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Going just by the numbers, here's where the current membership of the Big East now stands in comparison with the current membership of other conferences with regard to Final Four appearances earned and National Championships won in the Modern (Open) Era (1975-2016). The number in parentheses is the number of conference members for basketball.

F4 NC CONFERENCE

46 14 Atlantic Coast (15)
32 7 - Big Ten (14)
25 7 - Southeastern (14)
15 4 - Big East (10)
15 2 - Big XII (10)
13 3 - PAC-12 (12)
11 4 - American (11)
4 - 1 - Mountain West (11)
3 - 0 - Atlantic Ten (14)
2 - 0 - Missouri Valley (10)
1 - 0 - Ivy League (8)
1 - 0 - CUSA (14)

The gap between the Big East and the SEC is smaller than it first appears when adjusted for size. Here are the numbers for those 2, divided by the number of members in each conference:

1.8 - 0.5 - SEC
1.5 - 0.4 - BEC

If you take out UConn's numbers from the American's (as it is established that UConn is miles ahead of all the other AAC basketball programs), then the AAC drops to 6 and zero, respectively, in the Final Four and National Championships - closer to the MWC than to the PAC-12.

To say that schools like UCF, Tulane, East Carolina, USF, Houston and SMU "mooch" off of their success is an understatement.

Wouldn't the stats better reflect contemporary basketball if you went from 1985 when the field expanded to 62, or at least 1980 when it went to 48? It was a 32 team field in 1975.

Dang, eye opening.

SecureDaBall wrote:Wouldn't the stats better reflect contemporary basketball if you went from 1985 when the field expanded to 62, or at least 1980 when it went to 48? It was a 32 team field in 1975.

I think you can legitimately take any point in history you prefer. I wasn't trying to reflect contemporary basketball, but if you'd like to use that kind of info to make that point, go for it.

IMO, the term "final 4" is meaningless before the open era. And the term was never used before 1975. However, when it became an open tournament, being one of the last standing became very significant. It became even more significant with the introduction of the S-curve, so a different year could be picked based on that.

My only point in creating the list was to see what their various levels of success have been historically for the different conferences. Almost all conferences have their ups and downs with dry periods as well as periods of success, so I prefer to look at the totality of the record because it shows who's made the commitment and sustained it over time.

Lists of Final 4's are inherently limited in their value because it's such a small number and because a few close games can change the math dramatically. For example, the current BE membership was shut out of the Final 4 in the '90's. However, off the top of my head, I believe they got 5 teams to the Elite 8 in that decade. With a different bounce of the ball here or there, they could have had several Final 4's in that decade. I think that those quirks are ironed out over the course of 4 decades, so I have a fairly high degree of confidence in their 4th place standing in the list I posted.

Bill Marsh wrote:

SecureDaBall wrote:Wouldn't the stats better reflect contemporary basketball if you went from 1985 when the field expanded to 62, or at least 1980 when it went to 48? It was a 32 team field in 1975.

I think you can legitimately take any point in history you prefer. I wasn't trying to reflect contemporary basketball, but if you'd like to use that kind of info to make that point, go for it.

LOl! Nah, I'll leave it to people with no life to do that stuff.

What happens to these numbers when you add uconn to the bug east?

Are they done with that silly football experiment yet?

I believe 17 of the 25 SEC Final Fours are Kentucky?

ChelseaFriar wrote:I believe 17 of the 25 SEC Final Fours are Kentucky?

I don't think so.
Florida 5 times
LSU 3
Arkansas 3 times
Georgia 1 time
Miss St 1 time

so there's 13 times right there from non Kentucky teams.

Kentucky in their history has made it 17 times. but this list is since 1975.

ChelseaFriar wrote:I believe 17 of the 25 SEC Final Fours are Kentucky?

No, only 11. I'm only dealing with 1975-2016. In that period, UK has gone to the F4 in 1975, 1978, 1984, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015.

The breakdown of F4's for the SEC in the Modern Era is:

11 - Kenrucky (4 NC)
5 - Florida (2 NC)
4 - Arkansas (1 NC)
3 - LSU
1 - Georgia
1 - Mississippi State