As much fun as it would be to win the old Big East in its final year, I admit I've started looking ahead to the possibility of the New Big East being cool as well and MU potentially being a favorite to win an 18- or 19-team conference.
Just for fun, I took a look at how the new Major Conferences would stack up if all the new Big East teams except the military academies take the option of playing basketball. I listed them in order of how many top 100 teams each would have in Pomeroy's top 100 and I noted who the worst team was in each.
1. ACC – 11 top 100 teams (Worst team: BC 252nd)
2. Big East – 10 or 11 depending on final team (Worst team: SMU 220th)
3. Big Ten – 10 (Worst team: Penn State 161st)
4. SEC – 9 (Worst team: S. Carolina 139th)
5. Big 12 – 8 (Worst team: Texas Tech 203rd)
6. Pac 12 – 7 (Worst team: Utah 305th)
New Big East if all play basketball (except Navy, which will not)
KenPom Ranking, Team
6, Marquette
10, Louisville
20, Georgetown
24, Connecticut
51, Villanova
53, Cincinnati
57, Seton Hall
60, San Diego St.
83, Notre Dame
92, Boise St.
119, Central Florida
124, Providence
135, St. John's
136, Rutgers
147, South Florida
157, DePaul
158, Houston
220, Southern Methodist
If Air Force does not join, and the replacement 12th football team also joins in basketball, there are still four great basketball options that could give the BE an 11th top 100 team, matching the new ACC.
17, Brigham Young
27, Nevada Las Vegas
31, Memphis
36, Temple
75, Southern Mississippi
180, East Carolina
With Boise State getting a commitment for the Western Division for football, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to have the non-revenue sports play within divisions.
It would be great to wrap up the great Big East by winning it before it breaks up, and then emerging as a frontrunner in a new conference that looks like it can hold its own against any conference in the land.
This definitely doesn't look as bad as I expected it to. As a reference, these are the teams we're losing, compared to what we would be replacing them with.
5 Syracuse
29 Pittsburgh
33 West Virginia
Quote from: bamamarquettefan on December 18, 2011, 12:04:39 AM
92, Boise St.
119, Central Florida
158, Houston
220, Southern Methodist
If Air Force does not join, and the replacement 12th football team also joins in basketball, there are still four great basketball options that could give the BE an 11th top 100 team, matching the new ACC.
17, Brigham Young
27, Nevada Las Vegas
31, Memphis
36, Temple
75, Southern Mississippi
180, East Carolina
Obviously not a great trade, but probably not the end of the Big East as some have suggested.
Several people have also questioned why the Big East doesn't invite Memphis, and even though it's because of their football program, they are ranked 31st on Pomeroy's top 100.
You also can't look at each year in a vacuum, and several programs like Notre Dame and Villanova will be ranked much higher next year. This is just a down year for several teams in the Big East, unfortunately it came for them during the final year of the old Big East.
Agree completely. I believe the key will always be if we keep UConn and Lville, and that's why I've never agreed with going basketball only. I believe the conference looks really strong if we keep those two - if we lose them then even i would be open to basketball-only.
Yeah, it's a step back, but if you compare it to the last 30 years, we basically:
1. started at the bottom by staying an independent too long
2. joined a conference to take a big step forwarded wtih McIlvaine and company
3. took another step forward into CUSA
4. took another step forward in a dream scenario that landed us in the best conference ever
5. and now we are going to take a little step back into a slighly worse Big East or a super basketball conference - but either way we will be way ahead of where we were during steps 1 to 3
Quote from: TrueBlueAndGold on December 18, 2011, 12:12:48 AMSeveral people have also questioned why the Big East doesn't invite Memphis, and even though it's because of their football program, they are ranked 31st on Pomeroy's top 100.
I think Temple would be a much smarter pick, but Memphis wouldn't be bad. Temple's football program won a laugher of a bowl game yesterday, only the New Mexico Bowl, but still it's a much better program than Memphis. Basketball-wise, they may not be as well-regarded as Memphis but I think they'd do better in the Big East. It's down to the coaching -- Pastner is great at getting high-level recruits in, but they constantly underwhelm on the court, whereas Dunphy may not recruit at the same level, but he's got a tough team that makes the Dance every year.
Who knows if we add another, but if we do, Temple would be my first, second, and third pick.
I say add Temple & Memphis.
San Diego State, Boise State have no intention of joining the Big East for basketball.
I do like the sound of MU being mentioned as a favorite in the new BE, but I love us being the underdog.
Quote from: brewcity77 on December 18, 2011, 06:35:52 AM
Who knows if we add another, but if we do, Temple would be my first, second, and third pick.
Agree. i believe the problem is just that if Temple joins after Navy, then they have to have Cincy or Louisville play in the western division, which may make them unstable. But I was watching the bowl game yesterday wondering if that might get them an invite.
On JamilJaeJamail's comment, you may know better than me. i had seen that being given the option of joining for other sports was something the western schools wanted in the deal, but I can't remember where i read that so it may not be credible.
Quote from: bamamarquettefan on December 18, 2011, 12:59:30 PM
Agree. i believe the problem is just that if Temple joins after Navy, then they have to have Cincy or Louisville play in the western division, which may make them unstable. But I was watching the bowl game yesterday wondering if that might get them an invite.
On JamilJaeJamail's comment, you may know better than me. i had seen that being given the option of joining for other sports was something the western schools wanted in the deal, but I can't remember where i read that so it may not be credible.
Boise State, SDSU and the academies were not given the option to join for basketball. In fact, I believe San Diego State decided to move all sports besides football into the Big West a week or so ago. Not sure why they weren't given the opportunity to join for bball...obviously doesn't work geographically, but if they were interested, so what.