It should be obvious at this point of which conferences are doing the best, but the Lunatic feels like it his duty to grade the conferences.\u00a0 So, here are the conference’s report cards – which I will admit might have some unfairness because of potential mis-seedings by the committee.\u00a0 But, at the end of the day, if the committee makes you a protected top 4 seed, you are the one expected to make it to the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n
ACC – A+ (+3)<\/strong> – The ACC have so far been the stars of the tournament.\u00a0 To be fair, the ACC was supposed to get 4 teams in the Sweet 16, but they were the only conference where all the protected seeds (UNC, Virginia, Duke and Miami) managed to accomplish what was expected.\u00a0 But Notre Dame and Syracuse made it as well.\u00a0 One could argue that the only game that they were not the lower seed was when Syracuse beat Dayton, but to be fair – none of the conferences have been going unscathed from upsets, so winning 12 games is impressive.<\/p>\n Mid-majors – A+ (+9)<\/strong> – I qualified this as any conference that didn’t have multiple at-large teams.\u00a0 Thought briefly about separating the Missouri Valley – but it seemed unfair to count them as a major and the West Coast conference as a mid-major.\u00a0 None of these teams were given a chance with the best seed being the 11 seeds awarded to Gonzaga, Wichita St and Northern Iowa.\u00a0 All they did was get a Sweet 16 team in Gonzaga and have 7 others win games (Wichita St won 2 if you count the play-in along with upsets by Hawaii, Yale, Northern Iowa, Stephen F Austin, Little Rock and Middle Tennessee St).\u00a0 The committee chose to not reward any of these teams with better seeds, and these teams punished the poor major conference teams that were unlucky enough to draw them.\u00a0 If it wasn’t for the fact that the ACC still has 6 of their 7 teams alive in the Sweet 16, these small conference schools would have been the story of the tournament.\u00a0 (Which of course, is an ironic twist – even when they do the incredible, one of the big conferences do something amazing to steal the stage).<\/p>\n Big 10 –\u00a0B+ (+0)<\/strong> – The Big 10 got 3 teams to the second weekend when they were only supposed to get 1.\u00a0 This is even more amazing because the one team that was supposed to make it got upset in the first round.\u00a0 Maryland, Indiana and Wisconsin’s performance gets the conference one of the better grades, but they have to take a little bit of a hit thanks to Michigan State’s and Purdue’s first round losses.\u00a0 I originally was going to give them an A-, but when I think that I would have had Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana all as protected seeds, I figured this result wasn’t as good as it could be.<\/p>\n Big East – B+ (+0)<\/strong> – The Big East was supposed to have 2 Sweet 16 teams, but Xavier’s last second loss made Villanova their only representative.\u00a0 Still, Providence and Butler won games they were not supposed to, and the unexpected losses from Xavier and Seton Hall don’t look as bad as some of the others.<\/p>\n American – B (+1)<\/strong> – The American conference got multiple teams into the tournament, but none were supposed to win a game as the best seed they got was a 9 seed.\u00a0 So, Connecticut winning their first round game makes them perform better than expected.\u00a0 But it is hard for me to give any better than a B without a Sweet 16 team.<\/p>\n SEC – B (-1)<\/strong> – Both Texas A&M and Kentucky were supposed to make it, but Kentucky’s loss to Indiana in retrospect doesn’t feel worth docking them too much.\u00a0\u00a0 Can’t decide if the Aggies deserve extra credit for the most incredible comeback against Northern Iowa or deserve to get a lower grade because a 3 seed shouldn’t need to score 12 points in 30 seconds to beat an 11 seed….\u00a0\u00a0 Since I don’t believe Northern Iowa should have been an 11 seed, we’ll call it a draw.<\/p>\n Atlantic 10 – B- (+0)<\/strong> – Dayton lost when they were not supposed to, and VCU won when they were not supposed to – so it is kind of a wash.\u00a0 Since St. Joseph’s also played what I would say is better than they should have with a close loss to Oregon, I will put them slightly above average.<\/p>\n Big 12 – B- (-5)<\/strong> – The Big 12 did get 3 teams into the Sweet 16.\u00a0 But they were supposed to get 4.\u00a0\u00a0 West Virginia’s first round loss to SFA hurts the conference’s grade a little.\u00a0 But what really dropped the conference grade despite Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa St winning is that Baylor, Texas and Texas Tech all were upset.\u00a0 When you are supposed to have 7 teams win their first round games, and only 3 of them are successful, it can’t be looked as a large success.\u00a0 Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa St may still turn this into the Big 12’s best tournament in a while – but for now, I have to bring them down a little bit for all being responsible for many upsets.<\/p>\n Pac 12 – D (-7)<\/strong> – This was supposed to be the year the Pac 12 showed how improved they were.\u00a0\u00a0 They were expected to get 3 teams to the Sweet 16, and along with the Big 12, they were supposed to have 7 victories in the first round.\u00a0 Instead, protected seed Cal lost to Hawaii.\u00a0 Colorado, Arizona, Oregon St, and USC all lost their first round games.\u00a0 And Utah was upset in the second round by Gonzaga.\u00a0 The only thing stopped this from be a complete F is the fact that #1 seed Oregon did make the Sweet 16, but even that looked shaky for a while.<\/p>\n Of course, none of this matters\u00a0– it is just the ramblings of a crazy person.\u00a0 All that matters who ends up winning the whole tournament – and unlike the Lunatic’s report cards which are opinion based,\u00a0that will actually get played out on the court.\u00a0\u00a0 Good luck to all 16 teams that still have a chance to win the National Championship!!!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It should be obvious at this point of which conferences are doing the best, but the Lunatic feels like it his duty to grade the conferences.\u00a0 So, here are the conference’s report cards – which I will admit might have some unfairness because of potential mis-seedings by the committee.\u00a0 But, at the end of the 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