RE: Xavier AD "I think the Big East will expand"
A10 was .01 behind the SEC for 7th. That's nothing.
Also, the way the A10 did the scheduling, the weaker teams didn't hurt the stronger teams anywhere near as much as other big conferences. VCU played RI, Duquesne, and Fordham once for instance. Top 3 teams- SLU, Butler, VCU had conference SOS of 43,57,74. SEC's top 3 teams conference SOS was 83,58,102. Pac 12 top 3 teams was 75,38,50.
A10- 58
SEC- 81
P12- 54.3
So, for the top teams in the A10, they weren't getting hurt playing the weaker teams. I mean, look at Pac 12. Arizona last year had to play 152 Utah 2x, 180 Oregon St 1x, and 191 Washington St 2x. So, 5 conference games against teams ranked worse than 150.
Florida- 224 South Carolina, 232 Mississippi St, and 254 Auburn- all 3 1 time each
St Louis- 201 Rhode Island, 229 Duquesne, 230 Fordham- all 3 1 timeseach.
So, St Louis compared to Florida- both played bad teams 1 time each, but the SEC bottom was worse than the A10 bottom. Pac 12 had better bottom teams, but Arizona for example had to play 2 more games against those bottom teams.
Oh, and in the RPI(which is what matters for the NCAA tourney), the A10 was ahead of the SEC and very close to the Big 12 and Pac 12.
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