Power 6 Conferences?

[room112]

Since the Big East broke away a few years back, you always hear the term "Power 5 conferences" with the 5 being ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12. This is even though Big East and AAC are genuinely considered high majors as well.

Well for the first time last night, during the selection special, CBS referred to the Power 6 and had the Big East included.

I just think that's huge as we fight to maintain relevancy against the likes of ESPN who'd like to see us go away. Anyone else catch that?

 

[ADORAZ]

Yeah that was awesome and surprised me a bit. AAC has been running self proclaimed Power 6 commercials when they obviously shouldn't be. We at times have been referred to as P6 by some outlets, but never on that big a stage. We're very clearly a power conference, but still, nice to be acknowledged like that and have a label attached. Anything to diminish the term Power 5 in college basketball (where it makes no sense) is great.

As for why they said it, my guess is the upcoming AAC TV contract will be exclusively with ESPN.

 

[JohnnyFever]

Yes, saw that and honestly that was the cherry on top after being picked. It's one thing for Big East fans to go back and forth with AAC fans about our superiority. It's another to have objective major sports media labeling us as power and not including them. The AAC is like the ugly girl who screams "I'm pretty, damnit!" even though saying it over and over doesn't make it true. The Big East is like the quiet pretty girl who knows her worth and doesn't have to tell you how pretty she is...because she is and everyone else can see it.

Any time you have a conference with anchors like Tulane, Tulsa (I know they win a decent amount but program still sucks), East Carolina, SMU (back to sucking after Brown), etc. you can't be taken too seriously. There are no bums in the Big East. Even DePaul can hang with mid level teams from the B12 or the like. Our strength top to bottom makes us major. We still have brand names of G'Town, Nova, Marquette, St. John's, etc. without the 3-4 anchor mid majors the AAC has.

 

[Andrew]

CBS also airs some Big East games (I guess they buy them on Fox). We have to thank Villanova for keeping us relevant and above the AAC but the whole conference has to work hard and win when they get to the NCAA’s. We can’t be successful with Villanova as the east coast Gonzaga. Hopefully next season the conference will be stronger but in the meantime we have to be pulling for all four of the schools in the tournament no matter what we feel about them.