I'd say we'd be middle of the pack and really have to go foreign to be competitve. I think our lower part of the lineup would be ok but we'd generally lose at 1 and 2 in the SEC.

SEC is TOUGH in tennis! 10 teams ranked 57 or better. It's hard to say where we would finish because I hope both programs are going to continue to get better, but just as an example last year the men even though they finished ranked 10th in the NCAA, they would have only finished 5th in the SEC!!! (ranking-wise) Auburn finished ranked #19 and had a losing record in conference! 9 teams made the NCAA tournament. All in all I think it would be good. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best and what better way than to have a regular season schedule tougher than the NCAA tournament?

For the women, sort of the same. In spite of having the national champ (Florida), the SEC was down a bit top to bottom. A few years ago they had 9 teams in the top 25. When a team goes undefeated like UF did, the rest of the rankings are a bit diluted. Tennis rankings are based on a computer formula so the best thing for the group is when the champ loses at least once and then anyone who beats the team that beat the champ (or beats the team that beat the team...) enjoys the residual value of those wins, if that makes sense. It happened last year in the Big 12 when K-State had that fluke win against Baylor and then lost 5 conference matches. The win helped KSU finish 47 in spite of a very mediocre season in which they beat no one else ranked all season but us. That helped t.u. and OU finish in the top-25 and actually helped us a bit too, because a loss against 47 hurt us a lot less than a loss against 68, or whatever they would have been ranked.

Anyway by ranking alone, we would have finished 8th in the SEC last year and we would have typically finished in the bottom quarter of the conference for the last 5-6 years. I am sure that we will be improving but it would probably be better for Joffe to cut his teeth in the Big 12.

"Cut his teeth in the Big 12"?? He was an assistant for 5 straight top 10 teams at USC (a program where the assistant does pretty much all of the work) in a conference better than the Big 12. He got Maryland, a completely worthless program, in to the top 15 within two years in a conference much better than the Big 12. Putting him and Mark in the SEC would expedite their chances of getting A&M women's tennis to elite status, not slow them down, in my opinion.

I didn't mean it as an insult. I think he's very good and is going to take this team in the right direction based on the good things he did at Maryland. At the same time he has never been the head coach of a top 25 team and you're asking how we would do in a league where there have been 9-10 top 25 teams at one time. So yes, I think it would be easier for him to get a team to the top 25 and learn how to compete at that level in the Big 12, a league that only has 2 or 3 top 25 teams at once.

No need to get defensive, I think it's a pretty reasonable observation.

...and not to split hairs, because like you said getting them from nothing to very competitive in two years is an incredible accomplishment, but Maryland finished #34 last year. I think they were in the top 25 for one week mid-season. Again, what he did is awesome but there is a big, big difference in being ranked 34 and being ranked 15.

I think his Maryland team was probably just as good as t.u. or OU last year. Maryland might have finished 2nd in the Big 12 last year and ranked in the top 25. They certainly would not have gone 3-8 like they did in the ACC.

I think he's good enough to get us to the top 15 eventually in either league, but I think it would be tougher initially in the SEC. I bet he comes in and has us finish at or near the top 25 THIS YEAR and top 3 in conference. If we were in the SEC we might finish 10th with this team.

I guess it all depends on how good we're going to be. If we're going to have a top-10 level team then yes of course the SEC's schedule would help us but BK played the right schedule for an elite team. He just didn't HAVE an elite team.

[This message has been edited by Harry Dunne (edited 8/10/2011 1:03p).]

Far from defensive, just giving my opinion. And saying he got Maryland to top 15 was a typo (I'm on my iPhone), I was trying to type top 25.

quote:

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I think his Maryland team was probably just as good as t.u. or OU last year. Maryland might have finished 2nd in the Big 12 last year and ranked in the top 25. They certainly would not have gone 3-8 like they did in the ACC.

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Agreed 100%. His girls were very good, and he recruited them with nothing more than his reputation as a coach, and barely even had a year to work with them.

My biggest point is that with the Ags potentially being in the SEC, which is THE premiere conference in the country, he will have even more to recruit with than A&M already has (prestige, strength of schedule, etc).

Not well in mens...we cant even win the Big 12 conf you think we can win the SEC? Hardly.

Weird, I could have sworn that the Aggie men won the Big 12 this year...

Tournament title doesn't count, apparently.

Tourney title?? ok I grant you that...How many times has that happened in the last 5 yrs?

Furthermore, this a 3 team conf we only have to beat Texas and Baylor..SEC not so much.....


[This message has been edited by XIaggie (edited 8/12/2011 9:48a).]

One thing for sure from a fan's perspective, we'd see really good tennis in all the conference matchs. I also think we'd have to change our recruiting strategy to go after more foreign players if we wanted to be in the top 4 of the SEC on a regular basis going forward.
I also think we'd fare a lot better in the NCAAs after going through the regular season SEC meat grinder. First three rounds would in general be easier than a regular season matchup.