A quick peak at what is going on in the ACC and partiuclarly a nice piece on the conference and the RPI.
The Atlantic Coast Conference currently has EIGHT TEAMS (66% of the conference) ranked amongst the nation’s Top 38 in the RPI. Interestingly, the league’s two hottest teams are currently the ACC’s two lowest rated programs of the top 38 – VPI and Boston College!
Although some like Jeff Goodman at Fox laud the Pac-10 as “the nation’s best conference”, it is quantifiable data such as this that discounts such proclamations. You gotta love Goodman’s ‘deep’ analysis and discount of reality in his comment:
It’s no surprise that the ACC is ranked as the top conference in the country by the RPI because of its balance and scheduling (the ACC-Big Ten Challenge helps). However, next up are the Missouri Valley and the Pac-10 — ahead of the SEC, Big Ten, Big East and Big 12.
Translation:
“It is no surprise that the ACC is ranked as the top conference in the country by the RPI because they have a lot more good teams, a lot less bad teams, and have proven themselves more by playing tough out of conference schedules…but, I want to say the Pac-10 is the best so I am going to ignore all the data that says otherwise.”
What Goodman and others don’t seem to understand is the overall strength of the ACC in both the middle and even the bottom of the conference. Our own Jeff didn’t need the season to get underway to explain the conference’s composition as he made the following comments in early November.
We all know that the middle of the ACC is always the strongest of any conference in America. Every team projected to finish #5-#8 in the ACC is included in mulitple NCAA Tournament projections. Of a potential eight games that could have been scheduled against these teams, the Wolfpack plays seven.
As usual, the real differentiation lies in the middle and at the bottom of the conferences where most lazy analysts and journalists don’t want to spend time considering.
To more completely prove this point, realize that
* the ACC has DOUBLE the amount of programs ranked in the Top 38 that the Pac-10 has produced.
* After boasting the two top ranked teams in the RPI in UCLA and Arizona; the Pac-10 gives Oregon and Washington State at (#22) and (#23).
* Despite the fact the ACC has more opportunities to be bad with our 12 teams compared to the Pac-10’s ten teams – 20% of the Pac-10 are ranked significantly below the worst ACC program (Miami at #159).
* How would the top of the ACC look if everyone got four games against the likes of Oregon State (#178) and Arizona State (#247)
* Just HOW BAD is Arizona State? There is only ONE other program from a ‘BCS’ conference ranked worse than the Sun Devils (Colorado at #249).
* In fact, the NEXT worst rated program from a power conference is the Big East’s Rutgers, who is SIXTY spots ahead of the Sun Devils. There are only 320 teams out there!
