The curious case of the Big East
The conference is having a breakout season. Will UConn be able to take advantage?
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The Big East had a great nonconference season. Will it matter for UConn?
This is the 10th season of Big East baseball in its current, post-separation form, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. In that time, the conference has two at-large bids and just 19 wins. UConn, in just three seasons, represents one and six of those results, respectively. The league’s highest RPI ranking was No. 10, in 2017, which was the only year other than 2023 that it sent more than one team to a Regional, with four years of nine in the bottom half of the conference RPI rankings.
RPI isn’t perfectly viable yet, but there’s enough of a sample as more than half of the 14 regular season weekends have gone by. The Big East is ranked No. 6, above the Pac-12, as well as several mid-major leagues known for providing multiple tournament teams.
Last season, UConn was trying to secure a hosting bid and was in the No. 12 RPI league. Xavier was the only other top-100 team in the conference, with three sub-150 squads, two of which were below No. 200. Any defeat, especially at home, to more than half of the Big East would have been disastrous to the RPI, demonstrated by a home loss to Butler that dropped the Huskies nine spots, from which they never recovered.
This year, however, is a different story entirely. Two programs in St. John’s and Butler are 100 spots higher in the RPI than where they finished in 2023, while Georgetown is up more than 80 spots. Five schools are in the top 100 and just one is below No. 200. Three teams are in the NCAA Tournament discussion, while two more can get there with some wins.
The only problem? UConn is in the latter group, rather than the former. The Huskies have taken home five of the six Big East trophies available to them since returning to the conference, but have stumbled this season with inconsistent starting pitching and an anemic offense. The schedule has been tough, ranked No. 39 in the nonconference, but UConn is just 6-14 in Quad 1 and 2 games, though it’s 8-2 against Quads 3 and 4.
In most seasons, the remaining slate would preclude the Huskies from climbing back into the at-large race. They’re not in it now, but only have five surefire Quad 4 games out of 24 contests remaining. The numbers will help the Storrs nine, but they need to continue the momentum they’ve seized the past week, with four wins going into a home series against St. John’s.
RPI Update
UConn is in far from an ideal spot in the RPI, at No. 81. The Huskies have a top-50 non-conference strength of schedule, at No. 39, but are 3-8 in Quad 1 games and 3-6 against Quad 2 opponents, limiting their ceiling. RPI still has a bit of time to completely sort itself out, but Jim Penders’ team has a hill to climb to get into at-large contention for the NCAA Tournament, though the upcoming schedule provides some opportunities. St. John’s is a Quad 2 opportunity this weekend, with two Quad 1 midweek games against Kansas State and Boston College, followed by a Quad 1 series against Georgetown.
The Big East is the No. 6 RPI conference this year, which is much higher than has been typical since the Catholic 7 departed the original league. Villanova is the only Quad 4 series this year, as Butler is seventh of the conference’s eight teams at No. 126 in the RPI. This will make it easier for the Huskies to move up in the rankings as the conference season gets going, rather than in years past, where they needed to win as much as possible just to hold onto their spot.
Bracketology
Baseball America
UConn is still out of Baseball America’s bracket and Creighton, which is in No. 8 Kentucky’s Lexington Regional as a 2-seed, holds the Big East automatic bid. This is a change from last week, as Xavier, which is now below .500 after a series loss to UConn last weekend, held the bid prior, is totally off the bubble. St. John’s, which is a 3-seed in the Chapel Hill Regional hosted by No. 7 North Carolina, is the last team in after being on the wrong side of the bubble last week. Georgetown has also made an appearance as part of the first four out. Weekend foe UC Santa Barbara (3-seed) is also in.
D1Baseball
There isn’t an updated field of 64 on D1Baseball.com.
The Week Ahead
Friday: St. John’s; 6:05 p.m.; FloSports
Saturday: St. John’s; 2:05 p.m.; FloSports
Sunday: St. John’s; 1:05 p.m.; FloSports
Tuesday: Kansas State; 6:05 p.m.; CBS Sports Network
Wednesday: at Boston College; 3 p.m.; ACC Network Extra
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