Power Six Conference
Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:19 pmhttps://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball-where-postseason-expansion-to-68-teams-has-not-worked-out-050258159.html
Article from Pat Forde on whether the expansion to 68 teams is beneficial for the NCAA Tournament, long-term. I thought this passage was interesting:
"Of the 32 additional at-large bids, 18 (56.3 percent) have gone to teams from Power Six conferences. Over the same eight years, overall bids have been awarded to Power Six teams at a rate of 51.1 percent. That number is increasing the past two seasons — 55.9 percent of bids in 2017 went to teams from the big six, and 54.1 percent last year.
The rationalization for that increased percentage has been the upward mobility of some basketball-first schools into the Power Six, most notably programs like [i]Xavier, Butler and Creighton. While that's true, the overall percentage of Division I teams in the Power Six has stayed pretty steady over eight years, between 20.8 percent and 21.5."[/i]
It's interesting because 1) the Big East has not once marketed or branded itself as a power conference, unlike another conference; it has won on the court, received strong fan support and had the postseason success in March. 2) for all of the marketing and advertising campaigns by another league, even five years into it, it still has not acquired universal acceptance from the media and networks. 3) Even in a down year, by previous standards set by the league, the conference appears very safe among college basketball's elite, and receives high praise from the media and networks alike. I think the league is past the "prove it" phase since reorganizing, and truly just focus on being the best it can be.
Article from Pat Forde on whether the expansion to 68 teams is beneficial for the NCAA Tournament, long-term. I thought this passage was interesting:
"Of the 32 additional at-large bids, 18 (56.3 percent) have gone to teams from Power Six conferences. Over the same eight years, overall bids have been awarded to Power Six teams at a rate of 51.1 percent. That number is increasing the past two seasons — 55.9 percent of bids in 2017 went to teams from the big six, and 54.1 percent last year.
The rationalization for that increased percentage has been the upward mobility of some basketball-first schools into the Power Six, most notably programs like [i]Xavier, Butler and Creighton. While that's true, the overall percentage of Division I teams in the Power Six has stayed pretty steady over eight years, between 20.8 percent and 21.5."[/i]
It's interesting because 1) the Big East has not once marketed or branded itself as a power conference, unlike another conference; it has won on the court, received strong fan support and had the postseason success in March. 2) for all of the marketing and advertising campaigns by another league, even five years into it, it still has not acquired universal acceptance from the media and networks. 3) Even in a down year, by previous standards set by the league, the conference appears very safe among college basketball's elite, and receives high praise from the media and networks alike. I think the league is past the "prove it" phase since reorganizing, and truly just focus on being the best it can be.