by GoldenWarrior11 » Sun Mar 22, 2015 12:31 pm
In order for the AAC to improve, it doesn't need to add members to increase the quality of basketball in the league. The league needs to have the weaker programs schedule better out-of-conference games. Tulane (212), East Carolina (220), Houston (239), UCF (256), and USF (273) all had ABYSMAL RPIs this year, due to their out of conference strength of schedule. The bottom of the league tremendously anchored down the top of the league, which could be a huge reason that Temple was excluded from the tournament this year. It also didn't help that UConn and Memphis, two traditionally strong programs, were fairly weak this year.
It's a very unique problem to have because the football teams had the same problem with different programs. SMU (1-11), UConn (2-10), Tulsa (2-10), Tulane (3-9), and USF (4-8) all had terrible records this year too. Same problem, different sport, different schools.
The league needs to become more rounded and balanced for it to become stronger. Adding teams doesn't help balance things out, it just adds to the disparity between the top and the bottom teams.