Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

[12thFloorBender]

A co-worker who is a Iowa State fan and I had this discussion yesterday. He actually brought the question up after seeing UNI go to #11 in both polls.

My answer was yes this season. I pointed out that even though the Big 12 is a good conference, they have a lot of road losses. Northern Iowa and WSU are very tough at home and I think could knock anyone in the conference in their own building. I also said how WSU has shown consistently they can beat teams and brought up UNI knocking off Kansas.

He wasn't happy with that response as I think he thought it was a question that wouldn't be answered. The funny thing is a month ago he was really happy for UNI until they went past Iowa State in the rankings.

[unipanthers8907]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I work at ISU and you hit it right on the head with your final sentence 12thFloorBender. Iowa and ISU fans like (or at least don't dislike UNI) unless they are better than them at something (beating Iowa in Des Moines, now ranked higher than ISU), then their true colors show.

I honestly believe UNI would be lumped in that 2-7 range in the Big 12 standings with Iowa State, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor, and Texas.

My favorite response I get at work is: "How could UNI even compete in the Big 12 when they have no big post players? Tuttle, Buss, etc. would get destroyed by Big 12 competition."

I love that logic considering ISU's tallest guy is McKay at 6'9" and 215 lbs. Niang is 6'8" and 230. ISU seems to be doing just fine in the Big 12 with those guys...
And yes, Tuttle and Buss may not be as effective inside against Big 12 post players, but both of them can spread the floor and force those big guys to come out from underneath the basket.

[vbfan19]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I'm all for seeing how UNI would match up, so whenever the Big 12 wants to extend the invite for UNI to join the conference....

ok, all kidding aside: while I really don't think it would make financial sense for UNI to make the jump to FBS only to end up somewhere like C-USA or Sunbelt. But if the Big 12 came calling, I wonder how that would work out. Expenses would still skyrocket, but there would be quite a bit of conference money (TV, ncaa tournament shares, etc.) rolling in. Not that the B12 is likely to make such an invite.

[ClivePanther]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

These types of questions can be fun to pose, but there's no answer. I'm really proud of how our guys are battling like hell every night and consistently executing at a high level. Let the "power 5" fans be skeptical ... they're going to learn the hard way (again) in the tourney. Let's just hope the seeding travesty of 2010 isn't repeated - these guys deserve much better.

[UNIhoops]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I wish the NCAA would force all team to have two open dates. Every team in the country would get a home game and an away game. A committee could match teams up that they want to see play. Almost like the old bracket buster, but with ALL teams involved. It would be a huge money maker and would allow teams to prove themselves.

Could benefit us could hurt us.

[UNIdad]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I wish the NCAA would force all team to have two open dates. Every team in the country would get a home game and an away game. A committee could match teams up that they want to see play. Almost like the old bracket buster, but with ALL teams involved. It would be a huge money maker and would allow teams to prove themselves.

Could benefit us could hurt us.

Never heard this idea before. I really like it. Even though it would be wrought with practical problems, the concept of giving people the matchups they want to see is great.

There is little doubt in my mind that UNI and WSU would be in the top half of the Big 12, even before they benefited from all the extra money that would come from being in the Big 12. My Iowa State friends tend to disparage UNI because of its schedule, but I don't find it to be a compelling argument, particularly because of how well UNI and WSU have done in the NCAA tournament. That seems like definitive evidence to me.

[cydave]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

"Top half" is a bad term for this season in the Big 12. Teams 2-7 are pretty even, I might even throw in 8 there. But, the team that finishes 7th this season will probably be within a couple games of the 2nd place team. There's just so much parity right now. The conference tourney will be brutal this season.
I would imagine WSU and UNI would finish in the 2-7/8 range this year. The biggest change for them would be if they could handle the tough schedule week in and out. They would also need to get used to playing a Saturday night game vs a ranked team and then following it up on Monday vs another ranked team. It definitely takes a toll mentally and physically on a team.

[achrist70]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I question the true dominance of the Big 12 that most Cyclone fans keep talking about, as it was brought up earlier I think by Jeg the Big 12 does a great job of making themselves look good. They schedule a bunch of cupcakes like UMKC and a few mediocre power 5 schools (expect of course for Kansas who can get into games with Duke, Kentucky, Michigan St. etc) on neutral courts never true road games. After doing this they usually all only have 1 or 2 losses so the league looks good and SOS keeps going up because South Carolina plays Kentucky and Maryland plays Wisconsin etc.

Again I am not saying that the teams at 2-7 in the Big 12 aren't quality teams but I think they are over valued, especially Texas.

[cydave]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

I question the true dominance of the Big 12 that most Cyclone fans keep talking about, as it was brought up earlier I think by Jeg the Big 12 does a great job of making themselves look good. They schedule a bunch of cupcakes like UMKC and a few mediocre power 5 schools (expect of course for Kansas who can get into games with Duke, Kentucky, Michigan St. etc) on neutral courts never true road games. After doing this they usually all only have 1 or 2 losses so the league looks good and SOS keeps going up because South Carolina plays Kentucky and Maryland plays Wisconsin etc.

Again I am not saying that the teams at 2-7 in the Big 12 aren't quality teams but I think they are over valued, especially Texas.

If you think teams 2-7 in the Big 12 are over valued because they play cupcakes in the non-conf, then are you also saying WSU and UNI could be over valued as well by playing cup cake MVC teams? Because when comparing the actual #'s from the polls, RPI, BPI, etc they are lumped right in there all together.

So, its only fair to say that if you think Big 12 teams 2-7 are over valued because of their weak non conf, then so is UNI and WSU bc of their weak conf schedule.

[ClivePurple]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

The question should be this: "How well would UNI perform in the Big XII if they continued at their current performance/dollar ratio?"

The answer is UNI would win the Big XII in basketball every year, and we'd be contending in football every year. Same for wrestling and certainly track.

Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, UNI's coaches and players are best in Iowa. Give us an extra 20 million shekels every year just from TV revenue, and our coaches and administration would fly past Iowa and Iowa State and be at the top of their conferences.

[jegbomb52]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

yes, no question. top 3? eh, don't know about that. But, both WSU and UNI would finish in the top half of the Big XII THIS YEAR, assuming we get home and homes with schools like Texas, KU, WVU, ISU, etc right? long term. We would need the revenue from the Big XII to sustain it.

[UNIpanther99]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

If you think teams 2-7 in the Big 12 are over valued because they play cupcakes in the non-conf, then are you also saying WSU and UNI could be over valued as well by playing cup cake MVC teams? Because when comparing the actual #'s from the polls, RPI, BPI, etc they are lumped right in there all together.

So, its only fair to say that if you think Big 12 teams 2-7 are over valued because of their weak non conf, then so is UNI and WSU bc of their weak conf schedule.

The big difference is ISU plays all of those cup cakes in Hilton. UNI plays half of the MVC so-called cup cakes on the road.

[06panther10]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

You have to laugh at any B12 fans ripping on other conferences when not a single school in the entire league has been able to unseat Kansas as the conference champ for 12 seasons. Twelve. Not even Gonzaga has done that playing in their league.

WSU and UNI would absolutely be top half B12 teams. Both are very, very good basketball teams, regardless of what teams they are playing or what league they are in. You have not watched basketball or are in complete denial if you disagree with this.

[cydave]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

You have to laugh at any B12 fans ripping on other conferences when not a single school in the entire league has been able to unseat Kansas as the conference champ for 12 seasons. Twelve. Not even Gonzaga has done that playing in their league.

WSU and UNI would absolutely be top half B12 teams. Both are very, very good basketball teams, regardless of what teams they are playing or what league they are in. You have not watched basketball or are in complete denial if you disagree with this.

What often gets overlooked is that out of Kansas' 10 consecutive conference championships is that 4 or 5 of those seasons they were Co-champions. And if you're using the head to head tie breaker, then Kansas comes in 2nd, 3 different years as they were the 2 seed in the Big 12 tourney. This point often gets overlooked by the media so they can keep pumping the KU hype train.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Would UNI and/or WSU finish in the top half of the Big 12?

You know both teams are doing entirely too well when we have threads like this.