D3AS’ HOT TAKE: The UAA is the best conference this year, that ever was, and ever will be.
D3AS DEFENSE: Sure, it’s early, but the UAA now has 6 top 15 teams (on the Men’s side) and we’re in early March. It has long been assumed that the NESCAC is the better conference, but I am hoping that this is the year that that all changes. With 4 top 10 teams and 6 top 15 teams, we’re talking about a conference that has more giant-killers than whoever is in the NE. Also, did anyone catch Rochester breaking into the top 30? (Note from D3RegionalNEC: #32, but who’s counting?) Maybe they can even beat Bates and definitely Colby. Give me Chicago/Emory/Wash U/CMU/Deis/Case/Rochester over Midd/Bowdoin/Williams/Amherst/Wesleyan/Tufts/whoever comes next any day of the week.
RegNE/C: I always enjoy this debate, but it’s hard to make any definitive conclusions. What makes a conference better? The best team(s)? The depth(?) Top to bottom, I think I give an edge to the NESCAC in general, though it’s hard to say this year because we haven’t really seen much NESCAC action yet and the UAA has 7 out of 8 teams in the national rankings (though they have had all 8 ranked in the past). The NESCAC also has the top eight teams in the top 40, for what it’s worth, so I don’t think it’s fair to penalize the ‘CAC just because it has more teams. Obviously another notch in the NESCAC belt is that they’ve had more national champions in recent years. If I had a few free hours, I would be interested to go through the past few years and check out every UAA vs NESCAC matchup to determine who’s winning and what percentage of the time—though even that metric would only be so useful. I’ve definitely gone back and forth through the years on this one, but lately I’ve been leaning NESCAC. And I know it’s been discussed before, but I’d like to throw out this idea again—a UAA-NESCAC challenge a la Big 10-ACC challenge in college hoops. Would be a ton of fun and also a great way to make the Pool C picture a bit clearer. Regardless of which conference is better overall, there’s one category that the UAA takes the cake in a landslide—conference tournament (and banquet!).
D3NEWomen’s: Tbh I don’t know much about the men’s side of things, heck I don’t even claim to be an expert on D3 tennis at all (who let me write for The Blog?), but this sounds kinda like some mild, chunky salsa – gives you the hint of a hot take, not super spicy (ASW, are you getting hungry reading this?). While I can’t really compare conferences on the men’s side, I think it’d be super fun to have a conference vs. conference tournament – not like NCAAs, but something where every duel match counts for one point in an overall match – too meta? Too stupid? Maybe, but it could be like a battle to the death – may the best conference win.
NE: There he goes. There he goes again. I’ll ignore the “best that ever was” because sewer water would taste better than that take if fact checked. The 2019 version of the take is slightly more intriguing. This is a D3AS rant each and every March when he’s on an Indoors high and too stubborn to listen to the many voices of reason in the group chat. Let’s breakdown his argument. Yes, the UAA has 6 teams in the top 15, but the NESCAC has 5 of the top 9 (compared to the UAA’s 3.) Next, while I’m all about what the Jackets have done so far this year, we did not catch them breaking into the top 30, as they are #32 in the ITA rankings and #31 in the Power Rankings. Midd vs Chicago? Great match but the blogger Power Rankings have Midd ahead of the Maroons for a reason. Bowdoin vs Emory? Another banger which I’ll grant D3AS might lean EU’s way considering Bowdoin’s recent losses graduation. Wash U vs Amherst? I’ll bet anybody out there who wants that Amherst ends this year ranked higher than the Bears. Williams vs CMU? Let me just say that the Ephs would never have finished 7th at Indoors. Wesleyan vs Deis? Love the battle between up and comers, but one is just a wee-bit more established than the other. As I write this I see that AVZ literally did the exact same thing below, so I’m going to stop and put my faith in the readers that if AVZ and I make the same argument about something, it’s almost always the correct one.
AVZ: It pains me to say this considering there are plenty of Central teams in the UAA, but this is just flat out wrong. The case can be made for this year of course with the emergence of Brandeis and Rochester, but do we really think they will continue to be ranked as high this year? I sure don’t. In years past, the UAA was extremely top heavy, but even then they weren’t as strong as the NESCAC at the top. At this time, If we were to match up the NESCAC #1 against the UAA #1 and do so down the line, I would favor the NESCAC in the top 7 of those matches. Really the only argument against that would be the Bowdoin vs Emory as the #2s. Deis and Wesleyan would be a fun one to watch as well, but the NESCAC still reigns supreme with Williams, Amherst, Tufts, and Bates over their respective opponents of Wash U, CMU, Case, and Rochester. What can we do to make this happen? Historically I don’t see this argument as even being close. This is the only year that ASouth has any sort of argument.
newCentral: Is this hot? I thought the consensus was that the UAA has always been the best conference in the country. Sure the NESCAC may win it more often than the others, but that’s just reflective of the cream of that crop, rather than the conference as a whole. The UAA is, and for my entire tennis consciousness has always been, the best conference in the country.
NewRegional: Think I’m going to punt on this one until we see some more NESCAC teams in action (this weekend!!). Play from Rochester and Brandeis so far definitely benefits the UAA, but I think if we line up teams 1 through 8 (NESCAC – Midd, Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Tufts, Bates, Colby, UAA – Chicago, Emory, Wash U, CMU, Deis, Case, Rochester, NYU), I think the NESCAC takes 5 of those matches, and splits it 4-4 at the worst.
D3ASWomen’s: If you have ever seen a baby Bear (Wash U men’s freshman) ask someone, especially someone of the opposite gender, to dance at the UAA banquet, then you would know that the UAA conference is the best in the country. Probably the universe. This isn’t even a question. Next.
Gut says UAA is gonna ride a wave for a while. Simply feels that way. Current recruiting list and recent past recruiting may favor UAA as well…but I like my gut.