Observations posted at the conference discussion boards:
Outside of the power basketball conferences (ACC, B1G, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 and SEC), here are the numbers of the at-large non-power conference/mid-major teams making the NCAA Tournament for the past five years:
2017: 4
2016: 6
2015: 7
2014: 10
2013: 11
It's just the A-10 and AAC that are getting the vast majority of at-large bids recently. This year 3 of the 4 at-large bids from so-called mid majors were from those two leagues and 5 of 6 from the year before.
MWC has been a huge casualty. 1-bid league the last couple of seasons. When will UNLV, SDSU, and New Mexico get back on track?
The other interesting thing is the number of teams added to the power basketball conferences didn't really change. Almost all of the former Big East schools found homes in other power conferences (except Cincinnati, UConn and USF). The only real additions to the basketball group were Utah (Pac-12), TCU (Big 12), Butler, Creighton and Xavier (to the Big East).
By that assessment, the number of mid-major at-large bids should have remained relatively the same. However, that number went from 11 to 4 in just five seasons.
As major conferences move from 18 to 20 league games, there will be less and less opportunity for midmajors to play them. Which means midmajor strength of schedules will weaken, hurting their RPI and tournament hopes.
The AAC feels like it should be a lot stronger this year than they performed. They had this year for instance a whopping 16 losses OOC by 5 points or less(out of 50 losses total). The league would have looked a whole hell of a lot different winning just half of those. Just look at UConn- they lost 4 games by 5 or fewer points. If they won those games- their RPI would have been 19-13 with a RPI of 63. A whole lot different than 15-17 with a RPI of 119. And that improvement would have meant for example, Houston's 2 wins over UConn would have meant far more.
Outside of the power basketball conferences (ACC, B1G, Big 12, Big East, Pac-12 and SEC), here are the numbers of the at-large non-power conference/mid-major teams making the NCAA Tournament for the past five years:
2017: 4
2016: 6
2015: 7
2014: 10
2013: 11
It's just the A-10 and AAC that are getting the vast majority of at-large bids recently. This year 3 of the 4 at-large bids from so-called mid majors were from those two leagues and 5 of 6 from the year before.
MWC has been a huge casualty. 1-bid league the last couple of seasons. When will UNLV, SDSU, and New Mexico get back on track?
The other interesting thing is the number of teams added to the power basketball conferences didn't really change. Almost all of the former Big East schools found homes in other power conferences (except Cincinnati, UConn and USF). The only real additions to the basketball group were Utah (Pac-12), TCU (Big 12), Butler, Creighton and Xavier (to the Big East).
By that assessment, the number of mid-major at-large bids should have remained relatively the same. However, that number went from 11 to 4 in just five seasons.
As major conferences move from 18 to 20 league games, there will be less and less opportunity for midmajors to play them. Which means midmajor strength of schedules will weaken, hurting their RPI and tournament hopes.
The AAC feels like it should be a lot stronger this year than they performed. They had this year for instance a whopping 16 losses OOC by 5 points or less(out of 50 losses total). The league would have looked a whole hell of a lot different winning just half of those. Just look at UConn- they lost 4 games by 5 or fewer points. If they won those games- their RPI would have been 19-13 with a RPI of 63. A whole lot different than 15-17 with a RPI of 119. And that improvement would have meant for example, Houston's 2 wins over UConn would have meant far more.
