Around The Sunbelt Tonight (12/8/07)

[chrisfisher]

Great night for the SBC tonight. UNT over Hartford, Denver over N. Colorado, Western Kentucky over Eastern Kentucky, and Florida Atlantic over Florida Gulf Coast. FIU loses to Florida. So far, we are 4-1 with wins over American East, Big Sky, Ohio Valley, and Atlantic Sun, respectively. We cannot seem to get that elusive win over a ACC foe this season. Perhaps the Mean Green will take care of this problem in the NCAA tourny Troy is currently up 62-54 over Alabama State (Southwestern Athletic Conf.) so our SBC potential tonight is 5-1. New Orleans, Ark State, and ULAR are all playing DII so I don't count those conference wins....

[CMJ]

We cannot seem to get that elusive win over a ACC foe this season.

Didn't UNO?

[chrisfisher]

My bad.... I completely forgot about that one...and an important one it was..... good call CMJ!

[chrisfisher]

Nice! Including the DII wins, the SBC went 8-1 tonight. Final tally for D1 wins was 5-1 and included wins against American East, Big Sky, Ohio Valley, Atlantic Sun, and Southwestern Athletic.

[GreenBat]

Saturday, December 8th

Hartford 97 Final

North Texas 105

Northern Colorado 53 Final

Denver 69

Western Kentucky 77 Final

Eastern Kentucky 60

Florida Gulf Coast 55 Final

Florida Atlantic 69

Miami (FL) 67 Final

Florida International 53

John Brown 36 Final

Arkansas-Little Rock 73

Loyola NO 51 Final

New Orleans 82

Alabama State 74 Final

Troy 85

Central Baptist Coll 49 Final

Arkansas State 101

[jwynn05]

Not too much to be excited about, none of those teams, made me say "what a win." All of our conference foes should be expected to beat those teams. Especially ASU and UALR, playing Ronnie Milsap's school for the blind and Helen Keller's school for the deaf. Let's not get too excited over our league teams beating teams that are in 1 bid leagues.

Edited December 10, 2007 by jwynn05

[DeepGreen]

Not too much to be excited about, none of those teams, made me say "what a win." All of our conference foes should be expected to beat those teams. Especially ASU and UALR, playing Ronnie Milsap's school for the blind and Helen Keller's school for the deaf. Let's not get too excited over our league teams beating teams that are in 1 bid leagues.

Agree. But isn't the Sun Belt a one bid league too?

[chrisfisher]

Not too much to be excited about, none of those teams, made me say "what a win." All of our conference foes should be expected to beat those teams. Especially ASU and UALR, playing Ronnie Milsap's school for the blind and Helen Keller's school for the deaf. Let's not get too excited over our league teams beating teams that are in 1 bid leagues.

I realize that these leagues were nothing to write home about. However, consistency is the Sunbelt's biggest problem (see UNO this season after a Top 25 win and then losing to a nobody). I am happy to see our conference win games that they should, and that certainly happened for these games. Plus I thought many of folks around here like to keep track of other SBC games.

[Censored by Laurie]

Agree. But isn't the Sun Belt a one bid league too?

Doesn't have to be...if WKU, USA, ULM, UNO and UNT can maintain the level of success we've had thus far this season...add a few more nice OOC wins and we'll be looking at 2 bids within the next 2 years.

[GreenBat]

Where is the bid coming to come from? Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC. I don't think so. The selection committee is made up of AD's from these conferences. They are not going to take away a bid from a BIG conference to give bids to conferences that are improving. I hope I'm wrong, but I'd bet money that the SUNBELT is a 1 bid league for a long time.

[Censored by Laurie]

Where is the bid coming to come from? Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC. I don't think so. The selection committee is made up of AD's from these conferences. They are not going to take away a bid from a BIG conference to give bids to conferences that are improving. I hope I'm wrong, but I'd bet money that the SUNBELT is a 1 bid league for a long time.

The "big" conference don't have a set number of at large bids...in theory its the next best 31 teams after the 34 automatic bids (I think I have those numbers right...though i'm sure i will be corrected if I don't). Thats the purpose of the RPI, although very flawed, the RPI is an attempt to balance the confernce discrepencies and determine the best 65 teams.

Oklahoma St will probably prove to be a bubble team this year with about 16-18 wins...if we have a successful conference season we should end up with 22-24 wins, and a head-to head victory over OSU...it would be hard to make a case that OSu is more deserving, especially if the SBC ends up with3 or 4 20 win teams, as is quite likely.

Also, I think your arguement held more merit 5-10 years ago. Now the you have more 2-3 bid conferences like the A-10, Missouri Valley and West Coast and there has been a push away from loading up the tourney with ACC, SEC Big 10, 12 and East programs.

I think we're a step or two away right now, big wins like OSU, NCST, Nebraska ect. have been offset by losses to UTA, Nichols St. and Northern Arizona...consistancy is the key.