Today, I look at the average adjusted pace for all BCS coaches. For returning coaches, I average the adjusted pace with the current team. For new hires, I take the average with the previous team. New hires are noted with a *** below. I also rank BCS coaches from 1 to 74.

With Nebraska headed to the Big Ten, the Big 12 will likely be the fastest BCS league next year. Only Mark Turgeon likes a slow style of play in the conference. The one possible exception may be if Billy Gillispie temporarily implements a slower pace of play at Texas Tech to keep the team competitive, but as a whole the ten-team league should remain quite fast.

The SEC should also be fast. The replacement of Bruce Pearl with Cuonzo Martin (a MVC coach with Big Ten roots) should slow things down at Tennessee. But with Mike Anderson returning to Arkansas to reinstate Nolan Richardson’s 40 minutes of hell, the conference as a whole should remain quite up-tempo. 

The ACC adds three slower than average coaches. And with Steve Donahue and Tony Bennett in the league, I continue to predict some ugly games from time-to-time. But watching how Jeff Bzdelik changed his spots, from extremely slow to extremely fast when joining the ACC, do not be surprised to see Brian Gregory or Jim Larranaga push the tempo even more than they did with their previous teams.

Larry Krstkowiak liked to run up-and-down the floor at Montana, and he should fit right at home in a Pac-12 that loved fast-tempo games last year. But like the ACC, there are a handful of very slow-paced coaches in the Pac-12. Herb Sendek and Kevin O’Neill are very content to play half-court basketball.

On the flip side, the Big East and Big Ten are likely to remain two of the slower BCS leagues in the land. Oliver Purnell did his best to speed up the Big East at DePaul. And Jim Boeheim always loves to use his zone defense to get steals and fast-break baskets. But Jamie Dixon and former assistant Mike Rice like to keep things slow. And Stan Heath still has plenty of Big Ten blood after coaching under Tom Izzo. Finally, despite two of the faster paced years in 2010 and 2011, John Thompson remains the slowest paced coach in the Big East. 

But the Big Ten remains the home of slow-paced basketball. And adding Doc Sadler to the league is not going to help things. Fans of the Big Ten look at Fran McCaffery as a miracle of entertaining basketball, but he still only ranks 22nd nationally in adjusted pace. Do not blame McCaffery, Matt Painter, or Tom Crean for the slow pace of play. But you can blame everyone else. Even coaches like Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith who might run an up-tempo system in other leagues have seemingly given in and succumbed to the Big Ten’s preferred style of play.