Don’t get me wrong. I said, Wow as loudly as anyone when Michigan beat Notre Dame. But, in reality, this is no more of a Wow than Duke, in the late 90s, being in the ACC with UVA, UNC, and UMD and, eventually, putting together a squad that could not only compete with these perennial powers but beat them. The resumes of the teams in the ACC are obvious. This includes Notre Dame. The B1G includes, perennial powers, UMD and JHU, as well as OSU, PSU and… Rutgers who just beat Syracuse and Michigan who just beat Notre Dame. There are and will always be upsets. But the trajectory of Rutgers and Michigan is different. Being in the B1G has helped their recruiting enormously. Bottomline, years ago, when Duke beat UNC or UVA, we also said, Wow. Today, not so much. Michigan will beat Notre Dame again and, next time, we won’t say, Wow so loudly.
As an aside, while teams have benefited from being in the ACC and the B10, others teams in other conferences have not. This is not a leading statement. I’m not suggesting that Syracuse needs to shuffle over to the Big East or otherwise. Just stating that teams within the ACC and B1G conferences have a competitive advantage when recruiting high school players. Denver and Albany compensate in other ways to counter this disadvantage (e.g. By making sure their schedule looks a lot like the schedules of the ACC and B1G teams… while winning their conference and being guaranteed a spot in the Final Four), but they still experience a competitive disadvantage. But back to my original point, Rutgers and Michigan will continue to recruit top talent.
