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Message: [QUOTE="jncuse, post: 1650761, member: 1969"] I am not going to say they have not benefitted. They have to a small degree. But the driving factor behind the improvement of those teams has nothing to do with realignment -- the fact is that they are just better. I am not going to bother re showing all the calculations I did last year unless asked because I don't feel like being insulted just for presenting information. But I found the following last year focusing on Seton Hall, Providence and St. John's which had yet to collapse.: - I usedArchive.org to check the KenPom ratings that exist the closest to December 31 each year. - I used ratings from the date closest to Dec 31 because conference play has not started. That means that conference affiliation has no impact on your ranking yet. - Those teams in general were much better on December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2014 as compared to the average of December 31, 2009-Decenber 31, 2012. That shows that conference is not what was causing the teams to look much better,,, they were just better. And for a middle of the bracket Big East team, getting a similar record was nearly as hard as there are now less cupcakes. For a top end Big East team likeVillanova -- I agree that it has been easier to achieve a great record, because while you have as many games against decent teams (and in there case more), there has been less games against elite competition in conference. So I guess after all that my conclusion is this: 1. The Big East had a lot of 8 seedish/NIT level teams the last few years (% wise) with not many cupcakes. this was evident by Kp ratings entering conference season 2. For that reason I don't think it is a driving factor behind Seton Hall or Providence improvment -- they are just on upward trends. 3. While the Big East has had a high % of decent teams on their schedule, there is a lack of top 4 seed level teams for Villanova to face. We had Creighton one year and Xavier this year. The argument can be made that it does indeed make it easier for them to get a dominant record. While they may be top 10, it probably inflates them a bit. [/QUOTE]

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