Sports reporters have been saying all year that this year's Big East may be the best conference ever. I've read and heard a lot more of that the last two days. I'm puzzled.
I'm puzzled because they now use the NCAA seedings to back up their claims. I think the seedings actually point to the ACC being the best conference this year, and possibly the best ever.
I don't care for the ACC. It's the home of Duke and Carolina, so I hate to praise it.
But both the NCAA and NIT selection committees usually do a darn good job, so I can't dispute the evidence.
Generally, the top 48 teams (seeds 1-12) get into the NCAA tournament. The last 16 (sorry, 17) teams are automatic qualifiers from lousy conferences.
As near as I can tell, the best 16 teams in the NIT are definitely better than the last 16 in the NCAA.
This year, of the top 64 seeded teams in both tournaments combined (48 NCAA, 16 NIT), 9 are from the ACC and 8 are from the Big East. That means 81% of the ACC is in the top 64, and only half the Big East is.
The ACC is definitely not as top heavy, but they aren't so far behind at the top as to erase that difference.
(Eight of eleven Big 10 teams are in that 64, too, which is a higher percentage than the Big East, but the Big East is far superior at the top. Their eight are much, much better overall than the Big 10's.)
And the SEC is lousy. Nearly as bad as Big East football.
3 comments:
but when was the last time a Big East football team won a national championship? The SEC has won 5 national titles in basketball since 1994. I'll have to research BE football, but I know it hasn't been close to that (if any). So i am not will to concede SEC basketball is almost as bad as Big East in football. I'm also sick of UofL fans comparing the downfall of UK basketball to their football program. Yeah, right.
I'm not saying the SEC is as bad as Big East football over the long haul, or last 10 years, or whatever. I was just comparing them for this year.
I do think the current slide between the two programs are comparable.(Hah) Louisville football fell from decent to awful, and Kentucky basketball fell from great to decent. About the same distance, I guess.
...though I can't imagine it will be anywhere near as easy for Kragthorpe (or other) to build an excellent football team as it will be for Gillispie (or other) to build an excellent basketball team. Not even close.
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