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The Big East came up the top conference by all three measures we use for determining regular + postseason performance, edging the second place Big Ten. Only when we adjust for conference size does the Big Ten stand on top.
In the chart below we give a point for NCAA tournament bids and wins, which adds a measure of regular-season quality, so the 16-strong Big East gets a hefty advantage from the beginning. The Big Ten ended up a distant second after a strong run up to the Sweet Sixteen. The Big Twelve, who placed six members of their 10-team league in the tournament, could have taken 2nd place but Kansas fell in the final. The SEC was a strong 4th as the Wildcats finished as the #1 team. The ACC was far behind at #5.
Here are the standings for Best Conference as ranked by teams in the tournament, and advancement in the tournament, color-coded in ROY G. BIV fashion, with 1 point for each bid and game won (play-in games don't count):
Teams in tourney Round of 32 Sweet 16 Elite 8 Final Four Title Game Champion
Big East 9 6 4 2 1
Big Ten 6 5 4 1 1
Big 12 6 4 2 2 1 1
SEC 4 3 2 2 1 1 1
ACC 5 3 2 1
Atl 10 4 2 1
Mt West 4 1
WCC 3 1
MAC 1 1 1
MVC 2 1
Pac-12 2 1
Col. Ath 1 1
MEAC 1 1
Patriot 1 1
Ohio Val 1 1
C-USA 2
Metro Atl 2
The Atlantic 10 ranked as the best mid-major conference by this measure, outpacing the Mountain West who also started with four teams. The West Coast Conference placed 3 teams in the tournament but only Gonzaga reached the Round of 32.
The Mid-American Conference was paced by Ohio in the Sweet Sixteen, putting them ahead of the Pac-12—normally considered one of the "Big Six"—and mid-major Missouri Valley.
The Colonial Athletic, MEAC, Patriot, and Ohio Valley all advanced their only teams to the Round of 32, where they all lost. The C-USA and Metro Atlantic both started with two teams but both lost in the first round; in the Metro Atlantic's case, one was a play-in teams (Iona). All the other conferences only had one bid, who lost in the first round.
Pure NCAA Tournament Performance: Same basic result, but a closer race
Since conferences with more bids have more opportunity for wins, the chart below better captures Best NCAA Tournament Performance, with points awarded solely for tournament wins:
Round of 32 Sweet 16 Elite 8 Final Four Title Game Champion
Big East 6 4 2 1
Big Ten 5 4 1 1
SEC 3 2 2 1 1 1
Big 12 4 2 2 1 1
ACC 3 2 1
Atl 10 2 1
MAC 1 1
Mt West 1
WCC 1
Pac-12 1
MVC 1
Col. Ath 1
MEAC 1
Patriot 1
Ohio Val 1
Here the Big East's win over the Big Ten was closer without their head start, but still they pulled away from the Big Ten. They had the most wins of any conference in the first round, tied with the Big Ten with 4 teams in the Sweet Sixteen, and tied with the SEC and Big Twelve with two in the Elite Eight. Louisville gave them a Final Four berth. The Big Ten was closing in until the Elite Eight, where Michigan State and Wisconsin lost head-to-head battles with SEC foes. Ohio State beat Cincinnati to put the Big Ten in the Final Four, but they didn't advance.
Kentucky's win over Kansas gave the SEC the tiebreaker over the Big Twelve for third place. Again the ACC is fifth, the Atlantic 10 sixth, and after that only the MAC could claim a Sweet Sixteen entrant.
Adding the NIT to measure Top-to-Bottom
Well, call it top-to-lower-middle, perhaps; the NCAA and NIT tournaments take pretty much every relevant team in the nation, 100 of them total, and these selections plus their performance encapsulates a conference's quality in a given year. Still biased somewhat toward the larger conferences naturally, so we can say that this chart measures the conferences that have the most decent-to-great teams in the country.
Best Conferences: Two points per NCAA bid and win; one point per NIT bid and win
Conference NIT NCAA Total
Big East 2 44 46
Big Ten 9 34 43
SEC 5 28 33
Big 12 0 32 32
ACC 2 22 24
Atlantic 10 7 14 21
Pac-12 14 6 20
Mtn West 0 10 10
MVC 4 6 10
WCC 0 8 8
MAC 1 6 7
Colonial 3 4 7
C-USA 2 4 6
Patriot 2 4 6
MEAC 1 4 5
Sun Belt 3 2 5
WAC 3 2 5
Ohio Val 0 4 4
Metro Atl 0 4 4
Horizon 2 2 4
America East 1 2 3
Southland 1 2 3
Summit 1 2 3
Again the Big East wins, but only by a hair. With only one team (Seton Hall) in the NIT, the Big East leaves 6 teams out of the two main tournaments. The Big Ten's 3 berths meant that 9 of their 12 teams were in action, and Minnesota made it to the NIT final. They can fairly lay claim to the true "top-to-bottom" title, perhaps.
The SEC put four teams in the NIT, and even though only one of them (Tennessee) won a game, along with Kentucky's national title they're probably in the right spot at #3; the Big Twelve had a formidable top six, but no teams made the NIT. Same with fifth-place ACC, who had five in the NCAA and just one in the NIT.
The Atlantic 10 did just well enough to take sixth place. They had a decent NCAA run with a Sweet Sixteen team in Xavier, and put four more teams in the NIT, with UMass making the NIT final four.
That was just enough to hold off the Pac-12, who dominated the NIT to make up for their terrible NCAA placing. With four teams in, three made the final eight, Washington the final four, and Stanford won the whole thing.
After that there's a big dropoff. We have the Mountain West and Missouri Valley tied for 8th, the MAC and Colonial Athletic tied for 10th, and the C-USA and Patriot tied for 12th. A handful of other conferences scored 3-5 points, and all 9 others had only their single NCAA auto-bid who lost in the first game.
Correcting for Big-Conference Bias
The Big East has an advantage when you aggregate performance rather than use winning percentage. The Big Twelve—now down to 10 teams—is similarly hurt. If we divide the "points" from above by number of conference teams, we get a somewhat different order:
Conference NIT NCAA Total TPT (Total per team)
Big Ten 9 34 43 3.6
Big 12 0 32 32 3.2
Big East 2 44 46 2.9
SEC 5 28 33 2.8
ACC 2 22 24 2.0
Pac-12 14 6 20 1.7
Atlantic 10 7 14 21 1.5
The Big Ten (with 12 teams) is a fairly big leader in total points per team, while the Big Twelve (now with 10 teams) finishes 2nd. The 16-team Big East falls to third, just ahead of the SEC. The Pac-12 finally joins the "Big Six" again, mostly because the Atlantic 10 (with 14 teams) drops a bit.
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