MAC takes non-conference beat-down

I know I post this kind of thing often, but I just feel strongly about it.

The quality of play has gotten worse in the last few years in basketball and football, and the problem is much worse and much sadder in basketball. We were, within recent memory, kind of the thinking man's mid-major. I think we were considered pretty much on par with the Missouri Valley Conference and certainly the Horizon conference.

Maybe we weren't, I don't know. But I know we aren't today.

The MAC, in their Basketball Daily, publishes the record of conference teams against each opposing conference. It just isn't pretty. I do give them credit for publishing it, however.

In total, in D1 games, the MAC has 54-90, .375.

Now, I know what the argument is...we play so many games on the ROAD. It just isn't a fair comparison.

And, obviously, playing on the road is harder. HOW much harder, of course, is up to debate.

• But, in D-1, home games, we were 33-24, or .579.
• In road games, we won less than a quarter, at 16-53, .232.
• There were 18 neutral games, however. If you think those represent a fair test, well, we were 5-13 in those.

Obviously, the road games we play are likely to be against really tough teams, but, to be fair, the teams that we get to our gyms are likely to be on the weaker side, too.

Here, based on the conference RPI ratings at realtimerpi.com, are the D1 conferences, and our record against them.

1. ACC 0-0
2. Big Ten 0-7
3. Big East 0-7
4. Big 12 1-2
5. Pac-10 0-1
6. SEC 0-3
7. Mountain West 1-3
8. Missouri Valley 2-6
9. Atlantic 10 5-13
10. Conference USA 1-2
11. Horizon 9-12
12. WAC 0-0
13. MAAC 4-2
14. West Coast 1-1
15. Colonial 3-6
16. America East 0-2
17. Sun Belt 1-3
18. Southland 3-2
19. MAC N/A
20. Southern 2-2
21. Big West 0-2
22. Big Sky 1-1
23. Ohio Valley 4-4
24. Big South 3-0
25. Patriot League 2-1
26. Summit 2-3
27. Atlantic Sun 0-0
28. Northeast 2-1
29. Ivy League 1-2
30. Mid-Eastern 2-0
31. Independents --
32. SWAC 1-0

Not a good picture, is it? Place it on top of the record in Bowl Games, and you just start to see a pretty weak picture.

A few observations:

• The MAC is 1-20 against BCS conferences...
• and 10-44 against the top ten conferences.

The best conference we have a winning record against is the MAAC, at #13.

We had winning records against only 7 of the conferences we played, 4 of them in the bottom 12 conferences.

I could go on, but I think that the point has probably already been beaten to death.

There is parity in the MAC--but, we are not competing against the other D-1 conferences, even the ones we should be able to compete against. Somehow, over time, we've ended up at the little kid's table.

Don't get me wrong, conference basketball inside the MAC is entertaining as hell, competitive and tough. And I enjoy it a lot.

It would just be nice to see us do better against our peers and occasionally get a high quality win, even on the road. It would just make what is good even a little better.

That's all.