and it is up to ESPN to make the ACC network make money.

I don't disagree with you on the flexibility. But I think as we've seen with the football- with more and more conferences going to 9 games, that flexibility doesn't matter to folks all that much.

It's going to be really interesting to see if the other P5 conferences start to consider it and or do it. There is a way to look at it as being a competitive advantage. And there are some teams where this could have really helped them. Think South Carolina last year. Getting 2 more conference games could easily have gotten them into the tourney. Or think a few years ago- think having 2 extra conference games could have helped say St John's?

[Savannah Jay]

Stever, all a 20 conference game schedule does is reduce flexibility. If you are an ACC team you might get an extra game against Duke but you are just likely to get a game against Boston College.

I want to remind everyone that this is only happening because ESPN is forcing them to churn out more content for the new ACC channel. Shit, ESPN would prefer 28 conferences games if they had it their way. The ACC is getting a fixed amount every year and it is up to ESPN to make the ACC network make money.

Yep...every team gets two more games. We may have forgotten already that the ACC only had 6 tourney teams last year (I believe...), though that number would have been larger except for Louisville's "stripper ban." So they had 7 tournament quality teams. That means 8 were not tournament quality so for every two teams that add another game against Duke, UVA, etc., two more have to add BC, Wake, etc. or one of the other non-tournament quality teams. Which has already been well-articulated so I apologize for redundancy.

[stever20]

take Va Tech in the example I used before....
they had 4 teams they already played 2x....
Wake Forest
Pittsburgh
Miami
Virginia

these teams they only played away...
Duke, Ga Tech, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College
1 of those 5 teams they would have gotten at home.
these teams they only played home...
NC State, UNC, Louisville, Clemson, Florida St
1 of those 5 teams they would have gotten away

You say worst case they get BC at home and then lose at UNC or Louisville. OK. But there- they would have had the shot playing UNC or Louisville to propel them into the tournament. And they would have had a 3/5 chance to get a NCAA tourney team at home where they played pretty well.

[stever20]

also the other thing- while you say there were 8 non tournament teams in the ACC- which is wrong(there were 7)- of the 7 that didn't make the tournament- only 4 of those 7 teams were outside the RPI top 100.

Also conferences can gerrymander the schedule to a point where if you have a team you think is going to be a bubble type of team- that they wouldn't see BC a 2nd time. Big East did that with DePaul.

[ivet]

[DudeAnon]

lol

[Xavier4036]

Stever, what other major conferences do with regards to 18 or 20 games has absolutely no bearing on the Big East.

It would be advantageous for the BE, actually, if other major conferences already had MORE guaranteed losses for conference teams built into their schedule. The Big East doesn't want that. I hope the majority of major conferences go to 20 games. It will hurt their RPI as a conference - benefitting the Big East with only 18 games!