We've got a lull here around the Christmas holiday. College basketball will be back in full swing come Saturday, but in the meantime there's a bit of down time. And so now seems a good time to reflect on the overal scope of the sport and see how the best leagues have performed so far.
The ACC was expected to be the best conference in the country, but every viable tool for measuring league performance definitively shows that's not been the case. So which league is best? Well, you can decide -- and I've compiled a lot of information to help you make your choice. Objectively, it looks as though the Pac-12 could be that league -- but the RPI says otherwise.
I'm not a huge fan of the RPI, but it is still used as a tool by the NCAA's selection committee, so with that in mind I did what to use it as a reference point. Below, the top 10 leagues in RPI, according to our tracket on CBSSports.com. You can view all 32 leagues' listings here.
| Conference RPI | |||||||
| Non-Conference | Overall | ||||||
| Rank | Conference | W | L | Pct | RPI | Rank | RPI |
| 1 | Big 12 Conference | 87 | 24 | 0.7838 | 0.5979 | 1 | 0.5979 |
| 2 | Big Ten Conference | 114 | 29 | 0.7972 | 0.5948 | 2 | 0.5948 |
| 3 | Big East Conference | 83 | 29 | 0.7411 | 0.5753 | 3 | 0.5753 |
| 4 | Pacific 12 Conference | 104 | 32 | 0.7647 | 0.5738 | 4 | 0.5738 |
| 5 | Atlantic Coast Conference | 120 | 47 | 0.7186 | 0.5677 | 5 | 0.5680 |
| 6 | Southeastern Conference | 104 | 45 | 0.6980 | 0.5571 | 6 | 0.5571 |
| 7 | Atlantic 10 Conference | 99 | 49 | 0.6689 | 0.5473 | 7 | 0.5473 |
| 8 | American Athletic Conference | 81 | 32 | 0.7168 | 0.5348 | 8 | 0.5348 |
| 9 | West Coast Conference | 71 | 40 | 0.6396 | 0.5319 | 9 | 0.5319 |
| 10 | Mountain West Conference | 73 | 45 | 0.6186 | 0.5303 | 10 | 0.5303 |
But since RPI isn't the be-all, end-all, there are other quantifications we can use to compare conferences. I've done that below. Road performance, record against both RPI top 25/50 and KenPom.com top 25/50, in order to get a broader view. I also took into account how these leagues have done outsider their conference -- and against the top nine leagues they keep company with.
In order of the best collective winning percentages, here's how the top 10 leagues in college basketball stack up:
Pac-12
Record vs. RPI top 25: 5-8 (.385)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 13-17 (.433)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 4-9 (.308)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 13-15 (.464)
Non-con record: 104-32 (.765)
Road record: 13-11 (.542)
Record vs. top 10 conferences: 38-25 (.603)
Big 12
Record vs. RPI top 25: 8-14 (.364)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 15-15 (.500)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 6-9 (.400)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 12-18 (.400)
Non-con record: 87-24 (.783)
Road record: 6-8 (.429)
Record vs. top 10 conferences: 34-20 (.630)
Big Ten
Record vs. RPI top 25: 3-11 (.214)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 8-17 (.320)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 4-14 (.222)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 11-18 (.379)
Non-con record: 114-29 (.797)
Road record: 10-9 (.526)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 32-24 (.571)
ACC
Record vs. RPI top 25: 5-10 (.333)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 8-22 (.266)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 5-14 (.263)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 16-21 (.432)
Non-con record: 120-47 (.719)
Road record: 10-15 (.400)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 39-37 (.513)
American Athletic
Record vs. RPI top 25: 3-4 (.429)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 5-9 (.357)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 2-5 (.286)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 4-12 (.250)
Non-con record: 81-32 (.717)
Road record: 9-11 (.450)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 18-20 (.474)
Big East
Record vs. RPI top 25: 1-10 (.091)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 5-19 (.208)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 2-5 (.286)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 4-14 (.222)
Non-con record: 83-29 (.741)
Road record: 9-6 (.600)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 28-22 (.560)
Atlantic 10
Record vs. RPI top 25: 3-10 (.231)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 7-18 (.280)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 2-10 (.166)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 7-18 (.280)
Non-con record: 99-49 (.669)
Road record: 20-21 (.488)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 18-31 (.367)
West Coast
Record vs. RPI top 25: 1-7 (.125)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 5-14 (.263)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 0-8 (.000)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 2-9 (.182)
Non-con record: 71-40 (.640)
Road record: 16-15 (.516)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 14-22 (.388)
SEC
Record vs. RPI top 25: 3-16 (.158)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 6-24 (.200)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 2-11 (.154)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 9-21 (.300)
Non-con record: 104-45 (.557)
Road record: 3-15 (.166)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 28-35 (.444)
Mountain West
Record vs. RPI top 25: 0-15 (.000)
Record vs. RPI top 50: 5-21 (.192)
Record vs. KenPom top 25: 1-9 (.100)
Record vs. KenPom top 50: 4-19 (.174)
Non-con record: 73-45 (.619)
Road record: 14-20 (.412)
Record vs. top 10 leagues: 16-29 (.355)
It's clear just how bad the SEC is again. And the Mountain West, which had a surge last season, is dipping back down and proving itself to be on a separate shelf from even the new Big East and the American Athletic Conference. Speaking of the Big East, it's the league with the best overall road win percentage, which I found surprising. But that league's record against the best 50 teams isn't that good, which tells you the new union is feasting on minnows for the most part.
We've basically got a week until conference play begins, and heading into that, the out-of-league play showings from these 10 aren't crystal clear, but clear enough to know the Pac-12, Big 12 and Big Ten are the three best overall. And, expectations from October as a factor, the ACC has to be considered the biggest disappointment of any conference in the group.
