There is a lot of talk every year about what the best conference in the country is. Realistically, that concept doesn’t amount to shit. There is so much unnecessary pride that goes into what conference your school hails from. Admittedly, I find myself doing this often as well with the Big East. Still, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: conferences don’t win championships. As a matter of fact, the team that does win the championship rarely comes out of the “best conference.”
Look at this year as an indicator. The ACC was an absolute super-conference. They received nine bids (although it should have been ten). But, look at them now. Only one of their own made it into the Sweet Sixteen. Now in the Elite Eight, that team is the UNC Tar Heels. Is it possible for them to win the championship? Of course, but they are going up against the best talent in the country and probably the best Sweet Sixteen ever. The committee isn’t necessarily the authority on who is the best conference in the country, but I feel like the conference with the most tournament bids is a pretty good gauge.
So I wanted to look a little deeper. I looked back in my archives (which are fairly limited since I am a non-professional) and I got all the way back to the 1995 NCAA tournament. The tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, so I am not really missing out on too much time. Since 1995, there have been 22 seasons and championships, not including this year’s. In those 22 years, only 7 champions have come from the conference that has received the most bids. I also think it is important to note that in my research, I highlighted the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big 12, Big 10, and PAC-12, and only one time (2011 UCONN) has the champion not come from there.
So, what could this mean? There are a couple conclusions that I thought of. First, which is often my argument about the current state of the Big 12, is an idea that good conferences beat each other up too much in conference play. This is especially true in the current Big 12, where each team has to play a home and away series against everyone in the conference. On top of that, they have to play away games in arenas such as Allen Fieldhouse, Hilton Coliseum and the Ferrell Center. Conferences like the current ACC and the recently dismantled Big East suffer from incredible top-to-bottom talent. The high level of competition affects their records and can lead to them being seeded below their true value.
So, now for my main point. It doesn’t mean anything what the best conference in the country is. Wichita State has been to the Final Four twice. Butler made the final (and almost won) out of the Horizon league. Even George Mason has been to the Final Four! Look at this year alone. Three of the eight teams in the Elite Eight are in the SEC. The SEC is probably the sixth-best conference in basketball, but it simply doesn’t matter. No one was hotter than Duke, and the lowly Sindarius Thornwells topped them with grit and defense. The tournament is about matchups.
Every tournament, you can look at one conference’s play and say, “Wow, look how good they are!” But that argument is inherently idiotic. The year the Big East received the most bids in tournament history with 11, only 2 teams made it out of the first weekend. Also, a Big East team won the tournament. Good luck formulating an argument from that. This year the Big 10 received mountains of shit, but then had three teams make the Sweet Sixteen. Ok, but that means there are four teams that didn’t make it out of opening weekend. Point is, conferences don’t win tournaments, and they never will. TEAMS win tournaments. That will never change.
Note: previously put George Washington as a team that appeared in the Final Four. I was referring to the 2006 George Mason team that made the Final Four. I made the edit in the piece.