Bids aren't given to conferences, they're given to teams. The reason CMU didn't get an at-large bid this year wasn't because "the MAC is a one bid league", it was because only 1 of CMU's OOC games was against a team with an RPI better than 274.

Last year Davidson was 19-13 with an RPI of #129 and SOS of #193, they were 1-8 vs top 100 teams. They lost 3 games to teams with RPIs +200. This year Davidson was 23-8 with an RPI of #35 and SOS of #101, they were 9-5 vs top 100 teams. Only 2 losses vs RPI +100 teams, zero +200. In no way was Davidson's resume just as good last year as it is this year.

The last at-large bid in the MAC was Miami in 1999. They were 22-7 with an RPI of #21. They were 7-5 vs top 100 teams, including wins over #23 Kent St and #26 Tennessee. Their OOC included Tennessee, Notre Dame, Dayton, Boston U, Xavier, Green Bay and San Diego.

The reason the MAC wasn't a 1 bid league that year is because the MAC had 2 teams in the top 25 in RPI and both were worthy of a bid. It had nothing to do with a Wizard behind a curtain ordaining the MAC as a "multi-bid league" for that year.

Remember when Buffalo was "robbed" of an at-large bid in 2005 because the MAC was a one bid league? The real reason UB didn't get an at-large bid was because they were 22-9 with an RPI of #46 and were just 6-8 vs top 100 teams.

This was 2005 Buffalo's non conference schedule (with RPI)-
#13 UConn (L)
#96 Niagra (W)
#153 Fresno St (W)
#168 Farleigh Dickinson (W)
#202 Indiana State (W)
#226 Penn State (W)
#238 Colgate (W)
#272 Canisius (W)
#277 Elon (W)

Buffalo wasn't robbed, they scheduled a crappy OOC and lost 7 of 12 games against top 100 teams in their conference. The MAC didn't hold Buffalo back, there were plenty of opportunities to pick up quality wins in conference play, they just didn't execute.

The next time a MAC team gets an at-large bid it won't be because some mysterious force deemed the MAC a multi-bid league, it will be because a MAC team scheduled up in OOC and won a lot of games.

http://m.espn.go.com/ncb/story?storyId=12553903

ESPN reporting that Hurley is the front-runner for the DePaul job.

Looks like I will go to the bottom of the forum and jump back to about page 107 and start reading....just some off season rewind to occupy time.

I think it was evident from day 1 Bobby H was in Buffalo as a jump to a bigger job.

I think the Depaul job is a good one but question how Hurley recruits in Chicago. It is a different town and the City and Burbs expect a coach to come in a grease palms and be present at games and really recruit their city. Will be very interesting to see how this one pans out. The next hire could be very good,but IMHO can't get much worse than what Purnell did.

Whoa, stop the presses! Hurley is staying at Buffalo!

http://campuswatch.buffalonews.com/2015/03/25/ub-reaches-.../

Is it possible he just used the DePaul job as leverage to get more money from UB? Regardless, this is good news for the MAC.

And now this:
https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/580735017531392000

I give up.

There's still nothing solid with his situation there. According to the story, they have an "agreement in principle to renegotiate" which is about as tentative as it gets. They haven't begun negotiations, and it sounds like the start of negotiations may be a bit down the road. If he interviews at Depaul and they talk money either he'll have a nice bargaining chip with Buffalo or he'll know that Buffalo can't match the offer. Either way he'll come out ahead. And if Buffalo wants to keep him, they need to move quickly.

Agreed. But just to play devil's advocate, does Hurley have a similar personality to PJ Fleck at Western Michigan? In theory Fleck shouldn't be able to recruit the caliber of football players to WMU that he is but he seems to have a personality that meshes very well with recruits. Is Hurley similar to Fleck in that regard? If he is, maybe he can recruit in Chicago and the Midwest.

I still stand by that statement ....problem is feeling you can succeed and actually doing it are 2 different things.

If Hurley is going to be able to pull a Rod Strickland from Jersey or Corbin from SC to Chicago that's fine but pulling in the Agguires, Corzines and Cummins to flush out the roster will be the challenge. I think he is better built to build on the East Coast or Southeast. As to Groce, Midwest guy that had recruited Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and specifically Chicago. If he is not afraid he does not have all the info IMHO. That goes for any coach including Groce.

YOu may have got that as a basketball junkie that has ties back to my gramps and pops talking about George Mikan and living in CHicago in the 70s and 80s I want Depaul to do well.

You refer to "bigger conferences" and cite their advantage in playing each other. The relevant question: How do we know they are bigger or stronger since they lard their schedule with basketball's weaklings and virtually always at home? In other words, their non-conference wins are a poor indicator of actual strength. That is manifested perennially in the NCAA tournament when those "stronger" schools lose their home court advantage and have to play the kind of teams they avoid during regular season non-conference play. We saw that this year as to the Big 12 and Big 10. Texas, Baylor, OK State and Kansas all fell early. In the Big 10, 5 of its 6 at-large teams failed to escape the first weekend.

Do we expect any non-conf scheduling changes among the "bigger conferences?" Do we expect them to take on reasonably challenging non-conf schedules - which would be more accurate indications of strength? Not unless mandated by the NCAA. Do we expect Matta to forego playing at home against Campbell, High Point, etc? Do we expect Self to schedule Wichita State which it had avoided since 1993?

Despite NCAA Selection Committee protestations to the contrary, it remains abundantly clear that conference affiliation often trumps individual team performance.

Look no farther than the Marshall coaching situation to realize nothing is impossible. ;)

Sounds like Depaul is hiring Leitao and St. Johns is hiring Chris Mullin. Still a ton of openings out there, but its looking more likely that Hurley will be back at Buffalo next year.