The Atlantic 10 has it right.

[xjohnx]

I've said it before. I'll say it again. The CAA should adopt the A10's scheduling requirements. These requirements make it so the bottom feeders hurt the rest of the conferences RPI much less. For those that are unfamiliar with the A10's scheduling requirements, check out the following article from the New York Times in 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/sport ... antic.html

The goal was simple: encourage the Atlantic 10’s weakest teams to play an easier schedule and challenge the top teams to play tougher nonconference games. That would boost the conference’s overall R.P.I. ranking and put it in position to get more berths in the N.C.A.A. tournament.

From 2005 to 2007, the Atlantic 10 earned only two at-large bids to the tournament. This season, the A-10 could repeat the success it had in 2004, when four league teams were included in the bracket, and St. Joseph’s and Xavier made the Round of 8.

 

[DCDuck]

Then W&M wouldn't have done much of anything this year. They wouldn't have had the opportunity to upset Wake, Maryland and Richmond. Who knows? Towson could be next year's W&M, or Hofstra, or Drexel. One or two games can change the direction of an entire program.

Our conference RPI was just fine this year, only ranking behind the Missouri Valley in terms of "mid-major" program conference RPI (I don't count the A-14, MWC, or C-USA as "mid majors" since they aren't covered by Mid Majority or represented in the Mid Major Poll). We were better than the WCC, who got two teams into the dance this year.

I know a lot of you are still sore about having to play in the CBI, but we can't blame teams like Delaware and Georgia State for dragging down our conference RPI rating when we don't take care of business against the teams we play.

 

[artRAMinMN]

Then W&M wouldn't have done much of anything this year. They wouldn't have had the opportunity to upset Wake, Maryland and Richmond. Who knows? Towson could be next year's W&M, or Hofstra, or Drexel. One or two games can change the direction of an entire program.

Our conference RPI was just fine this year, only ranking behind the Missouri Valley in terms of "mid-major" program conference RPI (I don't count the A-14, MWC, or C-USA as "mid majors" since they aren't covered by Mid Majority or represented in the Mid Major Poll). We were better than the WCC, who got two teams into the dance this year.

I know a lot of you are still sore about having to play in the CBI, but we can't blame teams like Delaware and Georgia State for dragging down our conference RPI rating when we don't take care of business against the teams we play.

Maybe "just fine' isn't something we should settle for. It really, really isn't just about us taking care of business... simplistic answers to complex issues may sound nice, but the fact is there are multiple variables at work, of which taking care of our own business is just one (albeit the most important one). Any incremental improvement we can make systemically, the better our chances will be, and the more margin for error there will be if we don't take care of 100% of our business. Discounting the A10 or CUSA because some minor online media outlets leave them out... mostly as a way of creating their own niche.. will skew things and make for a lower standard. The CAA, or at least the upper half of it, has more in common with the A10 or CUSA than we do with the ASun or the NEC. That isn't to say that tweaking scheduling standards conference-wide will be some kind of magic bullet... but it would probably help.

 

[DCDuck]

The CAA, or at least the upper half of it, has more in common with the A10 or CUSA than we do with the ASun or the NEC. That isn't to say that tweaking scheduling standards conference-wide will be some kind of magic bullet... but it would probably help.

I'm sure teams like St. Mary's (CA), Gomzaga, Butler, Siena, Nevada, Winthrop and Western Kentucky are in the same boat we are in, in that they have begun to "outgrow" their conferences. Everyone can't be top of the heap, and trying to separate the "cream" from the mid-majors just creates more of a vacuum between the "haves" and the "have-not"s. Personally, I love the small measure of parity there is in college basketball today. ODU over Notre Dame probably wouldn't have been quite as sweet for Monarchs fans if ODU was in a conference like the A-14 or C-USA. VCU over Dook wouldn't have been quite the same if we were in the Big East.

And again, teams like Drexel and Hofstra wouldn't have as much of an opportunity to prove themselves on the national stage if they were "strongly encouraged" to start playing weaker teams from the MEAC and A-Sun. Sure, it benefits us, but trying to play our way into major conference status by inflating win totals at the bottom half doesn't work if we can't take care of business when we have opportunities in conference play.

 

[D-Hoesevelt]

I'm sorry, but I don't see how anyone can honestly say we've outgrown the CAA. Last time I checked, and that was about three seconds ago, we finished 5th this year. We've won the conference four times in the past decade. Until we win the conference five, six or seven years in a row and we stop losing to teams like JMU we should be exactly where we are.

 

[artRAMinMN]

I'm sorry, but I don't see how anyone can honestly say we've outgrown the CAA. Last time I checked, and that was about three seconds ago, we finished 5th this year. We've won the conference four times in the past decade. Until we win the conference five, six or seven years in a row and we stop losing to teams like JMU we should be exactly where we are.

this isn't the outgrown-the-CAA thread... but I agree that we haven't outgrown the CAA yet, however I think it's incredibly small-time to think we have to wait until then to do anything to improve things... you don't wait until a situation has grown to or past the point where it needs to be changed, you plan ahead, and sometimes that means acting preemptively

Also, the thing about losing to teams like JMU is that you find that kind of thing in conferences at all levels... Duke lost to NC State, Kansas State lost to Iowa State, West Virginia lost to UConn... in-conference slip up games happen, they just happen at the level of the conference they're in

 

[getSmart]

I think what the A-10 has done is absolutely brilliant. They want to reward the better teams in the league and strengthen their conference hopes for at large bids. They did all of this without changing the league members.

Since Tow., Del. and Georg St. are content with sucking then let them do so at their own expense. Let VCU, ODU, GMU, and NU get stronger and grow.

 

[fmrick]

I'm sorry, but I don't see how anyone can honestly say we've outgrown the CAA. Last time I checked, and that was about three seconds ago, we finished 5th this year. We've won the conference four times in the past decade. Until we win the conference five, six or seven years in a row and we stop losing to teams like JMU we should be exactly where we are.

Well, the last time I checked we DID finish 5th in the CAA, but we were just one game out of 3rd. So don't make it sound like there were 4 teams better than us, because there weren't.

We've won the conference four times in the past decade.

Too funny. We finished first in the conference the last three years in a row, before this one. Now your post is confusing, what are you counting? What place we finished or how many time we won the tournament? I love how you mix the two in the same paragraph (we finished 5th, we have only won the conference 4 times in 10 years). Liars figure and figures lie.

The fact is that in the past 4 seasons we have dominated the conference, no matter how you measure. If you count the winning of the conference regular title as one and the conference championship as one, in four years you have 8. Of the 8 VCU represents 5. If that is not domination, it is certainly overpowering. And, for those who don't realize it, a great money making time for the Rams in the CAA, because our share of post season tournament money is figured just like that. You get shares for doing certain things, and based upon our past few years, we are second in shares in the CAA. Only the Final four run of Mason beats us out. Would you rather be them?

Did we have a down year? Well, yes we did. But name a mid major who does not. Everybody does. Do I expect one year to become a trend? No, I don't.

See, it is all about trends. Direction cannot be determined by a single point. It takes at least two points to draw a line. So it really depends on where you start. If you go back to 1976, then the trend is our friend, because we are light-years a head of where we were then. Start at 1986, and it does not look to good, since we had just come off a great run of five NCAA appearances out of 6 years. Now flash to 1996, we look OK now, but not good as we had been 10 years before.

But lets start at 2003-2004. More recent history. The New CAA. The current CAA. That period includes 3 NCAA appearances (04, 07, 09), two NIT appearances (05, 08), and this year the CBI (after what everybody in the country says was just a plain wrong selection process for the NIT). That is 6 years in a row of post season play, not as good at the run in the 80's, but surely a lot better then the 90's. You do realize that we went 7 years at one point and only had one NIT bid to show for it? Or that from 1988-89 to 2002-2003 (14 years!) we had one NCAA bid and one NIT bid?

So while it would be hard to say that we have dominated the New CAA, we have come pretty close. This thread was about the A-10 schedule (before you guys hi-jacked it). I agree, if we are going to have to play these teams year in and year out, than something has to be done to about their RPI and SOS. The worst night for our RPI/SOS was not one of our losses, but it was the night we beat Towson by 59. That night our SOS dropped 35 points, and it never recovered. During the three games in that same period (GSU and TU at home and @UNCW- All wins) we dropped a total of 50. Just because we played them.

It is time for the CAA to either get these teams to step it up or move on.

 

[JeffC]

Our teams also need to step up when we play in Bracket buster and pre-/post season tourneys...we cannot keep crapping the bed in these things...this year the other top CAA teams stunk it up in Bracket busters, NIT, CBI and CIT games... at least ODPOO won today....
If the CAA is going to get respect and name recognition our top teams have to win these games....

Hopefully we go on and win this CBI....

 

[artRAMinMN]

Our teams also need to step up when we play in Bracket buster and pre-/post season tourneys...we cannot keep crapping the bed in these things...this year the other top CAA teams stunk it up in Bracket busters, NIT, CBI and CIT games... at least ODPOO won today....
If the CAA is going to get respect and name recognition our top teams have to win these games....

Hopefully we go on and win this CBI....

While I agree with what you're saying, I think it's important to recognize the things that can be intentionally changed, and those things that are left up to the uncertainty of chance and competition. Hopefully, everybody actually TRIES to win... that they're (and we're) not always successful in doing so, that's just the nature of sports... the other teams are trying to win too. The expectation that everyone should do their best and try to win should be a given, so how one would go about trying to improve that systematically is hard to see.

 

[DCDuck]

Part of it is money, part of it is priorities. Some schools don't have men's basketball as their "marquee" sport. Some schools don't have the money to sink into making their men's basketball teams "better" (i.e. going out and getting a big-name coach or winning the bidding war to hire a hot assistant). It would be great if teams at the bottom "stepped it up", but sometimes it just doesn't work like that.

 

[artRAMinMN]

Part of it is money, part of it is priorities. Some schools don't have men's basketball as their "marquee" sport. Some schools don't have the money to sink into making their men's basketball teams "better" (i.e. going out and getting a big-name coach or winning the bidding war to hire a hot assistant). It would be great if teams at the bottom "stepped it up", but sometimes it just doesn't work like that.

Exactly... similar points are being discussed over on the Towson/Pat Kennedy thread. Unless the committed and financially able members of the conference underwrite the under-committed and/or unable, we can hardly expect them to find the will or money on their own... we can wish for it, but wising doesn't make it so. Hpwever, there may be revenue-neutral (more or less) ways to make them at least mitigate the damage they cause to the collective.

 

[xjohnx]

The argument could be made that by the bottom feeders scheduling cupcakes, allowing the upper echelon to send more teams to the post season could result in more money for everyone with post season revenue sharing.

 

[Mercury]

Too much like right for the CAA to do it

 

[RamJamFan]

I like what the A-10 did. CAA should adopt similar.

I do think many folks, however, are dumping on CAA. VCU simply got shafted from the NIT. We must just get over it. VA Tech can similarly moan abot not getting into the NCAA, or are they too busy moaning about the pathetic ACC?

Don't get me wrong--the CAA can improve, and should do more. But we didn't do our ourselves any favors by finishing 5th in CAA while not playing/winning a tougher road schedule [home OOC was best I can recall]. Likewise, the Hokie's didn't do themselves any favors by scheduling such a weak OOC schedule, even with a decent ACC record.