The ACC as a basketball league is tougher than the Old Big East which was a very tough league. The refs let'em play in the old Big East. But with the 'Cuse, Pitt, Notre Dame ( we were a good not great BE team) Louisville to go with the already tough ACC ...it's a monster conference. Possibly the toughest college basketball league ever.
Having spent many years in Maryland, I look at the ACC is some years as amazing. Duke, UNC, NCS, Maryland, Wake Forest, UVA it was wild. I think some years they let the lowest ranked team win their tournament just to get more teams in the NCAA.
I saw this on the ESPN blog and I didn't double-check the math. Counting games the average team plays from each conference against teams from the other major level programs [ACC, B12, B10, P12, SEC, ND and BYU (sic)]: B12 plays 10.1 P12 plays 10.0 ACC plays 9.35 B10 plays 9.14 SEC plays 8.88 By deduction, the average conference team would then play this number of non-majors, assuming each team plays a 12 game schedule: B12 - 1.9 P12 - 2.0 ACC - 2.65 B10 - 2.86 SEC - 3.12
I'll be interested to see how this gets handled (scheduling). By minimizing the number of mandatory conference games, you're leaving the door open for schools to schedule punching bags. This became a plague in the BCS era. I know the math doesn't seem important, but the difference between playing 1 punching bag and 3 punching bags is quite important when you're talking about a 12 game schedule, especially when one conference is given a blank check of credibility due to the 'grind' of their conference depth. I didn't like the P12 schedule this year, but that's because they limited them to 3 noncons. Instead of the usual 2 great games, 1 good game and a punching bag, we saw too many 1 good game and 2 punching bags. I believe the ACC, like the SEC will have their teams play 4 noncons. A floating wild card in all of this, and it supports T's emphasis that the ACC could rise in terms of SOS is the Notre Dame card. Even when we're shitty, we're not that bad. The ACC teams will be rotating us around. Ergo, 1 of those 4 noncons will be ND for 5 teams a year. Meanwhile, in the SEC, there's no such quality anchor. They are free to pull an LSU and try to win the state championship in their noncons. This also enables them to load up for bear, but as we've seen in the past from everyone (including the P12 this year), if you give them a chance in the BCS era schools will try to maximize profit and diminish risk of loss. One day, hopefully the 8 team playoff will eliminate that.
I agree, Corey. I see an 8-team playoff as an equalizer. I don't see the 4-team playoff the same way.......but IMO it's a step in the right direction.
Agreed, Sid. The 4 team playoff is still such a narrow window, that people can't risk the loss. Now, I know the marketing spin tells us that 'it makes every week an elimination week' in college football, but that's just not so. Besides, when you fill 3 or 4 of the 12 round elimination run with punching bags, it's not all that it's billed to be. In an 8 team format, teams will now be looking to 1. Get better 2. Quantify their position among the field. Let's face it.. no one, and I mean no one wants to go to Wisconsin in the 3rd week of December or early January. The seeding will be awful important.