I hear every year how The Big East is the most amazing basketball conference in the history of basketball conferences. Sure, they have a lot of teams getting into the tournament, but the conference is home to nearly every team on the eastern seaboard. Of course they get more teams in.
But what do they do in March?
I looked up Big Least performances in the NCAA tournament since its expansion to 16 teams in 2005 and I wasn't surprised.
-The obvious number is the zero national champions.
-Even with a much larger conference, they've only had the most Elite 8 teams once. (4 teams in 2009)
-They had 2 Final Four teams in 2009, but the Big 10 and SEC have done the same. (2005 and 2006)
And because conferences have different amounts of teams, I looked at percentages.
-The Big 10, not the Big Least, has had the highest percentage (from 2005-present) with 27% of its teams in the 2005 Elite 8.
-The Big 10 also had 18% of its members make the Final Four in 2005. The SEC had 16% of its members make the Final Four in 2006. Both are above the Big Least's best year, which was 12% in 2009.
When averaged out from 2005 until now:
-The Big Least has had 4% of its teams make the Final Four, tied for 3rd with the SEC and PAC 10.
-The ACC has had more with 5%.
-The Big 10 has the most with 7%.
In title games since 2005:
-Big 10 is 0-2
-Pac 10 is 0-1
-Big 12 is 1-0.
-SEC is 2-0
-ACC is 3-0
The Big Least hasn't made the title game since expanding to 16 teams in 2005.
I don't see that changing this year either. The Big Least once again has a lot of good teams like Pittsburgh, Villanova, Syracuse, Notre Dame, and St. Johns. They might even get 11 teams in the tournament.
But don't expect any of them to win it all.
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