The Premature, Completely Unneccessary Bracketbuster Thread

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ramnation

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VCU is a home team this year after 2 years on the road. Our strong start so far has given us the highest RPI ranking out of all the home-teams in the ESPN Bracketbuster pool at 17 (realtimeRPI.com). As it stands we would play the highest RPI team in the field in Western Carolina who is 8-1 and 10 in the RPI. This will probably drop as they are in the SoCon and will be dragged down by the teams there. William & Mary (19) would be playing at Missouri State (9-0, 22 in the RPI) out of the Missouri Valley Conference.

That begs the question: Who would you guys like to see us play against in February if we had our pick of team? Here are the visiting teams in the pool this year that we can play:

Boston University
New Hampshire
Presbyterian
Winthrop
Cal Poly
Long Beach State
UC-Davis
UC-Santa Barbara
Loyola
Illinois-Chicago
Valparaiso
Wright St.
Youngstown St.
Fairfield
Marist
Niagara
Rider
Siena
Akron
Buffalo
Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois
Toledo
Drake
Indiana State
Wichita State
Morgan St.
South Carolina St.
Morehead St.
SIU-Edwardsville
Southeast Missouri
Tennessee State
Tennessee Tech
Tennessee-Martin
College of Charleston
Elon
Western Carolina
Oral Roberts
Louisiana Tech
New Mexico St.
San Jose St.

It's not a very impressive group...it seems a lot of the stronger mids are home teams this year (Butler, Utah State, Creighton, Illinois St., Missouri St., Northern Iowa, Miami (Oh), Vermont etc.). I have to think that Siena is the best team out of the list of visiting teams. They would be my pick if I could choose anyone to play.
 
Right now I would think Butler would get the best home game. They may be below us in RPI, but they are ranked.

Still, we are looking pretty good. Too bad most of the best teams are Home this year.
 
Siena
or
Tennessee Tech for a return game in Nashville, Tennessee. (This will never happen)
 
BB has never helped VCU, it has been a game that hurts our RPI whether win or lose, all the benefit we've experienced is a return home game the next season, I'd be in favor or dropping it altogether.
 
We need to get out of this tournament. It lost its very purpose a couple years ago when the consistently good teams left.

That field is BAD. If Western Carolina is the best team RPI wise...god help us. The only good team they played is Texas and they lost by nearly 30 points. I am not going to even count the Louisville win...Louisville has the least amount of wins out of any Big East team right now and is not that great this year.

I say follow the rest of the teams that left and leave with them.

A true bracketbuster should be bcs vs non-bcs teams with a shot at actually making the tournament playing each other.
 
I wonder if VCU could just drop out of it, or is it an entire CAA kind of deal?
 
Witchita St. has a good record, but haven't beaten anybody with a winning record. Western Carolina has wins @Bradley, @Duquesne and @Louisville. It's also a (6 hours) drivable return road trip. Siena's ok, Long Beach St. maybe? Ugh, not a whole lot of attractive dates in that pool, must be what it feels like to be a student at Richmond. Western Carolina is a solid 6 however, so let's take her to the dance.

Can we start refusing this darn thing already? All Bracket Busters does, is what the BCS is doing to TCU and Boise St., letting the little guys play each other and drag each other down, while ensuring they don't have a chance to play the "big" schools.
 
I'm not sure if ESPN would do this, but if they offered to switch us to a road game and a chance to play Butler or another good team, would you be in favor of it?
 
Pavarotti said:
I'm not sure if ESPN would do this, but if they offered to switch us to a road game and a chance to play Butler or another good team, would you be in favor of it?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
chrisbrower said:
BB has never helped VCU, it has been a game that hurts our RPI whether win or lose, all the benefit we've experienced is a return home game the next season, I'd be in favor or dropping it altogether.
Click to expand...

Feh, the BB seems to give us one of our best games on the schedule every year. I say keep it up. For anything the TV coverage
 
Pavarotti said:
I'm not sure if ESPN would do this, but if they offered to switch us to a road game and a chance to play Butler or another good team, would you be in favor of it?
Click to expand...

VCU wouldn't agree to this unless we got paid for it and guaranteed a primetime Saturday spot. Our donor base is too small to turn down the ticket sales. Plus have to refund tickets already sold
 
ESPN needs to change the name of the tournament to "Any mid-major that wants to play each other", because the term "bracketbuster" means nothing as far as this tournament. Heck last year Towson and W&M were in the tournament....how is that a bracketbuster tournament?

What we need is a mid-year conference challenge game....like the major conferences currently have. Some say that doing that will hurt good teams. Well, the majors are pushing us out more and more. We need to begin to differentiate ourselves and a mid season challenge game against a good mid-major could lead to exciting games.
 
BradRamFan said:
ESPN needs to change the name of the tournament to "Any mid-major that wants to play each other", because the term "bracketbuster" means nothing as far as this tournament. Heck last year Towson and W&M were in the tournament....how is that a bracketbuster tournament?

What we need is a mid-year conference challenge game....like the major conferences currently have. Some say that doing that will hurt good teams. Well, the majors are pushing us out more and more. We need to begin to differentiate ourselves and a mid season challenge game against a good mid-major could lead to exciting games.
Click to expand...


yea like the CAA vs. Horizon League or Missouri Valley.
 
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