We are making a little tweak to the normal weekly NCAA D1 Rundown post by breaking it into two smaller parts. Both are PACKED with info, and worthy of their own time in the limelight. First up is my weekly NCAA D1 Conference Comparison! Then look for my NCAA D1 Stat Freaks post a little later! It’s all about who’s doing what, and who is doing it the best.
NCAA D1 Conference Comparison is something I have been tracking each season for a few years now. It’s interesting to see how different conferences are faring against each other at a very high level. The ACC was of course near the top for much of 2017, but the Big Ten was performing at a different level all year long, right through Memorial Day.
But why does the conference comparison matter?
Aside from just being interesting, it will also be a good guide for where you can expect at-large bids to come from as the end of the season nears. If any of the normal power conferences have been faltering, there may not get as much leniency from the selection committee as one that played in a tougher conference. The other consideration is that in-conference teams tend to cannibalize each others win totals a lot. If a conference plays 40 in-conference games per year, that’s 40 wins, and 40 losses, guaranteed. It’s just science. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose, but the conference always goes .500 against itself. It literally can’t work out any other way. So as teams enter conference play almost exclusively, it can be easy to lose sight of how they did against each other, and how any one conference did against other conferences.
So where do things stand now?
NCAA D1 Conference Comparison – Week 4
|
Conference |
Record |
% |
|
ACC |
19-4 |
0.864 |
|
Big East |
21-6 |
0.769 |
|
Big Ten |
22-8 |
0.733 |
|
Patriot |
20-11 |
0.645 |
|
Ivy League |
13-12 |
0.520 |
|
MAAC |
15-17 |
0.469 |
|
America East |
13-18 |
0.419 |
|
NEC |
13-19 |
0.406 |
|
CAA |
9-16 |
0.360 |
|
SoCon |
9-32 |
0.220 |
|
Independent |
2-15 |
0.063 |
What’s most interesting so far is how improved the Big East is and now relatively weak the Big Ten has been, at least compared to the end of last year. For reference, here is where everyone sat in Week 13 last season:
NCAA D1 Conference Comparison – Week 13, 2017
|
Conference |
Record |
% |
|
Big Ten |
45-8 |
0.849 |
|
ACC |
36-14 |
0.720 |
|
Colonial |
28-22 |
0.560 |
|
America East |
29-26 |
0.527 |
|
Ivy |
25-25 |
0.500 |
|
Northeast |
28-31 |
0.475 |
|
Patriot |
27-30 |
0.474 |
|
Big East |
25-28 |
0.472 |
|
MAAC |
19-36 |
0.345 |
|
Southern |
18-36 |
0.333 |
The Big Ten already has the same number of losses, but they have only half the wins. The ACC is actually on a better pace than the Big Ten was, but it’s still pretty early for most of them as they haven’t hit the meat of their schedule. The Big East on the other hand was terrible a season ago, and they have almost hit their win total in this early March conference comparison.
Games like Marquette over Ohio State definitely factor into this because where these records get their meat is how the middle and bottom teams perform. Michigan, UVA, St. John’s, etc. A strong Binghamton last year kept the America East more afloat compared to their terrible showing so far this year, where Vermont and Albany are now piling up their OOC wins, but others are struggling.
So as the season rolls on, I’ll keep tracking the conference comparison situation and go into more detail of what big matches caused some big shakeups. We’ll see which conferences are improving and which ones are dropping. Buckle up!
