Gary Parrish column: The B1G loves football but is actually way better at basketball

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Parrish:

The Big Ten is often mocked because it prides itself on being a top-notch "football" conference even though it hasn't been a top-notch "football" conference in a while. The league went 2-5 in bowl games this season, 2-5 last year and 4-6 the year before that. And to those yelling that bowl records aren't the best way to gauge the strength of any particular league, let me remind you that the Big Ten hasn't had more than two football teams finish in the top 15 of the Sagarin ratings in any of the past four seasons.

Only Michigan State finished in the top 15 this season.

Only Ohio State finished in the top 15 last season.

Neither finished in the top five.

Legends and Leaders?

Please.

But basketball is a different deal.

Though the Big Ten's member institutions, on the whole, care more about football than basketball, they're actually much better, on the whole, in basketball. For proof, let's return to the statistically unbiased Sagarin ratings that highlight the quality at the top.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...ball-but-is-actually-way-better-at-basketball

Go Gophers!!
 

Sagarin ratings? psh. He had OSU at 7 and the gophers at 41. We dominated them. Yes i'm talking basketball... on the football forum.. BleedGopher started it.

Back to football. ALL the major polls had Mich St in the top 5 at the end of this season and most had OSU in the top 10 also. 2 teams inthe top 10 isn't bad... right?

Gary Parrish should stick to college hoops.
 

bottlebass said:
Sagarin ratings? psh. He had OSU at 7 and the gophers at 41. We dominated them. Yes i'm talking basketball... on the football forum.. BleedGopher started it.

Back to football. ALL the major polls had Mich St in the top 5 at the end of this season and most had OSU in the top 10 also. 2 teams inthe top 10 isn't bad... right?

Gary Parrish should stick to college hoops.
Click to expand...
It's more about how good the Big Ten is in Basketball than how bad Football is.
 

bottlebass said:
Sagarin ratings? psh. He had OSU at 7 and the gophers at 41. We dominated them. Yes i'm talking basketball... on the football forum.. BleedGopher started it.

Back to football. ALL the major polls had Mich St in the top 5 at the end of this season and most had OSU in the top 10 also. 2 teams inthe top 10 isn't bad... right?

Gary Parrish should stick to college hoops.
Click to expand...

Your reading comprehension needs help. He didn't say AP or USA Today polls, he mentioned Sagarin. Michigan St was 6th in the final ratings and OSU & Wisconsin were 16th & 18th, respectively.

You can accuse Parrish for hunting for numbers that support his thesis, but he wasn't inaccurate in his writing.

Final Sagarin Ratings
 

The funny thing the BiG 10 is probably best at winning hockey championships from years past. 20 is an awful lot way more than basketball. ;)
 


4four4 said:
The funny thing the BiG 10 is probably best at winning hockey championships from years past. 20 is an awful lot way more than basketball. ;)
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There are 32 Basketball conferences. There are 59 Hockey teams. Sometimes, the odds are in your favor.
 

MSU finished third in the AP and Coaches Poll, fourth in the BCS standings, and second in the CBS Sports power rankings. The Sagarin rankings fall into the reoccurring SEC bias.....inflating the scores of other teams. Just look at the team that fell into the fifth slot ahead of MSU. Stanford.........the team that MSU beat in the rose bowl. Thanks Parrish.....but picking and choosing ranking systems to fit your article is easily identifiable.

I do however agree that the Big Ten is a better basketball conference than football......but you don't need rankings to back up that claim.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Your reading comprehension needs help. He didn't say AP or USA Today polls, he mentioned Sagarin. Michigan St was 6th in the final ratings and OSU & Wisconsin were 16th & 18th, respectively.

You can accuse Parrish for hunting for numbers that support his thesis, but he wasn't inaccurate in his writing.

Final Sagarin Ratings
Click to expand...

My reading comprehension needs help? Maybe you didn't read my post or maybe your reading comprehension needs help. I obviously realized he didn't say AP or USA polls since I also referenced the Sagarin poll when it came to basketball. THEN I stated the FACT that in the major polls (which are the AP or USA polls if you google search) Mich St was in the top 5 and OSU was in the top 10. Sagarin is obviously incorrect if it didn't have Mich St in the top 5 after they ended their season beating OSU and Stanford...

Nice try at the dis though. I got a good chuckle at your failed attempt.
 




Well of course they care more about football, EVERYONE cares more about football outside of a very few select schools.

But, that said, the gap between B1G schools and everyone but the ACC is part of the reason why we tend to do so much better. Outside of a handful of schools in the SEC and Big12, those leagues throw almost everything into football. How many SEC schools outside of Kentucky and Florida ever seriously expect to compete in basketball? You've got Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee sometimes, but that's about it. Most black kids in the South play football and run track. There aren't that many urban hubs besides Atlanta where kids are playing basketball.

Same principle applies to the Big 12, which is of course dominated by the state of Texas. Do kids in Dallas grow up dreaming of being hoops stars or Dallas Cowboys? The Big 12 is actually quite strong and deep this year, but outside of Kansas and Texas that's not the norm.

With BTN and the recruiting advantages, it only makes sense that B1G basketball should be at the forefront of the sport. They have supportive athletic departments, fan bases, and the resources to compete with anyone. You can't say that about football.

Fun fact. There were 40 schools who averaged 10k or more in attendance last year. Here's where they were geographically:

B1G/Big East/Northern ACC
1) Syracuse
2) Indiana
3) Wisconsin
4) Ohio State
5) Marquette
6) Illinois
7) Michigan State
8) Creighton
9) Iowa
10) Minnesota
11) Maryland
12) Dayton
13) Michigan
14) Purdue
15) Georgetown
16) UCONN (along with Temple and Cincinnati, they're a Northern outlier in the AAC)
17) Nebraska
18) Pittsburgh

SEC/Southern ACC/AAC
19) Kentucky
20) Louisville
21) North Carolina
22) Tennessee
23) Memphis
24) NC State
25) Arkansas
26) Missouri
27) Alabama
28) Florida
29) Vanderbilt

That's 11 of the 14 B1G schools vs. 7 of the 14 SEC schools (and honestly I was surprised they had that many). The vaunted ACC has 5 (Cameron Indoor only holds 9.3k), the Big 12 has 4, the Big East has 3, and the Pac 12 has 2 (yup, Pauley Pavilion can't even average 10k)

The remaining 10 come from the Big 12 (Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, Iowa State) and out West (Wichita State, BYU, UNLV, New Mexico, Arizona, San Diego State, Colorado)
 

Who were the two in the P12? Arizona and Utah?
 


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