Originally posted by Kiimohawk:
I would agree with you that the Big 12 is overrated. I would also agree with you that the SEC is underrated.
But let's just be clear here, nobody actually believes that the SEC is currently better than the Big 12, right? Because I hope not.
No but the perceived gap between the two conferences is not nearly as wide as the national media would have you believe.
Kentucky would clearly be the class of the Big 12 this season (destroying KU and handling Texas with relative ease).
Looking at the Big 12/SEC Challenge (which the Big 12 won 6-4), the only truly impressive win for the Big 12 was Iowa State easily beating Arkansas. Unless I am supposed to be impressed by KU coming back from 18 down to beat what appears to be an NIT Florida team (at best); or Baylor squeaking by Vandy?
For the SEC, LSU beat WVU on its home floor and South Carolina destroyed Oklahoma State. Tennessee also beat the current 2nd place Big 12 school, Kansas State. Outside of the Challenge, South Carolina also easily beat Iowa State, which is a nice feather in the SEC's cap/thorn in the Big 12's side.
There's also the fact that in the 2014 NCAA Tournament the Big 12 had two Sweet 16 schools; the SEC had three. The Big 12 had zero Elite 8/FF teams; the SEC had two. I know that is last year but at some point the media needs to call the Big 12 what it is: Kansas followed by a bunch of ho-hum-we-need-to-fill-the-37-at-large-spots-with-someone type teams - aka teams with Sweet 16 ceilings, with the occasional Elite 8 team not named Kansas. It is not some super conference that the media has suddenly made it out to be.
In fact, the Big 12 has only had one winning NCAA tournament record in the past four tournaments.
Meanwhile, since 2010 only one major conference has had a winning NCAA Tournament record each year: the SEC.
(I will admit that is skewed by Kentucky and Florida's success but take away the top two teams from every league and what do you get? Especially the Big12 - I shudder to think what the tournament success looks like for that conference without Kansas).