Tuesday, October 06, 2009

What Say You, Digger?

Thanks to the many of you who alerted us to ESPN/Sagarin All-Time Rankings for D-1 college basketball, where Purdue is ranked 8th.

Yes, of all time.

I must say I'm a little confused as to how Notre Dame could possibly be 12th of all time -- maybe 60-year-old football titles count?

Also interesting is the fact that the Big Ten has five of the top ten and eight of the top 16. That's right...more than 50% of the top 16 basketball programs of all time come from the Big Ten. But yeah, Digger (and others), keep slighting the conference.

Surprisingly, Penn State is only #82 after last year's national championship.

9 comments:

Purdue Matt said...

I also love how the guys at thebiglead.com think its a crappy list because they have the view that only recent national championships matter and nothing else. Its refreshing to see someone value consistency demonstrated over the last 75 years which is what should be looked at in an all-time ranking.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ross McLochness said...

I don't think National Championships matter any more than another game.

Is this not just Sagarin's algorithm applied to all games played? Does it matter if it was a national championship or non-conference game?

Purdue Matt said...

That Nittany White Out post is so ridiculous. I hope that guy was drunk when he wrote it.

acacia1602 said...

Winning the NIT is kind of like scoring on Prom night with your second choice date. It's still all good. I'm glad they did well and I think it's good for the B10.

The rankings looked good to me, but I too was puzzled by the inclusion of Notre Dame. I guess my wayback machine doesn't go back far enough to include them as relevant, but I do trust Sagarin's methodology was sound.

J Money said...

Acacia -- don't you mean with your 66th choice?

J Money said...

Matt -- where have you been? We linked to that post a number of times back when it happened... AND 'dowd wrote a post tearing down how stupid it is to act like that "championship" matters -- how it devalues your program if think it's as great as they made it sound -- and then NWO wrote a post (I think it was them, or one of the PSU sites) about how Boiled Sports was "about to enter a world of pain." I think they thought they were writing a great "takedown" but they ended up just looking silly (again).

Purdue Matt said...

I just never clicked over to their post. Winning the NIT isn't like scoring with your second choice prom date. Its like staying home with your parents instead and scoring with yourself.

acacia1602 said...

Automatic bids do not make it the 66th choice, but I see your point. :-)

Hey, we all went to Purdue, so we're familiar with compromise - and scoring is better than not scoring. LOL!

BTW, that was some funny shit Matt!