ACE

Comedy is not easy. You probably should avoid it. I don’t find your lame shot at humor to be in bad taste, rather I’m more offended by how weak your attempt at the joke was. Stick to what you know best- bootlicking for the power conferences.

Yep, Memphis football entered November in the top position among the "Group of 5" to make the college football playoff. Unless there are more shake-ups, there's no way Memphis or any of those football schools are leaving to go to a basketball-centric conference. Temple, in addition to having football, is not an upgrade over St. Joe's in basketball, so there's no point in pursuing them. The two schools have the same number of NCAA Tourney appearances since Temple left for the AAC in 2013. Wichita State is the one outlier in the AAC, which could make sense. No football, basketball-first school with a lot of resources.

Jax Kerr may go for 40. Isaac may have a double double. I wish we could add walk ons just for this game.

Forget Memphis - they are trying to chase football relevance. Also scratch Temple or any school with a football program.

Perhaps requiring a minimum financial commitment to the basketball program (NIL, coaches salaries, facilities) could be a requirement for entry into this new league?

Some of this seems like rearranging the deck chairs on the mid-major Titanic. I've never heard of teams getting kicked out of a league. I imagine that would create a ton of legal obstacles. Here are the two things which I think are most realistic... Form a new conference of the non-football playing schools that are most committed to pouring resources into having competitive basketball programs. So that means no Memphis, Tulane, Temple, UAB, etc. as these schools are continuing to chase relevance in football. You position this league to be the closest thing to the Big East (non-football playing conference with a basketball focus) that you can create. Best case you begin to compete with the Big East to also be a multi-bid league, worst case, you position the members of this league to be in prime position if/when the Big East expands. The second thing I have talked about previously - form a loose association to represent the interests of "mid majors." Hire an agency to help lobby and lead media campaigns on behalf of mid majors with the goal of tournament expansion that includes spots in the Dance. Mid majors that have Top 50 NET rankings should have a spot at earning at large bids. Tournament expansion has been gaining momentum - the "mid majors" need to fight to have a seat a the table. College basketball is better with a strong middle class.

We can debate about semantics if you don’t like the word “power” - so if you prefer, there will be six perennial “multi-bid” leagues and the remaining conferences will essentially be one bid. Regarding the WCC v. the new Pac-12 - Zags plus San Diego State, Utah State, Colorado State, Boise State will have a much better chance to get 3 or 4 bids, compared to the WCC, which has essentially been St. Marys and Zags.

I'm defining a "power conference" as a multi-bid league - there will be 6 of them. Every other conference will be staring at one bid.

Dec. 23 (NON-power conference schools in the Top 50 NET 5 - Gonzaga (WCC) 18 - Utah State (MWC) 26 - SLU (A-10) 27 - St. Mary's (WCC) 44 - Tulsa (AAC) 46 - Boise State (MWC) 48 - Yale (Ivy) 49 - McNeese (Southland) 50 - Belmont (MVC) We're not even in January, so a lot can change of course, but this is a snapshot of why I have become so discouraged about the state of college basketball in recent years. And it will only get worse. This time next year, three of these teams (Gonzaga, Utah State and Boise) will be in the new Pac 12... which will mean we'll have what I call the Power 6 (one of the multi-bid leagues). Looking at the rest of the teams on this list, we're only left with SLU and St. Mary's as teams that would be considered for at large bids. It's amazing what Randy Bennett has done for a long period of time at St. Mary's, but their future is a lot less bright when they are no longer in a conference with the Zags. The rest of the non-power league teams past the NET top 40 that I listed would have no chance at an at-large bid. The AAC is no longer a multi-bid league, much like the A-10. The Mountain West is also destined to be a one-bid league with all of their best programs moving to the Pac-12 and the WCC will face the same reality with the departure of the Zags.

I wish we would generate more steals. Not having Thames doesn't help, but with as many athletic guys as we have, it seems that we should generate more steals. We didn't do it a lot last year either, but I chalked it up to a lack of depth and athleticism.

They will - in many preseason projections they were top 4 or 5. They will mess some things up for some A-10 teams.

There’s no reason to join the AAC - it’s just another one bid league.

Remember the end of the Davidson game So glad to see him have this success. A great Billiken who has worked extremely hard to get to where he is.

The ranking of 12 was before his ill fated COVID party. The season went downhill after that.

Yep! I've been talking about this for quite a while. Every fan of "mid majors" should be advocating for this. And when I'm talking about "mid majors" I'm not talking about programs that should be more accurately called Low D1 - they get plenty of spots to the Dance. Currently there is nearly no opportunities for teams outside the power conferences to earn at large bids like there used to be. If you are a non power conference team who is in the 30-50 NET range, you should either be in the Dance or at least knocking on the door - even if it means playing a play-in game. You would have more meaningful regular games in mid to late February with teams fighting for potential at large bids. Way too much is weighted on the conference tournaments and not enough on the regular season.