Editor’s Note: The records listed for each NCAA Conference Comparison are based on the Monday through Sunday schedule of the previous week.
In non-conference action this week, things are starting to slow down a little bit as conference play beings. The Patriot is heavy into their schedule, and SoCon is starting to follow suit. You also had UVA and Syracuse face off, but Duke, UNC, and Notre Dame all played external foes. Let’s jump into the conference comparison table to see how everyone fared:
| Conference | Record | % | +/- |
| Big Ten | 22-7 | 0.759 | 0.019 |
| ACC | 14-7 | 0.667 | 0.000 |
| Big East | 17-10 | 0.630 | -0.020 |
| Patriot | 23-14 | 0.622 | 0.016 |
| CAA | 13-12 | 0.520 | -0.127 |
| Ivy League | 10-12 | 0.455 | 0.097 |
| MAAC | 12-17 | 0.414 | 0.128 |
| SoCon | 16-23 | 0.410 | -0.009 |
| NEC | 13-20 | 0.394 | -0.015 |
| DI Independent | 6-13 | 0.316 | 0.116 |
| America East | 8-18 | 0.308 | -0.081 |
It’s kind of a bummer for the Atlantic Coast Conference that Notre Dame scores this huge win over the Big Ten with Maryland and they don’t gain any ground. But at this point, hovering is still OK, and the Big Ten did not jump out too much further in front in our conference comparison. Syracuse has a shot against Hopkins this week and still has Rutgers on the schedule. Notre Dame has Michigan and Ohio State, UNC has Maryland, Virginia has Hopkins, while Duke avoids that conference entirely. It’s not easy, but that could be five more wins head to head, based solely on current rankings. But, when has that ever mattered?
There wasn’t too much movement overall in the comparison of the conferences, though. The Ivy is closer to .500, and the Patriot overtook the CAA. What’s really shocking is how much the America East Conference has fallen off. Our man Ryder Cochrane brought up the America East in his post this week. Albany is seriously struggling, and is not the dominant team of the past few years. But who’s behind them? As of this writing, the conference is up to 9-21, and the only team with a winning record is Vermont with 3-2. Their wins are over Utah, Holy Cross, and Quinnipiac. They also don’t have a single current top 20 team on their remaining schedule. UMass-Lowell is 2-2, and the best team on their schedule right now is UMass? Albany’s really the only team with a schedule that could produce at-large potential, but it may be too much for them this year. So what does this mean for the America East? Basically, conference play is huge. No conference tournament, no bid. No conference tournament win, probably no bid. Not a cheery outlook for March.
As always, here are the past two years of conference comparisons for reference.
2018:
| Conference | Record | % | Bids |
| ACC | 36-13 | .735 | 4 |
| Big Ten | 38-14 | .731 | 2 |
| Big East | 33-20 | .623 | 3 |
| Ivy League | 31-22 | .585 | 2 |
| Patriot | 28-24 | .538 | 1 |
| America East | 29-27 | .518 | 1 |
| NEC | 27-28 | .491 | 1 |
| CAA | 22-29 | .431 | 1 |
| MAAC | 19-36 | .345 | 1 |
| SoCon | 13-39 | .250 | 1 |
| Independent | 7-31 | .184 | 0 |
2017:
| Conference | Record | % | Bids |
| Big Ten | 45-8 | 0.849 | 4 |
| ACC | 36-14 | 0.720 | 4 |
| Colonial | 28-22 | 0.560 | 1 |
| America East | 29-26 | 0.527 | 1 |
| Ivy | 25-25 | 0.500 | 1 |
| Northeast | 28-31 | 0.475 | 1 |
| Patriot | 27-30 | 0.474 | 1 |
| Big East | 25-28 | 0.472 | 2 |
| MAAC | 19-36 | 0.345 | 1 |
| Southern | 18-36 | 0.333 | 1 |
