Hey Shockers, USU fan here...

[ShockTalk]

Here's a nice and interesting tid bit. This year's Utah St's roster of 12 players has 6 players who are a total of 0-7 from 3pt. The other 6, however, are 153-361 for a .424 clip with the lowest % of the six being at .395. Two players are 70-154 for a .454%.

I don't care what conference your in or what level you play, that's impressive!

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

Too many things in the above posts to quote them all but I'll try to touch on everything.

1. WAC - I guess someone was thinking that our records were good because the WAC is weak? Actually the WAC was down last year but most other years has been a Top 10 conference. Nevada was a top 10 team for a stretch of about 3-4 years from 2004-2007 with multiple NCAA Tournament wins.

2. Utah State joined the WAC in 2005 and received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament in our first year in the conference. Nevada was a top 10 team then and we beat them on thier home floor during the season. Before the WAC Utah State dominated the Big West along with Pacific who went to the sweet sixteen in 2004.

3. It hasn't generally been our conference that has dragged our rpi down. It has been our OOC strength of schedule. You guys know all about this. Scheduling is brutal and we refuse to do 2 for 1's. Usually nobody decent wants to play us and BYU and Utah even try to do all that they can to weasle out of having to come lose at the Spectrum.

4. I don't know what our athletic budget is exactly. The Spectrum holds 10,270 and of that 4,000 is students. No the season ticket holders and general admission folks would not be enough to sustain the program. I know that the students passed some university legislation allowing for an "events fee" that students pay which is essentially the equivalent of paying to get into football and basketball games. So the 4,000 students aren't there for free. When we played BYU earlier this year about 2,000 students were turned away after waiting for hours in line out in the cold because there was simply no room. Those 2,000 students also paid the fee. It left alot of students rightfully unhappy. But people were camped outside the Spectrum door overnight to get the best seats.

5. If any state funding is provided for the athletic budget I would assume it's minimal and shrinking. Others on our message board would know more than me.

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

Conference rpi standings as of Jan. 31.

Rank CONFERENCE W L FII Rank RPI
1. Big East 225 107 .6004 1 .5961
2. Big 12 176 70 .5765 2 .5946
3. Atlantic Coast 174 72 .5613 6 .5857
4. Southeastern 162 85 .5735 3 .5728
5. Big Ten 145 88 .5650 4 .5615
6. Atlantic 10 166 120 .5560 7 .5518
7. Mountain West 112 70 .5479 8 .5495
8. Pacific 10 121 89 .5617 5 .5465
9. Missouri Valley 127 87 .5259 9 .5374
10. Western Athletic 104 81 .5175 12 .5242


Mountain West, Missouri Valley, and WAC are the top 3 midmajor conferences. (some people don't include Mountain West as mid major)

[ShockTalk]

Conference rpi standings as of Jan. 31.

Rank CONFERENCE W L FII Rank RPI
1. Big East 225 107 .6004 1 .5961
2. Big 12 176 70 .5765 2 .5946
3. Atlantic Coast 174 72 .5613 6 .5857
4. Southeastern 162 85 .5735 3 .5728
5. Big Ten 145 88 .5650 4 .5615
6. Atlantic 10 166 120 .5560 7 .5518
7. Mountain West 112 70 .5479 8 .5495
8. Pacific 10 121 89 .5617 5 .5465
9. Missouri Valley 127 87 .5259 9 .5374
10. Western Athletic 104 81 .5175 12 .5242


Mountain West, Missouri Valley, and WAC are the top 3 midmajor conferences. (some people don't include Mountain West as mid major)

Not only is MWC a mid-major, but so is the Atlantic-10.

[ShockerFever]

Anybody have the conference rpi ranks of the WAC and Valley over the last 5 years?

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

As of Jan. 31 RPI


Missouri Valley Western Athletic
Northern Iowa 16 Utah State 55
Wichita State 48 Nevada 66
Missouri State 84 Louisiana Tech 74
Indiana State 88 New Mexico State 82
Bradley 108 San Jose State 123
Creighton 110 Idaho 182
Illinois State 118 Fresno State 183
Southern Illinois 147 Boise State 206
Drake 173 Hawaii 230
Evansville 268


It certainly looks like it would take alot of work for the WAC to pass the MVC for 9th on the season.

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

Anybody have the conference rpi ranks of the WAC and Valley over the last 5 years?

2007-08 and 2008-09 were downer years for the WAC. Before that we were a top 10 conference and hopefully we keep momentum from being in the top 10 this year.

I'll work on finding something over the past few years.

[ShockerFever]

I'll answer my own question. I'll go back to when Utah State joined the WAC in 2005-06.

Valley 6th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 9th (current)
WAC 9th, 9th, 21st, 11th, 10th (current)

I think it's safe to say the Valley has been consistently better than the WAC since Utah State joined.

[ShockerPrez]

Well, I guess we can determine whether the RPI's mean anything on 2/20, or 2/21 for those on the East Coast....

[BOBB]

What the conference RPI has been over the past 5 years is the same type of lame argument Billy Packer made in 2006 about how the Marylands and Carolinas of the world should get based on what they had done in past seasons. I don't think Paul Miller or Nick Fazekas are teeing it up this year.

[ShockerFever]

What the conference RPI has been over the past 5 years is the same type of lame argument Billy Packer made in 2006 about how the Marylands and Carolinas of the world should get based on what they had done in past seasons. I don't think Paul Miller or Nick Fazekas are teeing it up this year.

Uh, I'm not basing this year on the last 5 years. I was simply curious as to which conference has been the most consistent and better (even though I already knew the answer.)

I'm well aware of the fact that the last 5 years has ZERO implications as to what happens this year.

Comprende?

[pogo]

Rather than start another topic I would like to throw this out for general discussion. Utah State (as noted by their fans) has the same problems WSU does in their ooc schedule. I'm sure others with similar rpi's have the same problems (WSU & Utah State) in not wanting to give 2 for 1 to the not non-bcs schools (bcs). Wouldn't it make sense to schedule schools of similar ilk and rpi home and away for multiple years. I know I would have liked WSU to have played GMU in a series like this and apparently their fans were supportive. Utah State looks like a great team to try and start a series with after the bb. If you can get a series started with as many as 8 schools you would have 4 home games with good teams as well as playing 4 away games against good competition. Looks like a win win for everyone involved. Thoughts?

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

What the conference RPI has been over the past 5 years is the same type of lame argument Billy Packer made in 2006 about how the Marylands and Carolinas of the world should get based on what they had done in past seasons. I don't think Paul Miller or Nick Fazekas are teeing it up this year.

Uh, I'm not basing this year on the last 5 years. I was simply curious as to which conference has been the most consistent and better (even though I already knew the answer.)

I'm well aware of the fact that the last 5 years has ZERO implications as to what happens this year.

Comprende?

I also knew the answer. The numbers are interesting though. I was simply pointing out that Utah State does not play in the SWAC or the Summitt League so aiming to discredit multiple 23 win season because we play in the WAC was not a good argument. While it isn't the MVC it certainly isn't a horrible conference and has traditionally been decent outside of 2008 when our rpi plummeted to 20. The WAC's average rpi rating this decade is 10.8 and if you take the years USU has been in the WAC it is 12.0

USU has been in the WAC for 5 seasons. 2008 was huge disparity in our rpi and hopefully was only a one year digression from what appears to be our consistent level of play. If you discount that single aberration our average rpi would be exactly 10.0

The WAC is no slouch conference and is certainly in the top 4-5 mid major conferences in the country.

Here's the WAC's past decade:

year - WAC rpi rank
2010 - 10
2009 - 12
2008 - 20
2007 - 9
2006 - 9
2005 - 12
2004 - 10
2003 - 14
2002 - 10
2001 - 7
2000 - 8
1999 - 9

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

Rather than start another topic I would like to throw this out for general discussion. Utah State (as noted by their fans) has the same problems WSU does in their ooc schedule. I'm sure others with similar rpi's have the same problems (WSU & Utah State) in not wanting to give 2 for 1 to the not non-bcs schools (bcs). Wouldn't it make sense to schedule schools of similar ilk and rpi home and away for multiple years. I know I would have liked WSU to have played GMU in a series like this and apparently their fans were supportive. Utah State looks like a great team to try and start a series with after the bb. If you can get a series started with as many as 8 schools you would have 4 home games with good teams as well as playing 4 away games against good competition. Looks like a win win for everyone involved. Thoughts?

Utah State fans have discussed this at nauseating length. It's very volatile subject. I think all of our fans are in agreement that scheduling home and home series' with other similar mid major programs would be a great thing to do.

The heated arguments begin when we are discussing:

a) the reason's we don't see these teams on our schedules

and

b) are we really trying to schedule these teams

Our coaching staff claims that they try relentlessly to schedule high caliber mid major teams but are almost always turned away. I for one tend to believe them. Because if we weren't trying to get teams like Wichita State to schedule with us then Stew Morrill would likely not be in support of playing these bracketbuster games. And if Stew isn't in support of something he let's everyone know.

I know the fans would love it. I don't understand why the administrations and coaching staff's don't do it.

[USUALUM]

Rather than start another topic I would like to throw this out for general discussion. Utah State (as noted by their fans) has the same problems WSU does in their ooc schedule. I'm sure others with similar rpi's have the same problems (WSU & Utah State) in not wanting to give 2 for 1 to the not non-bcs schools (bcs). Wouldn't it make sense to schedule schools of similar ilk and rpi home and away for multiple years. I know I would have liked WSU to have played GMU in a series like this and apparently their fans were supportive. Utah State looks like a great team to try and start a series with after the bb. If you can get a series started with as many as 8 schools you would have 4 home games with good teams as well as playing 4 away games against good competition. Looks like a win win for everyone involved. Thoughts?

Wish this could happen. Both schools have a rabid following and relative rpi strength to make this a no-brainer. The only issue I see re: the 8 school idea is travel. All the schools would probably prefer to travel as little as possible ... some of the "outliers" may balk at having to travel further. With that said, that should NOT be that big of a deal. Let's do this!