The debate rages on every year among rival fans and talking heads alike: which college athletic conference has the best quality of play?
For the 2011-12 NCAA Football season, the BCS National Championship Game made it fairly clear that the Southeastern Conference was the cream of the crop. Alabama demolished previously undefeated LSU, and both are members of the SEC.
Basketball is a completely different beast however. The Southeastern United States is actually relatively weak as far as hoops powerhouses go (excluding the state of North Carolina), as is the entire West Coast. Sure, Florida is perennially ranked and UCLA has a history of dominance, but no school from those two regions poses a real threat to win the title this year outside of top-ranked Kentucky. Ask anyone and you’ll find that the middle of the country and New England are the regions that rule over college basketball, with the Big 10, Big East and Big 12 as the corresponding power conferences.
Over the past few years each of these three conferences has had some great basketball teams, but the public opinion was that the Big East was tops in the nation. That belief became less popular as Big East teams began dropping like flies in last year’s NCAA Tournament (though it’s important to note that Kemba Walker’s UConn squad ended up winning the tourney). Since the Big East has regressed a little bit, there currently isn’t one conference that is head and shoulders above the rest, so it’s important to analyze each of those top three to figure out who is the best.
For the Big 10, Saturday’s throwdown between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 22 Wisconsin at the Kohl Center revealed the true top dog; OSU controlled the game for most of the second half, and won handily for the first time in nine tries in Madison. The Buckeyes have just three losses (all on the road), and sit at 5-2 against ranked opponents. Big man Jared Sullinger has nearly led them to the top of the polls, but the rest of the Big Ten doesn’t really compare. No. 12 Michigan State is second in the conference, but Wisconsin, No. 23 Indiana and No. 25 Michigan are all very close to falling out of the top 25.
The Big East has more total teams and yet fewer ranked teams, so it is difficult to argue that their top half is more consistently good than the Big Ten. No. 2 Syracuse, No. 11 Georgetown, No. 19 Marquette and No. 23 Louisville can win on any night, but none besides Syracuse has distinguished themselves from the pack. Notre Dame, Cincinnati, West Virginia and UConn, though unranked, each have some very quality victories under their belts. Notre Dame already has five wins against ranked opponents, including a win over Syracuse that remains the Orange’s only loss of the season. And yet teams two through 16 of the Big East can lose to any opponent on a given night, showing a serious lack of consistency that will again rear its ugly head in March.
In my opinion the Big 12 is the supreme basketball conference right now. They have three legitimate title contenders in No. 4 Missouri, No. 6 Baylor and No. 10 Kansas. Each has the raw basketball talent to string together a series of wins in March, just like Connecticut did last year. Kansas State and Texas are very familiar with a deep run into the Tournament, and Iowa State is one of this season’s surprises as they ride their statistic-producing behemoth Royce White. None of these teams is ranked, and yet each of them has the ability to win a game or two in the tournament, showing some real conference depth.
The basketball conference debate comes down to which group of teams has the best chance at producing this year’s eventual champion. The Big 10 and the Big East each have a bunch of ranked teams, but the consistency of the top three in the Big 12 is just too much to overcome. If I were a betting man my money would be on the Jayhawks and Tigers and Bears (oh my!) of the Big 12 Conference, and that’s why they reign supreme.