RebKell's Junkie Boards

[PickledGinger]

Outside of the Big East with DePaul and St. John's, which I now consider a Mid-Major, I cannot see any small conferences getting an at-large birth into the tournament this year. I can't even see UConn's RPI being strong enough to get another American team in. On the other hand, the ACC, B1G, Pac-12 and SEC are collectively the deepest they have ever been and are all loaded with competitive teams. I'll give the Mid-Majors and extra spot for equity's sake, but that still leaves 30 at-large bids to go around for the 5 power conferences, which is an average of 7 total bids per.

Here's how I see it working out:

ACC - 6-8 Births
Duke, Louisville, Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame
1-3 of Miami, Virginia, Syracuse, Wake Forest

Big 12 - 5-6 Births
Baylor, Texas, West Virginia
2-3 of Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

B1G - 7-8 Births
Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rutgers
1-2 of Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue

Pac-12 - 6-8 Births
California, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington
1-3 of Arizona State, Oregon, USC, Washington State

SEC - 7-8 Births
Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M
3-4 of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

Of course there will be teams that surprise, good or bad, but on paper I think these are the most likely teams to make tournament runs this season. It's looking like a great year to be a fan of one of the power conferences. They're all going to be very competitive.

[ArtBest23]

Syracuse will be in. I don't know why you would assume Minn or Rutgers or Wash are locks.

I'll be surprised Ark, Kansas, LSU, Florida, UVA, Wake get in.

The A10 will get more than one.

[PickledGinger]

[beknighted]

After the UCLA/JMU game yesterday, some adjustment to the level of certainty about mid-majors not getting bids might be warranted.

[Phil]

[shadowboxer]

How often were midmajors awarded an invitation, and not just the auto-bid, based on the midm's tournament outcome, anyway?

That would be an interesting stat to look at, for say the past ten yrs-and the Atlantic 10 doesn't count as they did not have the costs of a midmajor football program every year consuming resources.

[beknighted]

[shadowboxer]

Would be interested in those stat results, should you check them out.


When schools don't have a football team, they are not continually raising $$$ from boosters, etc...to develop state of art training facilities, keep up or build new stadium, $$ spent on recruiting, $$$ spent on transportation for any distant games, $$ spent on all the various communication outlets, and now, possibly stipends.The layout for spending that $$ for both football and basketball seems cost prohibitive.

FYI-UMass came into the MAC in attempt to raise their level of football competition.

These same schools, however, would be totally appalled if asked to fold their football program and instead concentrate on developing a top shelf basketball program and/or other athletic progams due to the traditions and history they feel the game of football defines.

[ArtBest23]

[shadowboxer]

You will note I am not arguing against your conclusions.

[ArtBest23]

I'm just saying that the choice that UMass made, or that Temple made to kill off a bunch of non-revenue sports in order to pour the money into football, is not universal. Some schools have made a conscious choice to concentrate on basketball as their primary sport.

[beknighted]

[Stephen Shirley]

I think C-USA has a good shot at getting two teams in. MT and W. Ky should both do well enough in conference play and can make noise in OOC play. Though the Lady Raiders missed an opportunity by losing at Arizona St Friday night.

[FollowtheCardinalRule]

With Tulane beating NCState, they have two good wins as they beat LSU. Tulane is my bet at the moment for a two bid American. not that it makes sense for tulane to be in the american.....

[FollowtheCardinalRule]

With Tulane beating NCState, they have two good wins as they beat LSU. Tulane is my bet at the moment for a two bid American. not that it makes sense for tulane to be in the american.....

[ripleydc]

[loneycafe]

[purduefanatic]

[beknighted]

[bballjunkie]

[quote="PickledGinger"]Outside of the Big East with DePaul and St. John's, which I now consider a Mid-Major, I cannot see any small conferences getting an at-large birth into the tournament this year. I can't even see UConn's RPI being strong enough to get another American team in. On the other hand, the ACC, B1G, Pac-12 and SEC are collectively the deepest they have ever been and are all loaded with competitive teams. I'll give the Mid-Majors and extra spot for equity's sake, but that still leaves 30 at-large bids to go around for the 5 power conferences, which is an average of 7 total bids per.

Here's how I see it working out:

[b]ACC - 6-8 Births[/b]
Duke, Louisville, Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame
1-3 of Miami, Virginia, Syracuse, Wake Forest

[b]Big 12 - 5-6 Births[/b]
Baylor, Texas, West Virginia
2-3 of Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

[b]B1G - 7-8 Births[/b]
Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rutgers
1-2 of Michigan, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue

[b]Pac-12 - 6-8 Births[/b]
California, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington
1-3 of Arizona State, Oregon, USC, Washington State

[b]SEC - 7-8 Births[/b]
Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M
3-4 of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

Of course there will be teams that surprise, good or bad, but on paper I think these are the most likely teams to make tournament runs this season. It's looking like a great year to be a fan of one of the power conferences. They're all going to be very competitive.[/quote]

I really like Lang for Texas, I hear the talk about McGee being out but Lang has a better touch.