Break up the Summit!!!

[TrueBlue82]

Through Wednesday, the Summit League is 15-9 in OOC play. Yes, most of those wins have come against non-D1 opponents, but the League has already captured its share of D1 games - and preseason favorite Oakland is yet to contribute. If this trend continues, and Oakland turns things around, the conference RPI will be vastly improved this season.

[Dr. Cornelius]

Does this even mean anything since most of these wins are non-D1? Our league needs to penalize teams for playing non-D1 and independents like the MVC does.

[ORU_Ed]

by ORUBlue82 » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:54 am

what's up with the board time stamp??

Anyway,

You're right Blue...call us a power conference

If the conference has a .500 record by the end of Non-conf play then will change to

I would be extremely pleased.

[Dr. Cornelius]

You can change your time zone in your user control panel (upper left) under board preferences.

[FargoBison]

At this time last year the Summit had three DI wins(Oregon, Wichita State, and Troy) and 14 DI losses.

This year we have six DI wins(Stanford, Wyoming, Drake, Eastern Illinois, McNeese State, and Grambling State) and 11 DI losses. So we are ahead of schedule. 7 of the 10 losses are to High-Majors, so I would agree that we are in decent RPI shape right now.

In case you wanted to know this is how the Summit finished in non-conference play last year...

Summary

Home 8-7

Road 14-53

Neutral 10-11

vs High-Major 4-34(we already have 2 this year!)

vs Mid-Major 28-37

Overall 32-71

[tmh8286]

by ORUBlue82 » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:54 am

what's up with the board time stamp??

Anyway,

You're right Blue...call us a power conference

If the conference has a .500 record by the end of Non-conf play then will change to

I would be extremely pleased.

I think you have to manually make the switch off of DST. I was wondering the same thing a week or so ago, Eddie.

[tmh8286]

At this time last year the Summit had three DI wins(Oregon, Wichita State, and Troy) and 14 DI losses.

This year we have six DI wins(Stanford, Wyoming, Drake, Eastern Illinois, McNeese State, and Grambling State) and 11 DI losses. So we are ahead of schedule. 7 of the 10 losses are to High-Majors, so I would agree that we are in decent RPI shape right now.

In case you wanted to know this is how the Summit finished in non-conference play last year...

Summary

Home 8-7

Road 14-53

Neutral 10-11

vs High-Major 4-34(we already have 2 this year!)

vs Mid-Major 28-37

Overall 32-71

Nice stats, FargoBison - Thanks!! Very few games played at home, overall. Last year was especially bad for us in that regard. Hopefully this year there will be more home games for all of us in the non-conference. They certainly improve the winning percentage!!

[ORUIsbig]

You can change your time zone in your user control panel (upper left) under board preferences.

Thanks, ive been wondering about that

[Old Titan]

At this time last year the Summit had three DI wins(Oregon, Wichita State, and Troy) and 14 DI losses.

This year we have six DI wins(Stanford, Wyoming, Drake, Eastern Illinois, McNeese State, and Grambling State) and 11 DI losses. So we are ahead of schedule. 7 of the 10 losses are to High-Majors, so I would agree that we are in decent RPI shape right now.

In case you wanted to know this is how the Summit finished in non-conference play last year...

Summary

Home 8-7

Road 14-53

Neutral 10-11

vs High-Major 4-34(we already have 2 this year!)

vs Mid-Major 28-37

Overall 32-71

Good stuff, FB - just goes to show that when we can get the better teams into our arenas (or, at least, out of their's), we can definitely compete.

Not too sure, though, about your "High-Major" designation - ORU's win over Stanford is the only one so far for the Summit League over a school from one of the six so-called "BCS", or "Power", conferences of the Pac-10, SEC, Big XII, Big East, Big Ten and ACC.

While SDSU's win over Wyoming is certainly impressive, the Mountain West Conference just doesn't rank up there with those other six leagues in the eyes of the national pundits, the NCAA Selection Committee, the pollsters, etc.

To be fair, if ORU was able to get a win later this season over New Mexico (another MWC team) or Indiana State (Missouri Valley), I don't think those victories - great as they would be ORU and the Summit League - would be considered "High-Major" wins, either.

[SDSUJacks]

We'll see how this weekend goes....

We play #7 Purdue tonight. I'll be happy if we stay within 20.

Tommorow it's most likely we play Saint Josephs (if and when they lose to Boston College). I would give us a chance there...maybe.

Considering we lose that one we most likely get DePaul or East Carolina on Monday. I think we could win one of those if we go with a deep rotation (I'm so glad we finally have depth) and come in to that game fresh. My strategy would be to go real deep tonight and keep guys fresh as we have pretty much zero chance of beating the #7 team in the country. I think there is at least a possibility of a win on Saturday and/or Monday. Would love to play DePaul and catch them bored on Monday. That would give the Summit a win over PAC-10, Big East and Mtn West within the first two weeks of the season.

[ORUTex]

For what it's worth, midmajority.com includes the Mountain West and Conference USA (along with the 6 BCS conferences) in its teams "above the red line." It considers everyone else a mid-major. http://www.midmajority.com/redline.php

[SDSUJacks]

I agree that I wouldn't count the Mtn West as a mid-major. Utah, UNLV, Air Force and New Mexico are no strangers to 20-win seasons and the NCAA tourney and San Diego St and Wyoming are known to have a solid year every few years it seems. Pretty underrated conference for basketball and football IMO.

[Dr. Cornelius]

Yeah, The Mountain West should be considered the "7th" league in basketball. It's always nice to get a win over on of their teams. I agree with Mid-Majority's "redline" theory of athletic funding; it's hard to classify MWC and C-USA teams as mid-major.

[Old Titan]

For what it's worth, midmajority.com includes the Mountain West and Conference USA (along with the 6 BCS conferences) in its teams "above the red line." It considers everyone else a mid-major. http://www.midmajority.com/redline.php

But not the Missouri Valley? Or the Colonial? That's just goofy.

Frankly, I think there are in reality three levels of leagues in Division 1 college basketball:

HIGH-MAJOR: the aforementioned six "BCS" leagues - multiple bids every year to the NCAA tournament, have their pick of multiple home games with whoever they want to pay "guarantee" money to, numerous TV appearances through huge league contracts with the big networks.

MID-MAJOR: C-USA, MWC, WAC, Missouri Valley, Colonial, A-10 (some conferences fall in and and out of this group, depending on their strength in a given year, such as the Horizon, MAC, West Coast, etc.) - struggle for national exposure and home games with the High-Majors, are forced to make TV deals on a school-by-school basis, but enjoy something of a "boutique" appeal with the masses, usually centered around one or two of their best teams (Memphis, Gonzaga, Butler, etc.).

LOW-MAJOR: Everybody else, the so-called "One-Bid Conferences" that traditionally fill the #16-#12 Seeds in the bracket (again, some mid-major leagues fall in and out of this level annually) - can't get any home games with the BCS schools, struggle to get home games with the Mid-Majors, have virtually no TV exposure on the major networks, are treated like the "ugly step-sister" by the NCAA Selection Committee (until they upset a High or Mid-Major in the tournament, when magically they become a "Cinderella").

The Summit League is currently one of the better Low-Majors, on the cusp of entering the Mid-Major ranks, if two of the league's better teams could earn NCAA bids in one year.

And the Mountain West is a Mid-Major in basketball, pure and simple. So is C-USA. Each has suffered through at least one lean "one-bid" year before, which would never happen to a High-Major league - not even close.

[FargoBison]

I would call the MWC high-major(Utah, BYU, New Mexico, and UNLV is a great core for that conference). I am not so sure about the C-USA, Memphis definitely is but the rest of the league is pretty questionable.

[ManiacAlum]

Those are solid basketball teams, but the MWC has always been a 2-bid league. And is headed toward one-bid land quickly if all those teams can't be consistent year-to-year.

That puts them in the same territory as the Valley, Horizon, WCC, CAA, Sun Belt, etc. (MVC needs to get it together also)

High-major or BCS conference teams sleepwalk through a mediocre schedule and still put 5-6 teams in. (Like the Big Eleven)

Mid-major teams can have a great year, have their coach plead to whomever will listen on Selection weekend and still get sent to the NIT. (Like San Diego St. last year)

[Old Titan]

Those are solid basketball teams, but the MWC has always been a 2-bid league. And is headed toward one-bid land quickly if all those teams can't be consistent year-to-year.

That puts them in the same territory as the Valley, Horizon, WCC, CAA, Sun Belt, etc. (MVC needs to get it together also)

High-major or BCS conference teams sleepwalk through a mediocre schedule and still put 5-6 teams in. (Like the Big Eleven)

Mid-major teams can have a great year, have their coach plead to whomever will listen on Selection weekend and still get sent to the NIT. (Like San Diego St. last year)

Exactly.

Mid-major conference are always just a couple of bad coaching hires away from "one-bid" purgatory.

[FargoBison]

For the record I was using the midmajority definition of a midmajor, not sure if that is the best but I do think that it is better than most.

As for the MWC, they have gotten 22 bids in the past 10 years, and the last time they had one team in the dance was eight years ago. Maybe they are in some kind of grey area but I do think the MWC is a small step above the MVC and a significant step above any league beyond the next best conference(Horizon, CAA, Sun Belt, etc.).