Yesterday, Jason King of ESPN wrote one of the always captivating winners and losers pieces about conference realignment, but this time it was for basketball. We've seen a flux of these articles and columns all summer that have mostly focused on the football side. We've seen Cincinnati and Connecticut raked across the coals because they are the two name schools that have been lost along in the shuffle. No one really says poor USF, otherwise I would have named them. All summer we've heard noting but "Oh man, that AAC is such a joke. Why is that even a league? Why are those teams? They should disband and form a super university then they could get accepted into the ACC." We get it. The league isn't going to be the best football league in the world. It's in the same boat as the Mountain West. The Mountain West which isn't shit on by everyone in the media. Unlike the American.
Jason King, no relation unless my nephew is somehow writing for ESPN even though he's only 10, hasn't always written for ESPN but he sure jumped right into the same ESPN line of thinking. That is everything Big East was and is truly amazing and is above criticism, except those loser castoffs who couldn't get into the ACC. They were fake Big East teams anyway. Winners and losers articles are pretty dumb anyway because we don't know who is a winner and a loser until things actually happen. They are just who the writer thinks are the winners and losers. Let's go through his list.
The first winner was the ACC. This makes sense because the ACC has been kind of down lately, 4 bids the past two tournaments, and they get the bounce of Syracuse, ND, Pitt and Louisville next year. They are going to be great. No biggie.
Butler and Creighton both make the winners list. Butler, without Brad Stevens, and Creighton in the last year of Doug McDermott seem to be programs with some future question marks. Creighton has won 3 tournament games in the 2000s. Butler has only consistently popped in the tournament since 2007. Both schools are lauded for testing their mettle. Remember this point.
The next two winners were Utah State and awful San Jose State for bailing on a bad league to the Mountain West. Remember this as well.
George Mason joining the A-10 was a winner. Ok, they went to the Final Four once.
The final winner were our old friends, the Big East. The Big East, which lost Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia lately, is praised for forming a new identity after getting rid of all those awful football schools. The new Big East should be pretty good, but let's pump the brakes here. There is a clear upper two, Georgetown and Marquette. Creighton should be up there just with Doug. Xavier and Villanova seem on the same plane. Butler has to be a question mark if they can make the tournament again. St John's, Providence, Seton Hall and DePaul haven't been consistently good in years. At best, this is a 6 bid league. It will not be a 6 bid league. This is a 3 or 4 bid league just because they are going to ravage each other.
Then we come over to the losers side of things. Top two losers, and rightfully so, are Conference USA and the Atlantic 10. Those leagues lost all of their good teams. The Colonial is also a loser for losing George Mason and Old Dominion this year, plus VCU the year before. George Mason going from one loser league to another doesn't seem like a winner in this deal, but hey, I didn't write this.
Two other losers were the WAC, which was the biggest loser by far since they lost their entire league it seems, and the Great West. I don't know how you can be a loser when no one knew your league existed.
There are 4 losers left. Of course two of them are Cincinnati and Connecticut, just because they didn't join the ACC. It's not really their fault that the ACC picked 1 team to replace Maryland. Nothing they could do really. We've covered this before.
The last two losers are Temple and Memphis. King's reasoning is that Temple and Memphis were set to join the Big East before it blew up, and therefore being in the American makes them losers. Even though moving to the American was clearly the best move for them. Even though they left shitty leagues that were losers. Even though they are moving to a league with two very good programs that were left out of the ACC mix. The 3 best available basketball programs joined into one league. Temple hasn't been as good as Xavier or Butler, but they aren't a gigantic step down.
The part of this that makes no god damn sense is that Memphis and Temple are losers just because the noble and mighty basketball schools broke away from the Big East. Is there a difference between Houston, UCF, SMU and Seton Hall, DePaul and Providence? No, there isn't. Should Memphis and Temple stayed in Conference USA and the A-10? I bet if they joined the Big East they would be winners.
Right off the top in the basketball American, you have 4 teams that are NCAA tournament staples. Cincinnati, Connecticut and Memphis should make the tournament every year. Temple should make it 7 of 10 years. UCF has been turning the corner. Houston was pretty alright last year. SMU wasn't good. Moving forward, this could be a 4 or 5 bid league.
So why is the American considered a loser while the Big East is considered a winner? The American is clearly going to be better this season because they have Louisville. It's this narrative that everything the American touches is shit. These are reject programs that couldn't find better leagues. Unlike the Mountain West, which is the same exact thing. The MWC gets a break because no one cares about the WAC. The AAC gets trashed because everyone in the media loved the old Big East. Did you guys know that every team in the old Big East won every national championship in every sport? Did you know back in the olden days of the Big East, sports were pure and noble and by George, they were how life was suppose to be?
Connecticut is suddenly a loser school, even though they won the National Championship in 2011. It's not like they missed the NCAA tournament last year because they sucked on the court. Do you know how many NCAA tournament wins Georgetown has since 1997? 10. Four of them came when they went to the Final Four. Do you know how many times Georgetown has made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament since that Final Four? Zero. Cincinnati has made more Sweet 16s recently than Georgetown. But Patrick Ewing played there so any league they are in is the best league.
Do you know the last time Providence made the NCAA tournament back to back years? 1989-90. Do you know the last time Central Florida made the NCAA tournament in back to back years? 2004-2005. But UCF is garbage. Who made the NCAA tournament more recently, Seton Hall or Houston?
The point of this post isn't to have a dick waving contest with the Big East. That's going to be a good league, despite having DePaul. The point is that there is no difference between the American and the Big East besides how they are talked about. The American is going to have a lot of work to do to get the stench of media narrative off of them. Louisville could win the National Title again this season, but it wouldn't be a win for this league. No, it would be a win for the ACC. Georgetown can flame out every single year in the NCAA tournament and no one will bat an eye. Just wait until Memphis or Cincinnati or UConn get bounced on the first weekend with a high seed and it's 'OH THAT OVERRATED AMERICAN, I KNEW THOSE TEAMS SUCKED!' from all corners of the internet.
We just had this with Big East football. The league wasn't amazing, but the line was drawn with basketball being clearly superior. The ACC hasn't been a good football conference in a few years, but the line is drawn there. So why isn't the line being drawn here? The hardest part of being in the American isn't going to be anything on the field, it's going to be changing the narrative off of it. The people covering college sports at places like ESPN think it's a joke, garbage league. More power to them. I'm willing to bet someone from the American wins a national title before someone from the Big East. I don't think anyone would take me up on it because I think they believe that too. Being left out of the ACC sucks, but we aren't in Conference USA. Eff that. When Cincinnati was in Conference USA, Conference USA had the #1 team in the nation many years. Don't forget that. Just because they are going to write that our basketball league is filled with losers doesn't make it true. Let them choke on their narrative.
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