Now granted....it's very early. But so far....the Big East is 57-4. Teams like Syracuse and Cincinnati, who were expected to be middle of the pack teams in the Big East, have had very strong showings early on. The conference was highly-touted last season but was expected to have somewhat of a "down" year in '09-'10. Lots of hoops to be played but is the Big East the best conference in the country this year? If not, where do you rank them in the conference hierarchy?

I put them very close behind the Big Ten and the ACC, in a tie for 3rd with the Big 12.

I'll say this though, the Big East is only a couple more big wins from being the top of the list for me.

At this point, they are the best.

4th. Big 12, Big 10, ACC, Big East. I just don't think the bottom half of the conference matches up with the bottom 7-8 teams in other conferences.

The record means nothing to me right now. Example: St. John's is 3-0. They've beaten Long Island, St. Bonaventure (by 1), and Brown (by 3). Too many cupcakes early in the season for me to put much stock in overall conference records.

If Pitt can beat Texas tonight though THAT would be an impressive win for the conference.

for a 16 team conference to be a collective 57-4 is damn impressive regardless of who they are playing. This early in the season very few teams have played that tough of a schedule.

3reppom wrote: for a 16 team conference to be a collective 57-4 is damn impressive regardless of who they are playing. This early in the season very few teams have played that tough of a schedule.

That's exactly my point. The Big 12 is something like 38-4 right now. It doesn't mean anything.

Mulva wrote: 4th. Big 12, Big 10, ACC, Big East. I just don't think the bottom half of the conference matches up with the bottom 7-8 teams in other conferences.

The record means nothing to me right now. Example: St. John's is 3-0. They've beaten Long Island, St. Bonaventure (by 1), and Brown (by 3). Too many cupcakes early in the season for me to put much stock in overall conference records.

If Pitt can beat Texas tonight though THAT would be an impressive win for the conference.

Oh, I agree with that although I don't think that the conference needs that win to be impressive up to this point. Cincinnati's back-to-back wins over ranked teams in the last two days are impressive as well then. As are Syracuse's back-to-back wins over ranked Cal and UNC last week (both dominating performances).

I think the top 4 conferences are all very close and an argument could be made for any of them.

I guess the way I'm kind of looking at it is that when you have 3 #1 seeds it doesn't matter so much what the bottom 6 or so teams in the conference do.

But when those #1 seeds become #4 seeds (which is pretty much what I personally expect this year) then I think the bottom teams are going to drag it down in the completely irrelevant conference rankings overall.

As an Ohio State fan I would love to see, say, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Northwestern replaced with the 4th-6th worst teams in the Big East (Providence, Seton Hall, and Rutgers or something like that). The thing about having 16 teams in the conference is you are more likely to be very good at the top, but also more likely to be very bad at the bottom.

Big East wins vs BCS conf teams or strong mid-majors
Arkansas
Cal
Davidson
Dayton
George Mason
Maryland
Ole Miss
UNC
Temple
Vermont
Virginia
Wichita St.

Big 10 wins vs same
Arizona
Cal
Davidson
Gonzaga
Tennessee

with 3 losses-UNC,Gonzaga, Texas
Big East has 5-Alabama,South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont

It all depends on how you choose to assess the conferences.

The Big East legitimently has about 12 teams that "could" make the NCAA tournament. Will that happen, highly unlikely because teams 9, 10, 11 and 12 will lose games to each other and others will bow out of the Big East Tournament early thus giving the committee the impression they aren't playing well at the right time.

Are their championship contenders in the Big East? Not really but they always get a ton of teams into the Sweet 16, Elite 8, (deep in tournament).

Their teams that don't make the NCAA's are usually major players in the NIT as well.

So to answer the question, the Big East is on another playing field because of the overall number of teams in the league. It was already a real good basketball league but when you add teams in the mix in the last few years like Louisville, Marquette, ND and an improving Cincinnati, your conference is going to get deeper and stronger.

I think the best way to evaluate this question is to take an average team from another conference and speculate how would they finish in the Big East. But, you're speculating.

You can't go wrong by claiming the ACC, Big East, Big 10 is the top conference. Especially because of the criteria trying to evaluate each league.

After a couple so-so days for the Big East.....Marquette upset #15 Michigan today 79-65. Marquette was picked to finish 12th in the Big East this season. A very nice win for the Golden Eagles.