Lack of Parity in Men's College Basketball

[HakAttack]

Go back and look up the last 20 years...since 1996.

Duke's won it 3 times, UNC's won it twice, Kentucky's won it 3 times, Florida twice and UConn 4 times. Kansas, us, Michigan State, Maryland, Louisville, Arizona have won it once. Take teams that won multiple titles in that time period out of the equation, (UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Florida and UConn) and you have only six different schools winning it all in a 20 year time span.

So what does that tell you? The elite blue blood programs win the large majority of the time, with a few very good to elite programs sprinkled in there. For three programs, that national championship was their first and only title. (Syracuse, Arizona and Maryland). That's not really much parity. We like to think that anyone can win the NCAA Tournament, but in reality, it's usually the same 5-6 teams with few others winning it every few years.

 

[DeGrozz]

Let's try this with different sports. I'll start.

There are 32 teams in the NFL. There have been 50 Super Bowls. 8 teams (25% -- Though there used to be like 12 or 14 teams competing) have won 68% of the titles (Pittsburgh 6; San Fran and Dallas 5; GMEN Pats and Cheeseheads 4; DC Taters and Raiders 3).

Same thing!

 

[HakAttack]

Let's try this with different sports. I'll start.

There are 32 teams in the NFL. There have been 50 Super Bowls. 8 teams (25% -- Though there used to be like 12 or 14 teams competing) have won 68% of the titles (Pittsburgh 6; San Fran and Dallas 5; GMEN Pats and Cheeseheads 4; DC Taters and Raiders 3).

Same thing!

But the NFL isn't part of a tournament that prides itself on the fact that anyone CAN win, but that doesn't mean that they DO win.

 

[KaiserUEO]

The NBA is the most ridiculous.

Since 1980...

Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, celtics, pistons, the heat...and the rockets snuck 2 in there, basically that's it.

Then you get the Warriors, the mavs and the Sixers 33 years ago.

That's it.

Thanks for playing.

 

[oddo033]

It's crazy that GTown made a big deal of being the first northeast team in 30 years to win a championship in 84.

Since '99 you have 6 (Uconn x4, SU, Nova) the west coast has 1 in the past 21 and the Midwest has 2 (MSU, Kansas)

I'm including Louisville / UK as east coast teams based on their conference affiliation.

The ACC / Big East has dominated. It's amazing to think this sport was once completely dominated by UCLA.

 

[billsin01]

Go back and look up the last 20 years...since 1996.

Duke's won it 3 times, UNC's won it twice, Kentucky's won it 3 times, Florida twice and UConn 4 times. Kansas, us, Michigan State, Maryland, Louisville, Arizona have won it once. Take teams that won multiple titles in that time period out of the equation, (UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Florida and UConn) and you have only six different schools winning it all in a 20 year time span.

So what does that tell you? The elite blue blood programs win the large majority of the time, with a few very good to elite programs sprinkled in there. For three programs, that national championship was their first and only title. (Syracuse, Arizona and Maryland). That's not really much parity. We like to think that anyone can win the NCAA Tournament, but in reality, it's usually the same 5-6 teams with few others winning it every few years.

I like not having parity. Having teams that are really good is frustrating b/c those teams continually bash most opponents, but when you take those programs down, it's an awesome feeling (whether you win a title or not). Living in the NFL where the only difference between a great team and an OK team is a good QB is bizarre and, for me, boring and nonsensical. I'll take powerhouse teams (easy villains) every day.

 

[Hoo's That]

But the NFL isn't part of a tournament that prides itself on the fact that anyone CAN win, but that doesn't mean that they DO win.

I think that idea is more about the first couple of rounds. The classic is the #15 beating #2 (ha, ha this time it's on you, Sparty) in the first round. Yes, we've had teams like Indiana State and Butler from the mid-majors get to the Final Four, but does anyone think that the MAAC, Northeast, or MEAC champion is going to get there? It would require their playing too many "perfect games". Playing 1 perfect game? Not so far-fetched. But playing 5 or 6?

 

[skurey]

Parity is a rarity

 

[Jasoncuse]

11 different schools in 20 years is pretty good, in terms of parity, isn't it?

 

[Brooky03]

That doesn't show me there is not parity. And why is Florida being included with the Duke, UNC, UK and UConn? They won back-to-back titles but it's not like they're a power; they should be included with the others.

 

[Townie72]

Using the teams that have won the NC is just one way to judge "Parity".

Watching the complete tournament is another way.

Watching the entire season in which power teams play non-power teams is another.

There is now more parity than there has ever boon. The tournament forces name teams to play non-name teams and we se the results.

If the power teams scheduled more teams like VCU or GW or others, it would be more apparent that there is more parity these days.

Don't look at just the best teams. Consider what would happen if some of these Mid-Majors were to play more games against the bottom half of the teams in the P-5.

 

[OrangeDW]

The NBA is the most ridiculous.

Since 1980...

Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, celtics, pistons, the heat...and the rockets snuck 2 in there, basically that's it.

Then you get the Warriors, the mavs and the Sixers 33 years ago.

That's it.

Thanks for playing.

Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Greg Popovich, and Red Aurbech have been directly involved with like more than half of the championships ever! Crazy.

 

[HakAttack]

Excluding Nova this year, when was the last time a school from outside the Power 5 conferences won the National Championship for Men's basketball? UNLV in 1990? When was the last time before that?

 

[Otto'd]

Excluding Nova this year, when was the last time a school from outside the Power 5 conferences won the National Championship for Men's basketball? UNLV in 1990? When was the last time before that?

UConn 2014.
So 2 out of last 3 years are non P5 championships.

 

[HakAttack]

UConn 2014.
So 2 out of last 3 years are non P5 championships.

Ok, so I said excluding this year. Take UConn out of that equation, and it's UNLV in 1990.

 

[SUintheVille]

Why exclude this year? Villanova's win is important to the idea of parity. And Oklahoma made the FF too. Maybe it's a new trend, although the perceived elite teams will always get elite athletes, which can help produce lack of parity but doesn't guarantee anything, like this year.

Would be interesting to see how many and how often various teams have made the FF too to check on parity.

 

[HakAttack]

The point that I was originally trying to make is that until this year, we hadn't seen much parity in terms of who ended up winning the National Championship. Almost always from a power 5 school, and usually one of either Duke, UNC, Kentucky or UConn.

 

[RandygoCuse]

I encourage the people on this thread to meet read Scorecasting. It's like Moneyball but across different sports (with a bit of Freakonomics thrown in). They have an interesting take on parity.