Is the Big Ten the best basketball conference? The stats resoundingly say yes.

By: Joe Popely

Note: All team poll rankings and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) rankings/records were obtained from ESPN.com’s “InsideRPI Daily,” a replication of the RPI used by the NCAA, and is current as of Friday, January 20, 2012. All other calculations were derived from these rankings.

Say what you will about Big Ten’s status as an inferior football conference among the SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12, but it’s college basketball season, a time when you could stroll through Tuscaloosa wearing Big Ten athletic apparel and not get laughed at, beat up or served poisoned grits at the local diner.

I’ve heard several broadcasters and analysts say that it’s better for college basketball as a whole when IU has a good team. After the Hoosiers upset Kentucky and Ohio State, it was declared that the team was well ahead of schedule in its rebuilding project. I believe the Hoosiers still are, but the team is falling like a skydiver with a jammed parachute cord— there’s still time to prevent becoming one with the ground, but only if they act quickly.

The disappointing, if not gut-wrenching losses to Minnesota and Nebraska (I’ll give a pass for the loss to a very talented Ohio State team in Columbus) suggest IU still has much room for improvement, particularly on the defensive end, and isn’t nearly as good as initially hyped up to be.

But IU’s surprising early success helped raise the conference’s profile higher than it already was. The conference already included perennial powerhouses Michigan State, Ohio State and Wisconsin, and perennial tournament contenders Illinois and Purdue. Toss a resurgent Indiana team in that mix, and you have a recipe for a fiercely competitive conference.

If Indiana can get back on track and take care of the teams they are expected to beat, it will elevate Big Ten play to a higher level. But even with the Hoosiers’ current three-game skid, the numbers suggest the Big Ten is indeed the best basketball conference in the nation.

I compared the Big Ten with four other major conferences: the Big East, Big 12 and ACC. Here are the results when using five major categories, listed in order of significance (according to me… this is always up for debate as well).

Average SOS (sum of each team’s SOS/number of teams in conference):

1)     Big Ten (40.167)

2)     Big East (65.875)

3)     ACC (69.42)

4)     Big 12 (71.9)

5)     SEC (82)

Winning Percentage vs. RPI top 50 (sum of team records vs. RPI top 50/total games played vs. RPI top 50):

1)     Big Ten (.425)

2)     Big East (.395)

3)     Big 12 (.391)

4)     SEC (.283)

5)     ACC (.224)

RPI Top 50 teams:

1)     Big Ten (8)

2)     Big East (7)

3)     Big 12 (5)

4)     SEC (4)

5)     ACC (3)

RPI Top 25 teams:

1)     Big East (6)

2)     Big Ten (5)

3)     Big 12 (3)

4)     ACC (2)

5)     SEC (1)

Top 25 teams:

1) Big Ten, Big East (5)

2) Big 12, ACC,  SEC (3)

Yes, I watch Big Ten match-ups more than any other conference. But biases aside, the data paints a very clear picture. The Big Ten is first or tied for first in every category except for RPI Top 25 teams, in which it trails the Big East by one team. The most telling statistics are the Average SOS, in which the Big Ten enjoys a significant advantage (more than a 25 point difference between it and second place Big East) and Winning Percentage vs. RPI top 50, a clear measure of success against tough competition in and out of conference.

Some may argue that the Big Ten lacks a truly dominant team, given this season’s upsets- Ohio state twice (@Indiana and @Illinois), Michigan State (@Northwestern) and Illinois (Penn State)– and Wisconsin, ranked #14 preseason, stumbling out of the gate with a 1-3 conference record through the first four games.

I, on the other hand, will side with the “league parity” crowd, much like last year’s Big East supporters (which, admittedly didn’t turn out well come tournament time for the league as a whole, save UConn). Heck, even Northwestern, which many experts predicted would finally make the NCAA tournament this year, lost in heartbreaking fashion to Illinois (57-56) and Michigan (66-64 OT) in back to back games. The Wildcats could easily be 4-2 in conference play instead of 2-4.

The league parody has me looking forward to a wild finish and exciting Big Ten Tournament come March. Let’s hope Indiana can turn things around, lock up a top-six seed and help establish the Big Ten as the nation’s premier basketball conference.

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