Ranking the Conferences with KenPom

by Warden11 on Feb 13, 2010 9:30 AM CST

With March approaching and teams starting to fight for seeds and bubble spots, I figured it would be a good time to take a look at the conferences. Hopefully this also gives us KU fans some more ammunition when arguing for the #1 overall seed on Selection Sunday. In an effort to save some headaches and time for me, I only took the six major conferences into consideration (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, SEC, and PAC 10). Using Ken Pomeroy's rankings, I charted all of the teams and found the average rank for the entire conference and the average for the top 10 teams in each conference. Top 10 teams were used for two reasons:

The different number of teams in each conference, I wanted a consistent way to judge the conferences.
Using the top 10 allows us to ignore some of the bottom feeders that drag down the average (ie LSU ranked 208).

Big 12		SEC		Big 10		Big East		ACC		Pac 10
Kansas	1	Kentucky	8	Wisconsin	5	Syracuse	3	Duke	2	California	17
Kansas St	9	Vanderbilt	20	Purdue	6	West Virginia	4	Maryland	10	Arizona State	35
Texas	13	Tennessee	26	Ohio St	12	Villanova	11	Clemson	19	Washington	45
Missouri	14	Miss St	37	Michigan St	25	Georgetown	15	Virginia Tech	22	Southern Cal	60
Baylor	16	Ole Miss	41	Minnesota	42	Marquette	18	Georgia Tech	23	Arizona	75
Texas A&M	36	Florida	47	Illinois	44	Pittsburgh	28	Florida State	24	Washington St	98
Oklahoma St	59	Alabama	69	Michigan	67	Louisville	38	Wake Forest	33	Stanford	102
Texas Tech	81	South Carolina	79	Northwestern	70	UConn	49	Virginia	50	UCLA	116
Nebraska	84	Georgia	90	Penn St	107	South Florida	63	Miami	57	Oregon	127
Iowa St	85	Arkansas	94	Indiana	133	Seton Hall	64	North Carolina	61	Oregon State	151
Colorado	88	Auburn	105	Iowa	137	Notre Dame	73	Boston College	65
Oklahoma	89	LSU	208			Cincinatti	74	NC State	80
Average	48	Average	69	Average	59	Average	58	Average	37	Average	83
Top 10 Average	40	Top 10 Average	51	Top 10 Average	51	Top 10 Average	29	Top 10 Average	30	Top 10 Average	83

Final ranks using the entire conference:

1. ACC

2. Big 12

3. Big East

4. Big 10

5. SEC

6. PAC 10

and ranks using only the top 10 teams:

1. Big East

2. ACC

3. Big 12

4/5 Big 10/SEC

6. PAC 10

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Comments

Once again Warden...

your statistical, chartifical breakdowns are much appreciated.

I’m shocked and appalled that the ACC checks in so high.

52 Conference Championships!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!

by Owen on Feb 13, 2010 11:40 AM CST reply actions

"I’m shocked and appalled that the ACC checks in so high."

I fully concur.

Oh my dear lord...this is RETARDED boss...

by tequilaprophet on Feb 13, 2010 11:53 AM CST up reply actions

Its actually one of the most competitive conferences in the country

And this year its top to bottom – its just the knee jerk reaction of most people in the media (and in living rooms) when they see that North Carolina is struggling and Duke isn’t dominant to assume that the ACC is down. Really, in my mind, thats a pretty good indicator that its up, because teams aren’t just getting blasted by the upper-echelon teams any more.

by 2.1 seconds left on Feb 13, 2010 12:12 PM CST up reply actions

That said, I think the Big XII has suffered due to bad luck

In that, Iowa State, Nebraska, and Colorado are not terrible teams. Anyone in this conference knows that. However, due to how incredibly tough the Big XII is this year, those teams that are just a bit behind the rest are getting continually hammered. So they look terrible to the outside world due to their conference records, when in fact they are pretty good teams that have the misfortune of playing in what is probably the best year in the conference.

by 2.1 seconds left on Feb 13, 2010 12:14 PM CST up reply actions

I was surprised to see all of those in the 80's

Outside of the ACC, the Big 12’s bottom feeders are liked more by Pomeroy than other conference’s bottom feeders.

Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.

by Warden11 on Feb 13, 2010 12:26 PM CST up reply actions

There was an interesting FB article along those lines, ...

for the Big Ten. Basically, it showed that there weren’t consistently dominant teams in the conference, so there weren’t teams for the media to hype, thus a perception that the conference wasn’t as good. It was good, the journo’s just didn’t know who to hype.

by dagger108 on Feb 15, 2010 5:25 AM CST up reply actions

I think the Big 10 is a balanced conference,

I’m not sure I’d call them good a good conference.

Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.

by Warden11 on Feb 15, 2010 7:17 AM CST up reply actions

Weird.

I guess RC got tired of me making fun of him every time he posted so he signed in under Warden’s name. Very sneaky…

A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

by A.J. Haefele on Feb 13, 2010 3:16 PM CST reply actions 1 recs

ACC?

They have some good middle of the road teams but Duke and Maryland make for a weak number one and two, IMHO

by Andrew Clark on Feb 15, 2010 11:51 AM CST reply actions

True

but I wanted to see how they rank top to bottom. Their bottom feeders are better than the others.

According to KenPom, the Big 12 is loaded at the top.

Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.

by Warden11 on Feb 15, 2010 12:08 PM CST up reply actions

Yeah I guess when looking at leagues I ignore the bottom feeders

IMHO, if you aren’t going to the tournament, or hell even the NIT you suck. And sucking is sucking no matter how more or less you suck.

If that makes any sense…

by Andrew Clark on Feb 15, 2010 3:54 PM CST up reply actions

Wait...

Since when is the Pac 10 a “Major Conference”?

Good stuff, Warden.

"Here are our top priorities: recruit, beat Missouri, recruit, win the North, recruit, win the Big 12, and in most cases if you win the Big 12 then you're playing for a National Championship. And then we're going to recruit."

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Feb 15, 2010 4:59 PM CST reply actions

It's certainly not this year!

I posted a link to this on BruinsNation, our UCLA blog – thanks, Warden11! We’ve been discussing how pathetic the Pac is this year. Another comparison: the Big 12 has five teams in the ESPN/USA Today poll, with a total of 2215 points (25 for 1st, etc…). The Pac 10 combined received a grand total of six votes.

by KSBruin on Feb 16, 2010 9:56 AM CST up reply actions

Looking at this from a different angle

Instead of judging conferences top-to-bottom, looking simply at their teams that are legitimately competitive:

Big 12 has 5 teams in the Top 16. That’s amazing. If we end up with 5 teams in the Sweet 16 this year, every journo in the country will be declaring the Big XII the supreme conference in the land. The only conference that competes is the Big East, and they get the benefit of having 4 more chances at fielding great teams year-in and year-out.

by KennyGregoryRockThaCradle on Feb 15, 2010 5:07 PM CST reply actions

Remember, these are Pomeroy numbers.

I’d imagine RPI numbers would look very similar. The Big 12 really looks like the haves (top 5) and the have nots (bottom 5). A&M and Okie St can fit on either side depending on the night.

Glad I came, just wish I hadn't stayed so long.

by Warden11 on Feb 15, 2010 5:53 PM CST up reply actions