vs. Colgate

[bob87]

My opinion is both extremes are wrong. "pretty darn good" and "sucks". It is in the middle mostly average one bid league. I usually use the maac as an example because that is the peer league that thinks it is so far above. But head to head with them over all is generally even. Some years they are ahead, some years we are. They also rarely beat BCS teams especially if you normalize the stats for difference in games at home where a team is more likely to win.

 

As far as your question "are we the only team in the America east right now that hasn't beaten a bcs school in our basketball history?"

I don't know the answer to that. I do know we have been in March madness and there are some teams in the league who never been to the ncaa tournament. If I could only have one, I rather go to the tournament than have a BCS win.

[UAalum72]

Why does everyone keep saying that the America East is awful? Yes, there have been some hiccups (see yesterday's UNH game), but our league has hung with the best of them. UNH almost beat UConn, which is #5 in the nation and has the nation's leading scorer. Maine just beat Penn State. Vermont is 8-3. Boston and Stony Brook may be struggling, and UMBC may be laughable, but I think our league is pretty darn good!

 

i wouldnt call 27/32 pretty darn good, but thats just my opinion.

People get hung up on the ranking number, but the qualitative difference between 14 and 28 is minimal, to the outside world we're all in the nameless one-bid league category.

 

 

are we the only team in the america east right now that hasnt beaten a bcs school in our basketball history?

We beat Utah in 2006, do they count?

[UA'08]

Why does everyone keep saying that the America East is awful? Yes, there have been some hiccups (see yesterday's UNH game), but our league has hung with the best of them. UNH almost beat UConn, which is #5 in the nation and has the nation's leading scorer. Maine just beat Penn State. Vermont is 8-3. Boston and Stony Brook may be struggling, and UMBC may be laughable, but I think our league is pretty darn good!

 

i wouldnt call 27/32 pretty darn good, but thats just my opinion.

People get hung up on the ranking number, but the qualitative difference between 14 and 28 is minimal, to the outside world we're all in the nameless one-bid league category.

 

 

are we the only team in the america east right now that hasnt beaten a bcs school in our basketball history?

We beat Utah in 2006, do they count?

 

well utah will be a bcs team next year i believe so then i guess it would count, but when we beat them they were in the mwc.

[bob87]

We beat Utah in 2006, do they count?

 

It does to those of us who were in the arena. Fun trip and I don't really care if it fits into someone else's label or not.

 

Again at the one bid level, the goal is to go to the tournament and have a fun time with fellow alumni and if the team makes history (advances) it would be icing on the cake.

 

Obviously this is just from my fan perspective.

 

There were times when the upper level was shaking in the Uconn game. Even tough Uconn game back to win, there are good memories there and it was good enough to get almost a full page in the official tournament program the year Bingo played Duke.

[AmericaEasterBunny]

When I said "pretty darn good," I was referring to the top six teams in the conference. If the overall record is 27-32, then eliminating UMBC takes away at least 11 losses (I didn't check how current your number was), and makes it a winning record. Do I think UMBC, Hartford, and Binghamton are terrible? Yes. But I am very encouraged that the conference seems to have talent and potential, with the conference championship arguably wide open (to those six teams). Last year's teams could not have done with this year's teams have done, IMO (i.e. beat Siena, rattle UConn).

 

But maybe I'm just overly impressed because last year was so bad. Or because I'm clearly biased

 

America East won't produce the next Butler, but if we can shake the confidence of Jim Calhoun, I'm impressed!

[bob87]

When I said "pretty darn good," I was referring to the top six teams in the conference. If the overall record is 27-32, then eliminating UMBC takes away at least 11 losses (I didn't check how current your number was), and makes it a winning record. Do I think UMBC, Hartford, and Binghamton are terrible? Yes. But I am very encouraged that the conference seems to have talent and potential, with the conference championship arguably wide open (to those six teams). Last year's teams could not have done with this year's teams have done, IMO (i.e. beat Siena, rattle UConn).

 

But maybe I'm just overly impressed because last year was so bad. Or because I'm clearly biased

 

America East won't produce the next Butler, but if we can shake the confidence of Jim Calhoun, I'm impressed!

 

 

Each year is a different year. Obviously, this year is far more enjoyable than last year. It is hard to compare years against a certain team as teams go up and down. Last year no one beat LCC on their home court and most teams did not come close. This year they are not as good and hopefully next year they continue with that trend and every team beats them.

Also it is hard for me to "pick and choose" and then eliminate teams while doing comparisons. You could do that with all one bid leagues and each would look better. All the leagues have some decent teams and teams that struggle.

[YO DAMIEN]

Each year is a different year. Obviously, this year is far more enjoyable than last year. It is hard to compare years against a certain team as teams go up and down. Last year no one beat LCC on their home court and most teams did not come close. This year they are not as good and hopefully next year they continue with that trend and every team beats them.

Also it is hard for me to "pick and choose" and then eliminate teams while doing comparisons. You could do that with all one bid leagues and each would look better. All the leagues have some decent teams and teams that struggle.

 

exactly, a league's rank is based on both their skill at the top and their depth. Our league's bottom feeders won't beat many teams in D1 in any given year, no matter who it is based on the year. At the same time you could take the worst team in the big east and they would win the majority of the mid major conferences. Is the AE the worst D1 league or close to it? No. Are we an "emerging" mid major or a conference that will ever receive more than one bid? No. RPI tries to rank every league year in and year out but its realistically too hard to look at by the numbers when looking at leagues that aren't among the elite. Each year we may "rank" differently among our peer leagues. I don't care what anyone wants to feed me, the MAAC and NEC are both peer leagues to the AE, hence why we always get a good chunk of our OOC games against them (football has to do with it too obviously). Outsiders can knock a league all they'd like but usually it doesn't matter anyways. If some delusional MAAC fan really wants to believe that league is better, let them, because it doesn't matter they aren't going to be getting a microsecond of time in minds of the committee when they are making the brackets (FF or Iona is my maac pick btw), just as nobody from the AE will relevant after our conference tourny...unless of course you spring the upset...

 

By comparison the seedings of the AE and maac:

2005-13 (UVM) (W)/ 14 (Niagra)

2006-16 (Albany)/13 (Iona)

2007-13 (Albany)/16 (Niagra)

2008- 15 (UMBC)/ 13 (Siena)

2009- 15 (Bingo)/ 9 (Siena) (W)

2010-16 (UVM)/ 13 (Siena)

 

Average seeding: 14.66 to 13, with one win for each conference

[Dane Pound]

To be fair, the Siena and the MAAC won two NCAA tournament games during that span you have listed, not one.

[YO DAMIEN]

To be fair, the Siena and the MAAC won two NCAA tournament games during that span you have listed, not one.

 

ah thats right, 2008 as well. Regardless I think if you continued the chart across all the mid major conferences you would find we rank among a large group of conferences that are of the same caliber, low-mid, mid major.