(Note:  You can also read this article and other NCAA basketball articles at Bleacher Report.)

It is time to look at the next batch of conferences in this series that honors the true forces in NCAA basketball, the fruitcakes who like to play Jekyll and Hyde, and the frauds that have been exposed (or are in the process of being exposed) as overrated. 

This edition examines the Big Ten, Big XII, CAA, and Conference USA. The analysis continues to move in alphabetical order to avoid any charges of bias.

For complete definitions and a thorough look at the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, and Big South, click here. To quickly wrap up what has already been discussed, I’ve provided the following table, with a couple of sentences for the conferences not already examined in-depth. Read the rest of this entry »

Conventional wisdom has it that three conferences (the ACC, Big East and Big Ten) have separated themselves from the rest of the pack.

Bleacher Creatures appear to see it differently, clearly tiering the conferences into just two at the top and three more a significant step behind. Read ahead to find which conferences fall where in the first installment of the Conference Rankings, compiled from lists submitted by fans from coast to coast.

If you would like to read the original version of Conference Rankings (which were my own rankings only), you can read the long version here or the short version here. If you like a good background story, it will get you up to speed on most of what happened in November and December. Read the rest of this entry »

This is an abbreviated version for those who don’t want to read all the details of the longer post.  The long version can be found here.

For those of who you would prefer “a number and a nugget,” I’ve produced this shorter version.  As always, I strongly encourage you (for better or for worse) to comment on the rankings.

I’d like very much to see your rankings as well, and if there is enough interest, I may even compile them much like Jameson does with the teams’ rankings each week.

Here they are, short and sweet:

1.  Atlantic Coast

UNC, Duke and Wake Forest may very well be the top three teams in the nation.  The “middle of the pack” all have similar resumes:  difficult schedule, quality wins against ranked and unranked opponents, and a lack of bad losses.  Virginia is beyond awful, but even Virginia Tech is improving.  VMI has the best win in the state of Virginia right now (over Kentucky).

1a.  Big Ten

They are close enough to the ACC that I had to designate them “1a.” instead of “2.”  This weekend alone, Minnesota, Michigan State, and Purdue all notched impressive victories over Louisville, Texas, and Davidson, respectively. 

The conference also suffered some disappointing losses, with Iowa dropping a game to Drake and Northwestern losing to Stanford.  Penn State, Wisconsin, and Northwestern have all cooled off after hot starts.

Ultimately, the bottom of the Big Ten is slightly better than the ACC, the top is slightly worse, and the ACC gets the edge by winning the middle—by a very small margin, just like the result of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

3.  Big East

The losses at the top are mounting: Louisville to Western Kentucky and Minnesota, Syracuse to Cleveland State, Marquette to a Tennessee team that lost to Temple and could only beat Belmont by two, Georgetown also to Tennessee, and Notre Dame to UNC and Ohio State, though the Buckeyes are better than advertised. 

Connecticut and Pittsburgh remain undefeated, but the Huskies barely beat Buffalo and would have lost to Gonzaga had the Bulldogs not mishandled nearly every possession in the final minute of regulation.  The Panthers faced their first competition of any significance last night and were losing deep into the second half against Florida State.

With a poorly finished basement (Providence, DePaul, Rutgers, South Florida) and too many close calls or stunning losses at the top, the Big East has lost the right to be ranked above the ACC or Big Ten…for now.
Read the rest of this entry »

You can also read this article at Bleacher Report.