Big Ten basketball is the real deal...

Has anyone seen Jeff Sagarin's latest rankings?

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1 BIG TEN = 83.59 83.36 ( 1) 12 83.44 ( 1)
2 MOUNTAIN WEST = 82.22 81.29 ( 3) 9 81.45 ( 3)
3 BIG EAST = 81.90 82.53 ( 2) 15 82.41 ( 2)
4 BIG 12 = 81.17 80.51 ( 6) 10 80.73 ( 6)
5 PAC-12 = 80.75 81.00 ( 5) 12 80.96 ( 4)
6 ATLANTIC COAST = 80.39 81.05 ( 4) 12 80.75 ( 5) 7 SOUTHEASTERN = 78.53 78.84 ( 7) 14 78.71 ( 7)
8 ATLANTIC 10 = 78.10 77.91 ( 8) 16 77.93 ( 8)
9 MISSOURI VALLEY = 76.91 77.29 ( 9) 10 77.12 ( 9) 10 WEST COAST = 76.02 76.69 ( 10) 9 76.49 ( 10)
11 HORIZON = 74.03 73.53 ( 12) 9 73.68 ( 12) 12 CONFERENCE USA = 73.85 73.67 ( 11)
12 73.85 ( 11)
13 WESTERN ATHLETIC = 73.20 72.92 ( 13) 10 72.97 ( 13)
14 BIG WEST = 71.87 71.47 ( 14) 10 71.65 ( 14)
15 METRO ATLANTIC = 71.63 71.36 ( 16) 10 71.41 ( 15)
16 MID-AMERICAN = 71.01 71.37 ( 15) 12 71.26 ( 16) 17 SUN BELT = 70.10 70.29 ( 18) 11 70.17 ( 17)
18 COLONIAL = 69.63 69.43 ( 20) 11 69.45 ( 20)
19 AMERICA EAST = 69.46 69.14 ( 22) 9 69.24 ( 21) 20 PATRIOT = 69.36 70.54 ( 17) 8 70.06 ( 18)
21 IVY LEAGUE = 69.05 69.63 ( 19) 8 69.50 ( 19)
22 SUMMIT LEAGUE = 68.62 68.94 ( 23) 9 68.78 ( 23) 23 OHIO VALLEY = 68.57 69.16 ( 21) 12 68.87 ( 22) 24 NORTHEAST = 67.79 67.93 ( 24) 12 67.92 ( 24)
25 SOUTHLAND = 66.93 67.70 ( 25) 10 67.39 ( 25)
26 ATLANTIC SUN = 66.68 67.05 ( 26) 10 66.98 ( 26) 27 BIG SOUTH = 66.44 65.77 ( 29) 12 66.00 ( 29)
28 SOUTHERN = 65.95 66.11 ( 28) 12 66.09 ( 27)
29 BIG SKY = 65.44 66.23 ( 27) 11 66.00 ( 28)
30 MID-EASTERN = 65.03 64.76 ( 30) 13 64.82 ( 30) 31 GREAT WEST = 63.01 62.69 ( 31) 5 62.73 ( 31)
32 INDEPENDENTS = 62.60 62.60 ( 32) 2 62.60 ( 32) 33 SOUTHWESTERN = 61.85 62.10 ( 33) 10 62.06 ( 33)

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Mountain West second best conference?

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As a big college hoops, I've been very impressed with how stout the league has been in recent years. It is easily the toughest and deepest league in basketball and is on its way to ruling basketball the way the SEC does football.

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The presence of AAU basketball, the year round seasons, the lack of players participating in baseball, and impressive coaches have really allowed the Big Ten to make big strides in the last five years.

they are pretty good at being consistently overrated

I agree. You dont have to have the most championships IMO, but you have to at least have 1 recently.

Isn't there a difference between a deep conference and two top tier teams though? Nobody thinks the SEC is dominant, they just have had a couple really great teams.

I just don't think a conference can be the "toughest" or "best" if you don't ever have the best teams residing in said conference.

1 NC in 23 years is not the best

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in the last 7 years, tSEC has 3 NCs. How many does the big10 have? When is the last time the big10 even won a championship? A decade+ ago?

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What fricking awesome logic.

Here's to an all Big Ten Final Four so everyone can GFT.

In the last 10 years I can only think of 3 teams that have made the final 4 from big 10. Ohio state, mich st, and Illinois

Is it capable of being a dominant conference? Sure. Indiana and Michigan are sleeping giants, and if the other 2-3 teams keep pulling their weight then yes. It hasn't been dominant though. And even this year, talk to me after the tournament. How will these teams respond without having been there?