Big East Basketball Dominance

So, I was reading up on the updated Top 25 rankings in college basketball yesterday. What did I see? Well, let me share that with you.

In the USA Today/Coaches Poll, the following Big East teams are ranked as follows: 4. Pittsburgh (21-2), 7. Notre Dame (19-4), 9. Connecticut (18-4), 10. Villanova (19-4), 11. Georgetown (18-5), 13. Syracuse (20-4) and 15. Louisville (18-5). West Virginia is ranked 26th and Marquette at 39. In the AP, West Virginia is ranked at 25 (15-7), Cincinnati at 29 and Marquette at 34.

So, to summarize, the Big East has 10 teams whom have votes in one poll or the other. They have 8 teams ranked in the Top 25 in the AP Poll and 7 in the USA Today/Coaches.

That's all very impressive, but what really stood out to me? Look at those rankings in the USA Today/Coaches Poll again. Of the top 15 teams in all the country, the Big East has 7, count them, 7 teams ranked in the top 15. That's unbelievable! That's unheard of (until now)! If this keeps up, the conference could send at least 10 schools to the big dance (that'd be a first for any conference) and the way things stand now, the Big East would have: 1 #1 seed (Pittsburgh), 1 #2 seed (Notre Dame), 3 #3 seeds (Connecticut, Villanova and Georgetown) and 2 #4 seeds (Syracuse and Louisville).

Of course, these rankings and numbers will be very difficult for the conference to maintain, but for the time being, as of February 7th of 2011, the Big East is looking like they're well on the way to shattering some records this year and if the rest of the college basketball world doesn't get with it, we may see an alteration in March Madness this year. Instead of having a field of 65, including schools from every conference, we'll just run a 16-team tournament to decide the champion. That's right, the Big East Conference Tournament will decide the national champion. It may as well. With 7 of the top 15 teams in the country, their conference tournament may be as good of a measuring stick to college basketball supremacy as the 65-team field.