Ranking Status/Predictions

[DooleyBull06]

5 minutes ago, MillenniumBull said:

UCONN running a $40 million dollar debt is a good argument for not joining the AAC.

I think joining the AAC is a bad idea just from a travel logistics point of view. Imagine the expense of having to travel to Tulane, SMU or USF to name a few. Would joining that conference outweigh the expense???

I rather join the Big 10 or Big East. As pipedreamy as those may be. Geographically makes most sense.  Big East to me is more attainable since they only have 10 teams and might be looking to expand to 12 or more.

[DooleyBull06]

10 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

Marquettte Loses again. Not sure if good or bad for us.

Definitely bad for us I would say. I would say that we want all our opponents that we’ve played to win as much as possible. Just look at how WVU’s lost season has hurt us.

[bull_trojan]

UConn lost 41 million before Student fees and State support

According to USA Today our Expenses are 36 million Revenue 10.2 million, so our "deficit" is 25.8 million... so another 15.2 in costs to compete at the higher level, but also greater revenue potential if we actually compete (UConn has floundered which is part of their problem, losing anywhere is expensive)

 

[bull_trojan]

3 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Definitely bad for us I would say. I would say that we want all our opponents that we’ve played to win as much as possible. Just look at how WVU’s lost season has hurt us.

But we need teams ahead of us to lose for our seeding, I think we leap Marquette now.

[DooleyBull06]

9 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

But we need teams ahead of us to lose for our seeding, I think we leap Marquette now.

According to the all mighty Lunardi, he has Marquette as a 4. Us as a 6. With their loss I don’t see them dropping two seed lines and falling behind us. Plus they beat us head to head. 

I think it’s best if teams like Maryland, K-State, stupid Wofford, Miss St, to name a few,  lose games. They are teams seeded on the 5,6,7 lines. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by DooleyBull06

[UB85]

Maryland just lost to Michigan. If I’m not mistaken that’s their second loss of the week. 

[bull_trojan]

1 hour ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I rather join the Big 10 or Big East. As pipedreamy as those may be. Geographically makes most sense.  Big East to me is more attainable since they only have 10 teams and might be looking to expand to 12 or more.

I go back and forth on it:

Opponents within 7 hours of Buffalo and NYC
AAC - 2: (Temple, UConn)
ACC - 3: (Cuse, Pitt, BC)
Big 10 - 3: (Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland)

This makes me wish there was a push for an North Eastern version of the SEC, a "Big East" if you will.

Opponents within 12 hours of Buffalo and NYC
AAC - 4: (Temple, UConn, Cincy, ECU)
ACC - 11: (Cuse, Pitt, BC, UVA, VaTech, Notre Dame, Duke, Wake, UNC, NCSU, Louisville)
Big 10 - 6: (Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland, Ohio St, Mich, Mich St)

This makes me think ACC > than B1G for our alumni base.

[DooleyBull06]

3 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

I go back and forth on it:

Opponents within 7 hours of Buffalo and NYC
AAC - 2: (Temple, UConn)
ACC - 3: (Cuse, Pitt, BC)
Big 10 - 3: (Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland)

This makes me wish there was a push for an North Eastern version of the SEC, a "Big East" if you will.

Opponents within 12 hours of Buffalo and NYC
AAC - 4: (Temple, UConn, Cincy, ECU)
ACC - 11: (Cuse, Pitt, BC, UVA, VaTech, Notre Dame, Duke, Wake, UNC, NCSU, Louisville)
Big 10 - 6: (Rutgers, Penn St, Maryland, Ohio St, Mich, Mich St)

This makes me think ACC > than B1G for our alumni base.

Yea but...the ACC is not gonna want little ole us. The ACC is massive as it is. 

I think the best conference is the Big East. Geographically makes sense. We would move up to a good basketball conference that may be looking to expand. But I just found the problem with the Big East...no football. Ugh. Which takes it back to the Big 10. 

[bull_trojan]

3) North Carolina
4) Tennessee
5) Duke (Loss at Va Tech)
6) Kentucky (Loss at Tenn)
7) Mich State (Loss at Indiana)
8. Michigan 
9) Texas Tech
10) LSU
11) Houston (Loss vs UCF)
12) Purdue
13) Kansas
14) Virginia Tech
15) Nevada (Loss @ Utah State)
16) Florida State
17) Buffalo
18) Kansas State (Loss @ Kansas)
19) Marquette (Loss @ Nova, vs Creighton)
20) Wisconsin (Loss at Indiana)
 

[UB85]

Rothstein has up to 19 one spot ahead of Nevada 

[UB85]

2 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

3) North Carolina
4) Tennessee
5) Duke (Loss at Va Tech)
6) Kentucky (Loss at Tenn)
7) Mich State (Loss at Indiana)
8. Michigan 
9) Texas Tech
10) LSU
11) Houston (Loss vs UCF)
12) Purdue
13) Kansas
14) Virginia Tech
15) Nevada (Loss @ Utah State)
16) Florida State
17) Buffalo
18) Kansas State (Loss @ Kansas)
19) Marquette (Loss @ Nova, vs Creighton)
20) Wisconsin (Loss at Indiana)
 

Who put this out?

[bull_trojan]

11 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Who put this out?

Just my picks. Last week I gout 7 of 17 picks (including UB) correct.

[UB85]

Hope you get them all. 🙂

[bull_trojan]

36 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Yea but...the ACC is not gonna want little ole us. The ACC is massive as it is. 

I think the best conference is the Big East. Geographically makes sense. We would move up to a good basketball conference that may be looking to expand. But I just found the problem with the Big East...no football. Ugh. Which takes it back to the Big 10. 

It's incredibly sad that the Big East let themselves get destroyed, NE teams thought the move to the ACC would open them up to Florida talent, but I think the opposite has occurred, Northern talent has gone south and fueled their renaissance..leaving the Northeast schools with the scraps...which fortunately for us, has helped Buffalo compete in the northeast and now we're arguably the best school in the Northeast this year in FBS football + Basketball*.
 
The thing I like about the AAC is it has destinations. Bills fans look forward to trips to cool destinations like Miami, New Orleans, LA etc...and UB could capture some of that if every road game wasn't in Ohio.

What they lack in proximity, Houston, Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Memphis and New Orleans are at least cool destinations.

*10 Football Wins - 20 Basketball wins Club
Northeast
Buffalo

Southeast
UCF
LSU
Ga Southern

Midwest
Cincy
Michigan
Kentucky

West
Utah State
Fresno
Washington

Watchlist
Clemson (17 wins)
Syracuse (19 wins)
Oklahoma (18 wins)
Texas (16 wins)
Ohio State (18 wins)
UAB (17 wins)
Florida (17 wins)
Alabama (17 wins)

Edited March 4, 2019 by bull_trojan

[rma]

Rothstien 23 -> 19

Borges 23 -> 18

Davis 25 -> 22

Edited March 4, 2019 by rma

[UBigbobby]

3 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I think joining the AAC is a bad idea just from a travel logistics point of view. Imagine the expense of having to travel to Tulane, SMU or USF to name a few. Would joining that conference outweigh the expense???

I rather join the Big 10 or Big East. As pipedreamy as those may be. Geographically makes most sense.  Big East to me is more attainable since they only have 10 teams and might be looking to expand to 12 or more.

Highly unlikely the Big Ten would entertain adding a program as established as UB, and the gulf in funding would be massive.  Big East is a horrible fit for UB.  The Big East is a basketball conference of private schools.  UB is a major 30,000 student public.  UB has also committed to staying FBS in football which the Big East is not.  There is no fit there.

[ubmae86]

3 minutes ago, UBigbobby said:

Highly unlikely the Big Ten would entertain adding a program as established as UB, and the gulf in funding would be massive.  Big East is a horrible fit for UB.  The Big East is a basketball conference of private schools.  UB is a major 30,000 student public.  UB has also committed to staying FBS in football which the Big East is not.  There is no fit there.

I think it's best to stick with the MAC and help grow the conference into a power conference. It's possible, just difficult

[UBigbobby]

1 minute ago, ubmae86 said:

I think it's best to stick with the MAC and help grow the conference into a power conference. It's possible, just difficult

The MAC is one of the oldest conferences and has pretty much always been a mid-major.  It's explicitly designed to be.  The constituent schools and the conference administration have little interest in growing past a very good mid-major.  For example, there was a proposal by some of the Gang of 5 conferences in football to add G5 conference winners to the BCS.  The MAC president declined to support it. 

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

Poll Watch/Seed Watch:

There’s bound to be some movement in the polls this week. Several teams in front of Buffalo lost, leaving some room for the Bulls to move up in the rankings.

Among those teams include No. 12 Nevada, No. 16 Kansas State, No. 17 Maryland and No. 19 Wisconsin.

I wouldn’t expect UB to jump everyone of those schools but it’s certainly possible for them to surpass at least two or three of them.

I’ll be very interested to see how far Nevada drops after suffering their second loss in their last four games.

With that said, I’m projecting Buffalo to rise to 18th in Monday’s AP Poll.

LINK: Big 4 Update: UB primed to move up in polls

[pottier25]

I wonder with all the love UB has received from Gameday, Bilas and many others if the selection committee actually ranks them as highly also. I'll believe it when I see it but if we win out in impressive fashion I think we could be a 5 seed. I dont see us a 4 regardless what happens but its exciting. 

[BrooklynBull]

6 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Big East to me is more attainable since they only have 10 teams and might be looking to expand to 12 or more.

Last I looked the Big East got ride of all of the FBS schools.  Not a place for UB.

[DooleyBull06]

41 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

Last I looked the Big East got ride of all of the FBS schools.  Not a place for UB.

Yea. In one of my post shortly after this quote I address the whole football being an issue thing.

[mikescherrer8]

14 hours ago, bull_trojan said:

Marquettte Loses again. Not sure if good or bad for us.

Good for us, still a Q1 win and that's all that matters.

[MillenniumBull]

10 minutes ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Good for us, still a Q1 win and that's all that matters.

Except we lost...

[UB92]

11 hours ago, UBigbobby said:

The MAC is one of the oldest conferences and has pretty much always been a mid-major.  It's explicitly designed to be.  The constituent schools and the conference administration have little interest in growing past a very good mid-major.  For example, there was a proposal by some of the Gang of 5 conferences in football to add G5 conference winners to the BCS.  The MAC president declined to support it. 

Some MAC schools dream of moving to the B1G, but those are pipe dreams.  They really have zero shot of happening.  Other MAC schools are dealing with some combination of decreasing state appropriations, increased costs and caps on tuition to raise more revenue.  Athletics is under more and more scrutiny to identify how they will lower costs.

The MAC, like most other G5 conferences, is trying to survive as the difference between the haves and have nots increase.

So where does that leave UB?  Well...certainly losing the sports we did during the last few years is not the best sign, of course.  It helps to consolidate, but that tells you the tough choices that need to be made. 

If UB were to set their sights on the AAC, it would come with more exposure and more travel expenses (and maybe not as successful).  But it would also come with more revenue opportunities and a bigger national profile.  It should be something to aspire to and I would hope our AD/President is working in that direction.

Of course, I would love UB to be in the B1G.  They profile so well as a B1G school, but they don't bring enough to the table to get in at this point.  I get that...but I can always hope.

 

Now...getting national recognition in college athletics always helps.  Whether it is Tyree running fast at the combine, Mack getting traded and being a dominant player, the team playing well in football and, of course, the never-ending articles about Oats and the upstart Bulls (and being in the Top25 for many weeks now).   This makes us attractive to other conferences.  Just have to keep doing more.

 

Owing to the time scales, it seems like change takes a long time.  But this is what it looks like for UB athletics.  It wasn't going to happen over one game or one season.  It is sustained change over several years.  We are going through the change now.  For those who are younger and have no knowledge of UB sports in 2000 or so...your perspective is so different.  I can find threads that I was involved with on this board where I complain that, every year, UB would get beaten up by Miami football with scores like 55 - 10.  Seemingly every year.  For many on this board who don't remember that -- it's good! That time is long gone.  But for me, it is all part of the story.  Just like that 5 - 23 basketball season I remember from about 15 years or so ago where we didn't win a road game all year (and won 2 conference games).  I contrast that with now.  It's been a long time coming.

But think about Northern Illinois.  They haven't played in the MAC Championship game in basketball since 1982.  Heck -- Bowling Green has played in the championship game once since it started in 1980 and lost.  That's a fan base that tries to see light and hope that "this is the year".  (BTW, we need to remove all of hope of that on Senior Night).

Go Bulls!