DobbsRover2
Slap me 10
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
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So the theory has been that UConn's prowess would start to wither on the vine as it spent yet another year playing nobodies, similar to the situation for the last 25 years only now a lot more so. But though the chicken littles have been running amuck with the message of doom before they got snapped up by Buffalo Wild Wings for its 83 point special offer, some great news has filtered through. UConn actually wound up with the #2 SOS on the season in the one scheduling index that's worth a rodent's tokus.
Massey's SOS has the top 5 team schedules rated on its scale as 1. ND 51.73, 2. UConn 51.03, 3. Duke 49.86, 4. UTenn 49.85, 5. KY 49.81, with UCLA next at 49.71.
So how could Massey have UConn's SOS rated so high when other indexes like RPI and Sagarin have it listed way back? Simple, Massey uses a more refined relational system that judges teams based on its performance against teams roughly at its power level rather than the "who your cousin's girlfriend's masseuse played" and brute number system that is central to brain-dead RPI or the just brute numbers compilation that is a much more minor component of some of the Sagarin tools (which is why Sagarin can have Princeton at #7 despite a #149 SOS).
So a top team that plays two games in a row versus #300 and #2 will get a substantially better SOS kick in Massey than a top team that plays #100 and #101 back to back (it would be the opposite in RPI and Sagarin SOS), and UConn's trio of games against Notre Dame #2, UCLA #69, and UC Davis #136 would be rated much stronger than a USCar trio of #22 Syracuse, #65 USC, and San Diego State #80 mainly because of that top level comparison of the Irish and the Orange. Likewise, on a different level, a #150 team gets a better SOS adjustment in Massey for playing a #100 and then a #101 team than for playing a #300 and #2 team.
Also of course, the scandalously low level of the AAC was much exaggerated by the chicken littles, as a USF team that could play UConn closer than USCar in one of its games plus a quartet of decent strivers among the teams with winning conference records that included Temple, Tulsa, East Carolina, and Tulane helped to keep the AAC from plummeting down among the Missouri Valleys and Big South conferences of the land. And in fact as the #6 conference, it's top two tandem of UConn and USF put the top two of the B12 to B10 to shame and also has a much better value than the PAC's top two.
So yes, the SOS doomsday must certainly be looming on the horizon for next year when the other ten AAC teams drop dead of unknown causes and all the top teams decide to avoid UConn, and we will be hearing fully about that gloomy scenario on April 8, but for one more year the competitive fires rage on.
Massey's SOS has the top 5 team schedules rated on its scale as 1. ND 51.73, 2. UConn 51.03, 3. Duke 49.86, 4. UTenn 49.85, 5. KY 49.81, with UCLA next at 49.71.
So how could Massey have UConn's SOS rated so high when other indexes like RPI and Sagarin have it listed way back? Simple, Massey uses a more refined relational system that judges teams based on its performance against teams roughly at its power level rather than the "who your cousin's girlfriend's masseuse played" and brute number system that is central to brain-dead RPI or the just brute numbers compilation that is a much more minor component of some of the Sagarin tools (which is why Sagarin can have Princeton at #7 despite a #149 SOS).
So a top team that plays two games in a row versus #300 and #2 will get a substantially better SOS kick in Massey than a top team that plays #100 and #101 back to back (it would be the opposite in RPI and Sagarin SOS), and UConn's trio of games against Notre Dame #2, UCLA #69, and UC Davis #136 would be rated much stronger than a USCar trio of #22 Syracuse, #65 USC, and San Diego State #80 mainly because of that top level comparison of the Irish and the Orange. Likewise, on a different level, a #150 team gets a better SOS adjustment in Massey for playing a #100 and then a #101 team than for playing a #300 and #2 team.
Also of course, the scandalously low level of the AAC was much exaggerated by the chicken littles, as a USF team that could play UConn closer than USCar in one of its games plus a quartet of decent strivers among the teams with winning conference records that included Temple, Tulsa, East Carolina, and Tulane helped to keep the AAC from plummeting down among the Missouri Valleys and Big South conferences of the land. And in fact as the #6 conference, it's top two tandem of UConn and USF put the top two of the B12 to B10 to shame and also has a much better value than the PAC's top two.
So yes, the SOS doomsday must certainly be looming on the horizon for next year when the other ten AAC teams drop dead of unknown causes and all the top teams decide to avoid UConn, and we will be hearing fully about that gloomy scenario on April 8, but for one more year the competitive fires rage on.
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