Written By Sam Ekstrom
One of the 10 million great things about March Madness is the inevitable conference comparisons. The highly-exposed Big Ten and ACC typically send over half a dozen teams, while all other conferences make it their goal to knock the big dogs off their pompous perch. The Pac 12 and Big 12 vie for fans’ and analysts’ respect, while the SEC seeks to prove it has more than just one team in its conference. This battle for recruiting leverage – garnering the privilege of calling yourself college basketball’spremier conference – is an underrated tournament subplot.
In college football, there’s no questioning that the SEC is top dog. Love or hate Nick Saban and Les Miles, they know how to recruit the best NFL-ready talent available and win titles with it. Even with the latest (and much-welcomed) two-year hiatus from an SEC team hoisting the football championship trophy, very few would say the Southeastern Conference is in decline. There’s still a healthy consensus about who sits atop the college football throne.
Conference bragging rights are more fluid, however, in college basketball; though the East Coast has earned the most attention in recent years with a Big East, ACC or SEC team winning the title every season since 2000 (with the exception of Kansas’ overtime victory in 2008). The East has had a monopoly on basketball – the presumed “East Coast Bias” of ESPN doesn’t hurt – but with more and more NBA talent being groomed in the Midwest, along with the Big East’s realignment in 2013 to include a number of Midwestern schools, the nation’s eye has slowly been glancing further and further inland.
The conferences in the central United States have earned a reputation for rugged, blue collar basketball that doesn’t always translate well to the NCAA tournament; half-court, grind-it-out affairs where teams never exceed 60 points. But the Big Ten has turned heads in the last decade with four different representatives in the national title game since 2004 (though no winners). With three teams entering the Elite Eight in 2014, it looked like the Big Ten was primed to break through … only to have Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison shatter the hearts of Michigan and Wisconsin in quick succession, while eventual-champ Connecticut knocked off Michigan State.
This year, the Big Ten took a big step backward, and everyone knew it from the beginning, as evidenced by a litany of ugly non-conference losses. Perhaps diluted by the additions of Maryland and Rutgers, nobody except Wisconsin was able to separate themselves from the 14-team pack. By the end of the regular season, only two Big Ten teams (Wisconsin and Maryland) were represented in the Associated Press Top 25.
On the other hand, the Big 12 (and its 10 teams) was perceived as one of the nation’s strongest conferences. Half their teams finished the year in the Top 25, while Texas and Oklahoma State – both with 8-10 conference records — snuck into the tournament field by virtue of their strength of schedule. For comparison, 9-9 Illinois and 8-10 Michigan from the Big Ten were left on the outside looking in.
At this point, there were two arguments coming from bitter Big Ten fans.
Argument Number 1: It’s hard to stand out in the Big Ten when almost every team is so talented. Anybody can win on any given night, especially on their home floor. There is parity at the highest level.
Argument Number 2: The Big 12 looks good on paper because it is top-heavy. The top half of the conference beats up on the bottom half to elevate their records and, therefore, make the entire conference look stronger.
Turns out, one of the arguments was valid. Number 2.
The Big 12 got embarrassed on the first day of the NCAA tournament – really, within the first block of games. Two no. 3 seeds – Iowa State and Baylor – fell by a point to UAB and Georgia State, respectively. Texas and Oklahoma State proved why their 8-10 marks didn’t merit a tournament bid in their losses to Butler and Oregon. Kansas, the conference’s top seed, was shown up by in-state rival Wichita State in Sunday’s battle to go to the Sweet 16. Only Oklahoma, who benefited from drawing an 11-seed in the Round of 32, and West Virginia advanced to the second weekend.
As for Argument Number 1 from above, it was half true, half false. The Big Ten did have plenty of equality, but the baseline wasn’t very high. The Gophers, a middle-tier team, can attest to this after playing tight games with the likes of upper-tier Ohio State and lower-tier Penn State. The difference between them was not dramatic, and that didn’t mean Penn State was suddenly good. It meant the conference had regressed to the mean.
A successful Round of 64 for the Big Ten (5-2) turned into a poor showing in the Round of 32 (2-3). Once the dust had settled, only the usual suspects remained in the field: Tom Izzo’s Michigan State and Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin. Who else?
True to form, the ACC has five representatives (Duke, UNC, Louisville, Notre Dame and North Carolina State) in the Sweet 16 – more than the Big Ten and Big 12 combined.
This regression for the two “Big” conferences can be linked to college basketball’s one-and-done culture, which has led to more roster turn-over than ever. A program’s success year-to-year can ebb and flow with the decisions of 19 year olds looking to chase millions of dollars in the NBA. Truly elite talent, like Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell, for instance, will move on after one season and leave a substantial void, much like the departures of Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid left a void at Kansas this year. Those voids are hard to fill unless you’re a Duke, a UNC or a Louisville, who have limitless resources, legacy coaches and basketball-dominated athletic departments.
Once again, the ACC exhibits its March dominance.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.