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Message: [QUOTE="Plebe, post: 4242057, member: 6927"] The Big East had 2 NCAA teams last year. (Marquette was a 10 seed and lost in the 1st round to Virginia Tech.) Going from 2 to 4 NCAA teams sounds like a major improvement, but the actual difference in quality is a lot more subtle. DePaul was one of the last 4 in, which means they wouldn't be in without the expansion to 68 teams. And Creighton and Villanova are 10 and 11 seeds, so themselves were not far from the bubble. The 10-member Big East got 2 to 4 teams in the NCAAT each year from 2014 to 2019. In that context, 2021 was an all-time low for that group of 10. Also, DePaul and Marquette have both declined since the heyday of their rivalry in the Carolyn Kieger years. [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]In 2017, Marquette was a 5 seed, and both DePaul and Creighton were 7 seeds.[/INDENT] [INDENT]In 2018, the BE got 4 teams in, led by DePaul as a 5 seed.[/INDENT] [INDENT]In 2019, Marquette and DePaul got 5 and 6 seeds, but no one else got in.[/INDENT] [INDENT]In 2020, DePaul was a projected 5 seed when the NCAAT was canceled.[/INDENT] Collectively, these teams that were the best of the 2014-2020 iteration of the Big East have not progressed since then. [/QUOTE]