It always seems to be en vogue to use the NCAA tournament to compare the conferences so some random stats since the COVID shutdown:
First Total Bids:
32 - Big Ten
28 - Big XII, SEC
22 - ACC
18 - Big East
16 - Mountain West, Pac-12
9 - WCC
8 - American
7 - A-10
5 - Missouri Valley
4 - Everyone but the Ivy League (who sat out 2021)
Total Units Earned: (Each win until you reach the Final Four earns a unit, meaning we already have this year's total units earned)
64 - Big XII, Big Ten
58 - ACC
57 - SEC
47 - Big East
43 - Pac-12
24 - Mountain West
22 - WCC
This of course lends itself to the narratives about the power conference's strength, etc
Units Above Expectation --- So this is the comparison of units earned to the number of units expected based on the conference's seeds. Teams in Play-Ins get 0.5 units expected, as the winner of the play-in games earn units.
Most of the time conferences are pretty close and obviously putting more teams in the tournament puts you more at risk, particularly if you have a lot of high seeds:
+13.5 - ACC
+5.5 - Pac-12 (mostly in 2021)
+5 - C-USA (thanks FAU)
+3 - Ivy, MAAC
+2 - A-10, Big East, Summit, WAC
//// 19 conferences between -1 and +1.5
-2 - WCC
-12.5 - Big Ten (+1 this year; their first positive in the last four)
-13.5 - SEC (-4 this year, have never been above expectations)
-16 - Big XII (-7 this year; Kansas' title run in 2022 is the only time they broke even, every other year they've been at least 4 units (wins) under expectations)
First Total Bids:
32 - Big Ten
28 - Big XII, SEC
22 - ACC
18 - Big East
16 - Mountain West, Pac-12
9 - WCC
8 - American
7 - A-10
5 - Missouri Valley
4 - Everyone but the Ivy League (who sat out 2021)
Total Units Earned: (Each win until you reach the Final Four earns a unit, meaning we already have this year's total units earned)
64 - Big XII, Big Ten
58 - ACC
57 - SEC
47 - Big East
43 - Pac-12
24 - Mountain West
22 - WCC
This of course lends itself to the narratives about the power conference's strength, etc
Units Above Expectation --- So this is the comparison of units earned to the number of units expected based on the conference's seeds. Teams in Play-Ins get 0.5 units expected, as the winner of the play-in games earn units.
Most of the time conferences are pretty close and obviously putting more teams in the tournament puts you more at risk, particularly if you have a lot of high seeds:
+13.5 - ACC
+5.5 - Pac-12 (mostly in 2021)
+5 - C-USA (thanks FAU)
+3 - Ivy, MAAC
+2 - A-10, Big East, Summit, WAC
//// 19 conferences between -1 and +1.5
-2 - WCC
-12.5 - Big Ten (+1 this year; their first positive in the last four)
-13.5 - SEC (-4 this year, have never been above expectations)
-16 - Big XII (-7 this year; Kansas' title run in 2022 is the only time they broke even, every other year they've been at least 4 units (wins) under expectations)