(10-10-2018 10:45 PM)trapdrawApp Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:36 PM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:22 PM)APPdiesel Wrote:  NMSU was not getting decent.

They went to a bowl game and won. I can think of six other SB teams who didn't do that. I'm not saying they were going to run the table but they were at least competitive.

One hit wonder. Back to not being good at 2-4 without Rodgers and Rose.

Yup. To play the pro divisions card, a good thing about the divisions is that you can split up the conference strength by division. When we are one big group, we are essentially the sum of our parts. The 1 win teams and the 1 loss teams all get bunched up together in the “Sunbelt is not very good” conversations. Now that we’re in divisions, at least there’s an added argument that “the Sunbelt west is terrible, but the East isn’t that bad”. Before long metrics start coming out that say Sunbelt East or Sunbelt West. These metrics could help to drive our conference perception up as a whole. Essentially by splitting up we can become greater than the sum of our parts than if we’re together.

(10-10-2018 09:19 PM)debragga Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 08:44 PM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:28 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  This is why we effed up when we split into divisions. Since we only have 10 teams, we should have modeled ourselves after the Big12 instead of all these other G5 conferences with regards to conference structure and the championship game.

I'll use App State and Ark State in this scenario since they are both the hot teams from each division. We all know the west isn't good this year, and Ark State is likely to play in the championship game. Ark State is also already 0-2 against the East. If we want to elevate our conference perception, we need our best team, in this scenario it's App, to get some quality wins to enhance their post season prospects.

If we have an East vs West championship game, and it ends up being Arkansas State (4-4) vs App State (8-0), that won't do dick for App's post season while a let's say (7-1) Troy team has to stay home. We should just drop the divisions and play a round-robin schedule like we basically do anyway. Then the top two teams in the conference play a championship game like the Big 12 does. That's the only way to keep from hurting our best team's chances against the other G5 champions.

Just because the west division sucks this year doesn't mean they'll always be. stAte will always be a perennial favorite out of there but Louisiana, ULM and USA can and have turned their programs around before. This isn't a Sun Belt-specific situation either. The SEC for years has had this issue with their two divisions with the western side essentially "Alabama and everyone else" for at least the last 4 seasons, or "Clemson and everyone else" in the ACC's Atlantic division and on and on. If you listen to the pundits, most conferences outside of the B1G have one division which is glaringly weaker than the other.

If anything, the Sun Belt I thought would benefit by getting themselves two more teams so you have a solid 12-team conference. One in the east and one in the west (still think it was a mistake to kick NMSU to the curb, they wanted to be full members and were getting somewhat decent)

Maybe add NMSU and try to get UTEP so that they can be travel partners, and move USA to the east

Not if you want to fix the Sunbelt west reputation. NMSU had a flash in the pan decent season last year and now are back in their usual trash campaign. UTEP has had 1 WINNING SEASON since 2008 and it was a mediocre 7-6. They haven’t won a game since like 2016 or so. South Alabama and ULL are the only other two teams in the SBC west that might screw around and beat ArkSt on a regular basis. USA to the east and replacing with those two would bring about a SBC west average ranking consistently in the 110+ realm. This year that would be an imploding ArkSt, a mind ****** TxSt, the uninspired Louisiana twins, the tragedy of UTEP, and those guys in New Mexico....

If we bring in anyone, it should be in the east where there are teams that have proven to be winners (FBS or FCS). Then you can shift Troy over to the west which would boost competition and eliminate ArkSt from just walking blindfolded on their hands into the CCG most years.

(10-10-2018 09:36 PM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:22 PM)APPdiesel Wrote:  NMSU was not getting decent.

They went to a bowl game and won. I can think of six other SB teams who didn't do that. I'm not saying they were going to run the table but they were at least competitive.

One year out of...... http://www.winsipedia.com/new-mexico-state

They are garbage and so was Idaho and the Sun Belt will be better off without them.

As far as the divisions some of this is going to be cyclical. Everybody is one bad coaching hire away or one good one as the talent disparity from top to bottom is not significant enough to be ruined or overcome by a Summers or Satterfield.

If we'd started divisional play 10 years ago the power would've been split evenly with WKU/Troy in the east and stAte/UL in the west. I do prefer a round robin also but it won't work with 10 teams. We'd have to lose one to realignment and make the bold decision to go against hundreds of hours and millions of dollars of preparation for a system we *just* started.

A parallel example...

I think everyone's surprised it's taken the SEC East this long to recover. Tennessee and Florida kept making bad hires, Georgia was mired with a coach who couldn't win the big one, Vandy is private, Kentucky is a basketball school and South Carolina just can't seem to figure it out. Maybe that's where the SBC west is right now but one or two of them will get it straightened up.

None of the unbeaten AAC teams would have beaten Penn State. None of them would have come close to winning.

All have played soft schedules.

(10-10-2018 09:16 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  #25 Cincinnati has now beaten:
Alabama A&M (FCS SWAC)
Barely beat a 3-2 Ohio team at home
A 2-4 Tulane Team
A 2-4 Miami Ohio Team

But because they beat a winless UCLA team that lost 38-14 to Fresno State, they get ranked.

Now, I'm not sure that I think App State is legitimately one of the best 25 teams in the country, but that doesn't really matter. Is there really any justification for Cincinnati being ranked and not App State? I mean, is anyone going to say "sure App looks good, but I want to see how they handle an 0-5 UCLA team before I rank them"?

And don't give me that "moral victory" BS. Going to OT with a top 10 team is better than beating one of the worst P5 teams by 9, period.

BTW, I even saw one article on ESPN listing Cinci as a CFP dark horse. Are you kidding me?

We agree! I have shook my head over this one (Cincinnati).

Well UCF is national champions, so there's that..

(10-11-2018 11:28 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  None of the unbeaten AAC teams would have beaten Penn State. None of them would have come close to winning.

All have played soft schedules.

UCF and USF are easily better than App and both have P5 wins.

(10-12-2018 08:15 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(10-11-2018 11:28 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  None of the unbeaten AAC teams would have beaten Penn State. None of them would have come close to winning.

All have played soft schedules.

UCF and USF are easily better than App and both have P5 wins.

UCF is legit, but USF beat two crappy P5's.

(10-10-2018 09:19 PM)debragga Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 08:44 PM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:28 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  This is why we effed up when we split into divisions. Since we only have 10 teams, we should have modeled ourselves after the Big12 instead of all these other G5 conferences with regards to conference structure and the championship game.

I'll use App State and Ark State in this scenario since they are both the hot teams from each division. We all know the west isn't good this year, and Ark State is likely to play in the championship game. Ark State is also already 0-2 against the East. If we want to elevate our conference perception, we need our best team, in this scenario it's App, to get some quality wins to enhance their post season prospects.

If we have an East vs West championship game, and it ends up being Arkansas State (4-4) vs App State (8-0), that won't do dick for App's post season while a let's say (7-1) Troy team has to stay home. We should just drop the divisions and play a round-robin schedule like we basically do anyway. Then the top two teams in the conference play a championship game like the Big 12 does. That's the only way to keep from hurting our best team's chances against the other G5 champions.

Just because the west division sucks this year doesn't mean they'll always be. stAte will always be a perennial favorite out of there but Louisiana, ULM and USA can and have turned their programs around before. This isn't a Sun Belt-specific situation either. The SEC for years has had this issue with their two divisions with the western side essentially "Alabama and everyone else" for at least the last 4 seasons, or "Clemson and everyone else" in the ACC's Atlantic division and on and on. If you listen to the pundits, most conferences outside of the B1G have one division which is glaringly weaker than the other.

If anything, the Sun Belt I thought would benefit by getting themselves two more teams so you have a solid 12-team conference. One in the east and one in the west (still think it was a mistake to kick NMSU to the curb, they wanted to be full members and were getting somewhat decent)

Maybe add NMSU and try to get UTEP so that they can be travel partners, and move USA to the east

This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, even from Someone in Monroe, I wouldn’t want either. I could be a fan of a Southern Miss/rice add and an add from the east but no one geographically further north than NC.

(10-12-2018 08:15 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(10-11-2018 11:28 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  None of the unbeaten AAC teams would have beaten Penn State. None of them would have come close to winning.

All have played soft schedules.

UCF and USF are easily better than App and both have P5 wins.

UCF and App would be a fun game to watch. Not sure that you can definitively say UCF is better at this point.

(10-12-2018 09:12 AM)Cajuns1252 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:19 PM)debragga Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 08:44 PM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  

(10-10-2018 09:28 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  This is why we effed up when we split into divisions. Since we only have 10 teams, we should have modeled ourselves after the Big12 instead of all these other G5 conferences with regards to conference structure and the championship game.

I'll use App State and Ark State in this scenario since they are both the hot teams from each division. We all know the west isn't good this year, and Ark State is likely to play in the championship game. Ark State is also already 0-2 against the East. If we want to elevate our conference perception, we need our best team, in this scenario it's App, to get some quality wins to enhance their post season prospects.

If we have an East vs West championship game, and it ends up being Arkansas State (4-4) vs App State (8-0), that won't do dick for App's post season while a let's say (7-1) Troy team has to stay home. We should just drop the divisions and play a round-robin schedule like we basically do anyway. Then the top two teams in the conference play a championship game like the Big 12 does. That's the only way to keep from hurting our best team's chances against the other G5 champions.

Just because the west division sucks this year doesn't mean they'll always be. stAte will always be a perennial favorite out of there but Louisiana, ULM and USA can and have turned their programs around before. This isn't a Sun Belt-specific situation either. The SEC for years has had this issue with their two divisions with the western side essentially "Alabama and everyone else" for at least the last 4 seasons, or "Clemson and everyone else" in the ACC's Atlantic division and on and on. If you listen to the pundits, most conferences outside of the B1G have one division which is glaringly weaker than the other.

If anything, the Sun Belt I thought would benefit by getting themselves two more teams so you have a solid 12-team conference. One in the east and one in the west (still think it was a mistake to kick NMSU to the curb, they wanted to be full members and were getting somewhat decent)

Maybe add NMSU and try to get UTEP so that they can be travel partners, and move USA to the east

This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, even from Someone in Monroe, I wouldn’t want either. I could be a fan of a Southern Miss/rice add and an add from the east but no one geographically further north than NC.

I wasn’t clear, I meant only IF NMSU was added. And even then it’s still a bad idea

(10-12-2018 08:15 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(10-11-2018 11:28 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  None of the unbeaten AAC teams would have beaten Penn State. None of them would have come close to winning.

All have played soft schedules.

UCF and USF are easily better than App and both have P5 wins.

What has USF done that's proven themselves better than App? Almost lost to a terrible ECU team? Barely beat a 1-5 Tulsa team?

USF has 10 years of an established name. The AP voters have been clear that as a newcomer you have to make waves 2, 3, 4 years in a row to be taken seriously.

Every team has bad games but wow the Bulls looked bad against a really bad Tulsa last night.

(10-13-2018 10:35 AM)APPdiesel Wrote:  USF has 10 years of an established name. The AP voters have been clear that as a newcomer you have to make waves 2, 3, 4 years in a row to be taken seriously.

Every team has bad games but wow the Bulls looked bad against a really bad Tulsa last night.

they looked bad in a WIN, and that's the important thing.

the last three season USF has gone 11-2, 10-2, and is currently 6-0...they didn't just suddenly get good...they've been good for several years now.

USF might be the worst unbeaten team in the country. That's a lot better than being Tulsa though, who may be the best one-win team in the country.

"Proof that wins over bad P5 teams carry too much weight for G5 teams."

22-16