Why no rating love for the BE?

[Pardner]

Our league RPI and SOS are high, yet our highest ranked team is below two teams in the ACC, 2 in the Big 12, 2 in the PAC 10, 1 in the SEC, 1 in the BE, 1 in CSU and 1 in the A10.  This late in the year, a BE team should be in the Top 5 with a 22-4 record.  Glad we have a bunch in the top 25, but come on.  Then again, it is the writers and the coaches.  Why do I even ask?

[CTWarrior]

Big East is deep, but not top-heavy.  Louisville strikes me as the only team playing like a real top 10 team right now, and I can see their lower ranking due to their early season troubles.  UConn, Georgetown, ND, Louisville and MU are locks for the NCAAs, not needing to win another game to get in.  I don't think any other conference has five teams in that situation.

The real question is how many of the other teams will get in?  Pitt and West Virginia look solid, but after that it gets dicey.  We really hurt Nova on Monday, and we may put the final nail in Syracuse's coffin next week.

[WashDCWarrior]

It's a conspiracy.  Obviously sports writers have a west coast bias.

[muwarrior87]

Big East is deep, but not top-heavy.  Louisville strikes me as the only team playing like a real top 10 team right now, and I can see their lower ranking due to their early season troubles.  UConn, Georgetown, ND, Louisville and MU are locks for the NCAAs, not needing to win another game to get in.  I don't think any other conference has five teams in that situation.

The real question is how many of the other teams will get in?  Pitt and West Virginia look solid, but after that it gets dicey.  We really hurt Nova on Monday, and we may put the final nail in Syracuse's coffin next week.

the reason there aren't any other conferences in this situation is because no other conference has 16 teams in it! That would mean if ya go by the percentages that the ACC would have 4 teams as locks right now and the Pac 10 would have 3 or 4 locks...which is pretty much the case.  But with the RPI's being so high for the top half + a couple in the BEAST, i'd like to see the selection committee reward the strongest conference top to bottom and get over half our teams a bid.  It's possible with the remaining games for this to happen and I believe it has to in the next couple years. I know they are about rewarding the mid-majors and teams that play tough out of conference schedules but if the MVC can get 4 or 5 teams in, it's not unreasonable for the BE to get 9.

[MR.HAYWARD]

alot of it has to do with the strength of the conference.  it is hard for a BE team to rip off 5-6-7 wins in a row which is needed to achieve or maintain that type of ranking.  Uconn was about there but lost to Nova.  Louisville is close and both of them were near or completely out of the poll before their recent runs. But the bottom line is accomplishing that feat is much easier in the Big Ten, ACC, and SEC, and C-USA(obviously).  Look at the PAc10 and how tough it is, UCLA is awesome and they are struggling to maintain a top 5 ranking as well. 

[Marquette84]

The Big East's problems with the RPI begin with Cincinnati and end With DePaul.

In the ACC, the worst non-conference records belongs to Georgia Tech, at 7-6 and Virgina Tech with 8-5 record.  IN the BE, DePaul entered conference play 4-7 and Cincy 5-7.   

That's a penalty endured by every other team in the league as we play them.

And it's not as if the tough schedule benefited DePaul or Cincy.  As with the Blue Demons last season, Cincy has a good enough league record to be a possible NCAA team--except they played their way out of the conference in December. 

[Pardner]

The Big East's problems with the RPI begin with Cincinnati and end With DePaul.

In the ACC, the worst non-conference records belongs to Georgia Tech, at 7-6 and Virgina Tech with 8-5 record.  IN the BE, DePaul entered conference play 4-7 and Cincy 5-7.   

That's a penalty endured by every other team in the league as we play them.

And it's not as if the tough schedule benefited DePaul or Cincy.  As with the Blue Demons last season, Cincy has a good enough league record to be a possible NCAA team--except they played their way out of the conference in December. 

Ah, the circle of life on this argument as we wind back to the OOC cupcake schedule.  This is sure a point positive.  Bardo was on Gamenight last night arguing that WSU, AZ and USC should be in over "middle of the pack" BE teams like MU, WSU and Pitt.  (If anyone heard this, please confirm on wasn't on LSD that he put MU on the bubble...Fran was ripping on him, thank god).  In this argument, we also need to consider the 10 national TV appearances by MU and post season $$.  Pretty clear. BE has no love (MSU is very over rated as a blind man could see last night).

[MR.HAYWARD]

is completely disagree on the whole cincy Deapul argument what do they have to do with anything?  bottom line is look at the Rpi's we have some big time rpi numbers in thsi conference i beleive 5 in the top 20.  But when winning 3 out of 4 is really hard to do in a conference like the BE it will hurt your rank compared to a team in a conference likt the B10 that can slepwalk through 5 out of 6 games

[Marquette84]

is completely disagree on the whole cincy Deapul argument what do they have to do with anything?  bottom line is look at the Rpi's we have some big time rpi numbers in thsi conference i beleive 5 in the top 20.  But when winning 3 out of 4 is really hard to do in a conference like the BE it will hurt your rank compared to a team in a conference likt the B10 that can slepwalk through 5 out of 6 games

The reason why Cincy and DePaul are important is that every team in the BE plays them--sometimes twice.

Which is the is better for the RPI--DePaul at 10-17 or NC State at 15-13.  They both have nearly identical conference records--NCState has one fewer loss.  Ditto with Cincy (13-14 overall) versus Maryland (18-11 overall).  Nearly identical conference record--big difference in non-conference records.

Now multiply that by the 14 teams that have to play Cincy and DePaul. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

is completely disagree on the whole cincy Deapul argument what do they have to do with anything?  bottom line is look at the Rpi's we have some big time rpi numbers in thsi conference i beleive 5 in the top 20.  But when winning 3 out of 4 is really hard to do in a conference like the BE it will hurt your rank compared to a team in a conference likt the B10 that can slepwalk through 5 out of 6 games

Marquette84 is right.  It's a simple mathematics issue.  The way the RPI is calculated, your opponents record and the opponent opponents record makes up a big chunk of the rating.  So playing someone saddled with a lot of losses, especially a conference opponent that has all of the same conference opponents you have to play, becomes a drag on the entire league.

And his other point, that tough pre-season schedules don't equate to better conference play is also valid (though there are examples to justify both sides of that argument).