2011 NCAA Tournament Performance by Conference at Final Four

At the Final Four mark, the Colonial Athletic and the Horizon have as many teams left as the Big East and the SEC, and more than the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, at Pac-10 combined.

The Big East, though maligned for losing 9 of its 11 teams by the Sweet Sixteen, has 11 wins and has a team in the Final Four, more than four of the other "major" conference can boast. At this point, even as the Big East underperformed in the tournament, no other conference can claim to have done better.

The SEC takes over 2nd place, though, passing the ACC and Big Ten. Only two teams made it to the Round of 32, but both of those teams made the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. Flordia was an overtime period away from giving the SEC two Final Four teams, a surprise for a conference that was held in low esteem all year. It just goes to show that conferences are made up of teams, and teams can't be defined by their conference.

The Colonial Athletic passes both the Big 12 and Pac-10 as VCU continues their amazing run. Both the other conferences had three in the Round of 32 but after that it was Kansas and Arizona joining the Rams in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. Arizona lost and VCU beat Kansas and now the CAA wins the tiebreaker—and that's without counting VCU's "play-in" win.

Tournament Performance: Here are the standings, color-coded in ROY G. BIV fashion (minus the R). 1 point for each game won in the tournament (play-in games don't count):

         Round of 32  Sweet 16  Elite 8  Final Four  Title Game  Champion

Big East             7            2   1  1    (UConn)   
SEC          2     2     2   1     (Kentucky)   
ACC           3        3     1                
Big Ten           5         2                
Col. Ath     2   1  1  1   (VCU)
Big 12        3     1  1        
Pac-10        3     1  1            
Horiz.     1  1  1  1    (Butler)         
Mt West      2     2       
Atl 10       2   1    
WCC        1     
Ohio Val   1             

The Horizon moves past the Mountain West as Butler makes the Final Four for the 2nd straight year. The Horizon's one strong team advanced two places further than the Mountain West's two strong teams. Another Butler win could put the League into 4th place.

Conference Performance for 2010-2011 season, measured by tournament bids + tournament wins. This metric creates more division between the conferences and reflects overall strength better for the full year.

Teams in tourney  Round of 32  Sweet 16  Elite 8  Final Four  Title Game  Champion

Big East                11                            7            2   1  1    
Big Ten               7                5         2              
SEC              5          2     2     2   1        
ACC            4          3        3     1            
Big 12           5           3     1  1          
Pac-10         4          3     1  1           
Col. Ath      3       2   1  1  1         
Mt West       3       2     2     
Atl 10        3       2   1     
Horiz.    *1* 1  1  1  1               
WCC       *1* 1     
Ohio Val  *1* 1       
C-USA        2       

The major conferences dominate this ranking: the Big East has an insurmountable lead here, too, while  Big Ten is still in second place. The SEC moves into third with the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-10 4th through 6th.

The CAA is the first non-major, easily ahead of the Mountain West and Atlantic 10; they could move as high as 5th place. The Horizon, currently 10th, could move into 8th, but their single-bid status hurts them (as it should in this type of ranking).

Comments

[josef]

basically all the conferences sucked this year

[2012 NCAA Tournament Bracket]

I can't wait for the 2012 Tournament though! We actually have some NBA-level Sophomores still around this season. It should be fun to see who does well.