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Post by Island on Sept 24, 2004 19:58:18 GMT -5
Sort of but I'm not sure it's an official term. Some people I talk to use it to describe mid-major schools that do not consistently do well or upset teams in the top 25 or the top 50. I've also never heard of a low-major conference although I could think of some conference who can make arguments. In basketball, The Big Wset is a mid-major. As a matter of fact, our men's fans usually use the mid-major polls in place of the Top 25 (you can guess why.) I don't knw exactly how you would decide what were major and what were mid-majors in Women's Volleyball. I guess you could start by using the Pablo rankings and use say < 100 average as a cutoff point. If you do that you get: ACC 86.7 Big 12 41.3 Big 11 43.7 Big West 69.1 Pac 10 42.9 SEC 72.9 WCC 71.4 WAC 86.2 The MAC is at 125 so they are not far out from this measure. BTW: Is there such a thing as a low-major? I have never heard that term of anything related.
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Post by Cubicle No More ... on Sept 24, 2004 19:58:49 GMT -5
In basketball, The Big Wset is a mid-major. As a matter of fact, our men's fans usually use the mid-major polls in place of the Top 25 (you can guess why.) I don't knw exactly how you would decide what were major and what were mid-majors in Women's Volleyball. I guess you could start by using the Pablo rankings and use say < 100 average as a cutoff point. If you do that you get: ACC 86.7 Big 12 41.3 Big 11 43.7 Big West 69.1 Pac 10 42.9 SEC 72.9 WCC 71.4 WAC 86.2 The MAC is at 125 so they are not far out from this measure. BTW: Is there such a thing as a low-major? I have never heard that term of anything related. It's interesting that the Big 12 is rated the strongest, especially since when I think of conferences that send the most teams to post season play, either the Pac or Big 10 usually wins that horse race...
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Post by TheSantaBarbarian on Sept 24, 2004 20:00:36 GMT -5
It's interesting that the Big 12 is rated the strongest, especially since when I think of conferences that send the most teams to post season play, either the Pac or Big 10 usually wins that horse race... Those ratings are for this year, and it is early.
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Post by TheSantaBarbarian on Sept 24, 2004 20:02:30 GMT -5
Yes, I know they are but the reference was to volleyball. "I thought a more appropriate way to think of them is how they are treated in basketball. It's better fit and the non-BCS conferences are graded by relative strength rather than just on their school's football reputation." I was actually replying to the above statement.
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Post by Island on Sept 24, 2004 20:34:04 GMT -5
The Big west are not consistent powers as a conference, at least not now. However, they are one of the stronger mid-major conferences with UCSB, LBSU and Pacific all having pretty good runs the past three years. In basketball, the WAC and MWC are considered better than the Big West not because of football status but because of quality of play and influence(that can entail many things but includes money made from football). However C-USA is considered better than both the MWC and WAC based on strength. That's what I meant. I never meant the Big West was a major in basketball, I just meant that basketball picks the BCS conferences and then labels strong conferences that are not perennial football schools. They also pay homage to schools who are in weak conferences but are traditionally strong basketball wise.
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Sept 24, 2004 21:52:44 GMT -5
What do you folks think about the MAC. I will say that with OU, Ball State, WMU, Marshall and some others this conference has arrived. ESTRELLA I saw Miami of Ohio play against Georgia Tech and IPFW last weekend (and a little of their match against Middle TN). Miami is going to struggle this year. One of their returning OH starters (Walters) is out on an injury redshirt and I saw their libero (Wolford) get injured when she was replacing the struggling setter (Clark). Setting is a major problem for Miami. The two freshman for Ursalaline Academy are good. You don't see a MH (Reihman) play the back row very often, especially a freshman MH. The OH (Staun) looked good along with Zent, a senior. GA Tech had an easy time going 3-0 in all 3 matches.
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Post by Island on Sept 24, 2004 22:31:22 GMT -5
Nice report. What's the reputation on Ursalaline Academy? I'm sure it's a volleyball hotbed but I've never heard of it. Thanks for the info.
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Post by bucky415 on Sept 25, 2004 0:30:40 GMT -5
I have seen some MAC teams in play over the last few years, and it is definitely a second tier league. The good teams can be pretty good. Northern Illinois was a very good team in 2001 but lost in the NCAAs when they drew UNI in Cedar Falls in the first round. Western Michigan had a really athletic team in 2000 but again lost to UNI (in Madison) in the tournament. Ball State has had some teams that have been able to give some Big Ten teams problems. Ohio has had some nice wins recently. I have only seen Marshall this year; they aren't great but could get better with three freshmen starting. I think the thing with the MAC is that the good teams have players who are good and could play in the top tier conferences, but not too many of them usually. You also have some good but undersized players who didn't get recruited by major schools or play in the MAC because they can start right away. The good MAC teams are usually pretty solid, but they can go down quickly if they lose key players. The bad MAC teams are really atrocious and often painful to watch. One nominee for the "good players whom no one ever sees" list is Tera Lobdell from Northern Illinois. She is the only player left from the 2001 team that won the league and 18 matches in a row and should set the school's all time kill mark soon. Good passer and one of the best players I have seen at hitting line shots. Too bad she is stuck having to hit about eight million balls per match for a 4-9 team that has to play in a gym in the basement of their new arena.
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Post by cyberVBmidwest on Sept 25, 2004 0:48:15 GMT -5
One nominee for the "good players whom no one ever sees" list is Tera Lobdell from Northern Illinois. She is the only player left from the 2001 team that won the league and 18 matches in a row and should set the school's all time kill mark soon. Good passer and one of the best players I have seen at hitting line shots. Too bad she is stuck having to hit about eight million balls per match for a 4-9 team that has to play in a gym in the basement of their new arena. I noticed Teri last year when NIU played Miami. She was definitely heads above everyone in overall skills and consistancy. Lobdell and Dodson carried the offense last year (2003).
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Limbo
High School
Posts: 9
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Post by Limbo on Sept 29, 2004 22:18:16 GMT -5
Thanks for getting the subject back to volleyball in the MAC. Geez. That rambling about basketball, Big 11 and whatever else put me to sleep! Very off-topic and not interesting to people who go to this thread looking for stuff on the MAC.
Western Michigan looks very good this year. BSU played a good game against Ohio. Tough break losing to games 29-31, though. They will certainly need to push a little harder to beat them in the MAC Championships in November.
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Post by volleyballrules on Sept 30, 2004 5:29:44 GMT -5
OHIO,BALL STATE AND WESTERN MICHIGAN CAN BEAT ANYONE ON A GOOD NIGHT, WESTERN MICHIGANS PRESEASON THEY PLAYED TENN, MICHIGAN, OHIO STATE, NEBRASKA -- GAVE ALL A GAME tHE SCORES TO NEBRASKA DON'T REFLECT HOW CLOSE THE MATCH/GAMES WERE. I THINK SOME OF THE MAC TEAMS ARE BETTER THEN SOME BIG TEN TEAMS. I HOPE AT THE END OF THE YEAR THAT WHEN TOURN. TIME COMES THEY GET SOME LOOKS. THE BIG TEN ALWAYS GETS TEAMS IN JUST BASED BECUX THEY ARE "BIG TEN" IF WISCONSIN DOESN'T START BEATING SOME OF THE BETTER TEAMS IN THEIR CONF. THEY SHOULD NOT IN ALL REALITY GET IN. MICHIGAN STATE AND MICHIGAN I BELIEVE ARE OVER RATED. MICHIGAN IN PRESEASON HAD A VERY WEAK SCHEDULE! IF ANYONE GETS A CHANCE TO WATCH THESE 3 TEAMS MAKE SURE TO GIVE THEM ATTENTION!
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Post by cougarize on Sept 30, 2004 6:02:52 GMT -5
OHIO,BALL STATE AND WESTERN MICHIGAN CAN BEAT ANYONE ON A GOOD NIGHT, WESTERN MICHIGANS PRESEASON THEY PLAYED TENN, MICHIGAN, OHIO STATE, NEBRASKA -- GAVE ALL A GAME tHE SCORES TO NEBRASKA DON'T REFLECT HOW CLOSE THE MATCH/GAMES WERE. I THINK SOME OF THE MAC TEAMS ARE BETTER THEN SOME BIG TEN TEAMS. I HOPE AT THE END OF THE YEAR THAT WHEN TOURN. TIME COMES THEY GET SOME LOOKS. THE BIG TEN ALWAYS GETS TEAMS IN JUST BASED BECUX THEY ARE "BIG TEN" IF WISCONSIN DOESN'T START BEATING SOME OF THE BETTER TEAMS IN THEIR CONF. THEY SHOULD NOT IN ALL REALITY GET IN. MICHIGAN STATE AND MICHIGAN I BELIEVE ARE OVER RATED. MICHIGAN IN PRESEASON HAD A VERY WEAK SCHEDULE! IF ANYONE GETS A CHANCE TO WATCH THESE 3 TEAMS MAKE SURE TO GIVE THEM ATTENTION! Please, don't write in caps, I can't even read your post because it is so ridiculously ridiculous. It's giving me a headache!
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Post by volleyballrules on Sept 30, 2004 7:03:02 GMT -5
Western beat Michigan also gave Ohio State a real match - What is so crazy. Have you seen these teams this year... can't speak if you haven't watched them!
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Post by bucky415 on Sept 30, 2004 12:39:35 GMT -5
I am thinking Northern Illinois is not too good this year, but I need to mention that Tera Lobdell broke the career kill mark at NIU last saturday. She also had the impressive feat of having no errors on 56 swings against Chicago State on tuesday (19-0-56). I hope her arm doesn't fall off at some point this season.
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Post by ESTRELLA on Sept 30, 2004 13:25:31 GMT -5
I will consider Lobdell one of the best players in the MAC. No doubts about it. She has 315 kills, 5.73 per game, 181 digs and 35 total blocks. The gal can play!
Estrella
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