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Message: [QUOTE="Plebe, post: 3827695, member: 6927"] Yes, I'm sure that playing the likes of Washington and Colorado and Pitt and Wisconsin and Vanderbilt and Kansas would make all the difference, suddenly turning a B game into an A+ game. This is all armchair spitballing, at best; sophistry would be more accurate. There is zero empirical evidence that being in a "tough" or "easy" conference [U]per se[/U] makes a lick of difference in team development or postseason results. Back in 2012, when the Big 12 was recognized as an extremely tough conference, Baylor, deemed the heavy national title favorite, still suffered the shocking loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16. Contrast that to 2019, when the Big 12 outside of Baylor was a decidedly weak conference, and yet Baylor, though not the clear singular favorite, won it all. Fans and coaches of certain teams in certain conferences have a Pavlovian compulsion to spout clichés and platitudes about how wonderful/competitive/brutal their conference is and how their specific conference affiliation prepares them uniquely for epic postseason conquests. It's really just a bunch of PR baloney. [/QUOTE]