The Grounds

While hopefully this won't be the case much longer (and certainly not this year where we have the best team in the state), I think that Smart has a point. Over the last decade the CAA's Virginia teams have been much stronger than the ACC's Virginia teams. Throw in Richmond's recent success and the argument could be made that the ACC is the 3rd best league in Virginia.

I don't think that this will remain the status quo going forward, but if you were to analyze the teams for the last 5-10 years, I think it is the case.

One question for him though....when was the last NCAA champion from the CAA? And how many times a year does he play them?

I understand that argument, and on balance I probably agree with it. I was just sort of playing devil's advocate a little bit (and am about to do it again).

If you are evaluating teams based solely on results (a way that is not dissimilar it seems as to how many athletic departments evaluate coaches) then the 3 CAA teams from the Commonwealth have been better than the two ACC teams in Virginia recently. I also think that if UVA were to have played GMU, ODU or VCU in any of the last handful of years we would have gotten worked. This is clearly changing and is probably not the case this year (see e.g. UVA's 20 point dismantling of GMU).

You forgot to mention how many of those NCAA appearances were the automatic bids. Getting the ACC automatic bid is slightly more difficult when having to navigate UNC and dook to win the ACCT. Also, ACC teams schedule CAA teams for cannon fodder, you don't see it the other way around, turns that CAA tournament into a 1 game playoff instead of 3 days in the ACCT. Over that 5 year period there is a strong argument that the CAA programs were better than UVa and VPI, but there are a lot of qualifying factors that have to be brought up.

Beat 3 CAA teams, including their leader by 20...coach of 2nd place team claims "it's not even close" who's better. Can't explain that.

Smart is just trying to goad UVA and VT into playing head to head more often.

Have to say though, I loved Bennett's classy response.

We play ODU next year in the new Governor's Classic at the Richmond Coliseum. I think VPI plays VCU.

I think the key is that it isn't an apples to apples comparison. Yes, VCU and ODU and George Mason may have better records, but who do they play? They don't have UNC, Duke, FSU, etc., on their schedule twice a season. Yes, they have gone to the tourney, but they have done so by beating the likes of James Madison and Georgia Southern, not ACC level teams.

I would say without question that the CAA has had one or more teams better than UVA and VT in the last several seasons prior to this season (UVA is clearly better than any of them this season) but they need to be careful with those comparisons.

Thanks for the nice comment on the article.

You're right that I kind of glossed over the final four appearances. I wanted to focus on the fact that even /getting there/ wasn't a good metric when comparing two teams from different conferences. If Virginia was able to make the tournament one other year when they had a similar Rating to the CAA teams, there's nothing to say we wouldn't have advanced somewhere. Same thing with Virginia Tech. They would have never won the dance, but their athleticism could have easily gotten them to the sweet sixteen if they had ever gotten off the bubble.

Basically, I just didn't think that was very relevant in the face of all the other numbers. But definite props to the CAA schools for taking advantage of the opportunities they've gotten.

You have to admit what he saying is true. VCU would of bust our ass last year and the year before. Dont sleep on the CAA. This year is a different story I think the only team we would have trouble with is VCU so it is what it is.