Posted by hughesjr on 8/17/2011 8:11:00 PM (view original):
For the record, I totaled the elite 8 since 2000 in real life (12 years, 96 teams) ... here are the results by conference:
Horizon = 2
CAA = 2
A10 = 4
CUSA = 4
Southern = 1
MAC = 1
Non Big Six = 14 or 14/96 = 14.6%
SEC = 12
Big-12 = 17
Pac-12 = 11
Big East = 15
ACC = 12
Big Ten = 15
Total from Big Six Conferences = 82 or 82/96 = 85.4%
So, basically, there is on average one non-Big6 team in the elite eight every year.
There have been zero in the last four Allen NT's combined. I didn't go back farther than that.
The difference is likely even more stark when comparing the Sweet 16, where there are more real-life Cinderellas but still incredibly few in HD.
But from a truly big picture view, I think the stats you provided -- whether it 4%, 14% or 24% -- are utterly meaningless. What's clearly transpired here is that many people have been alienated from DI because they feel they can't compete nationally outside of the BCS conferences. And what's important here is not having a system that exactly mirrors the real-life percentages of non-BCS teams in the S16 or E8 (and mind you, the current system doesn't even do that). What's important is finding the right balance for the health of HD, where it's not just the coaches in six conferences who feel they can compete.
That feeling has been the death knell for HD DI ... and if you think the stats you posted truly matter, you don't get that.