NCAA Bracket 2012: Sweet 16 Proof That Big Ten and Big East Are Best Conferences

There are a lot of reasons why the Big Ten and Big East are the best conferences in college basketball this season.

The latest indication?

Combined, the two conferences represent exactly half of the teams in the Sweet 16, with four schools each still standing in NCAA tournament play.

It's not just that, of course—it's which teams are still standing that tell us something about the strength of each conference.

The remaining Big Ten schools (Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana) were four of the five best teams in the conference all season.  Indiana was the lowest-ranked at the end of the year at 16th overall, which is remarkable strength at the top of a conference.

The remaining Big East schools (Syracuse, Marquette, Cincinnati and Louisville) were four of the top seven best teams in the conference, and three of the four were rated in the end-of-season poll.

So what is this telling me?

The Big Ten had the most talented top-half of a conference in the country, and the Big East has the most depth of quality from top to bottom, even if it's a bit weaker at the top than the Big Ten.

It also tells me that the NCAA selection committee was justified in giving each conference the number of bids it received. The Big East received nine bids, and six of those schools won at least one tournament game.

The Big Ten received six bids; five of those schools won at least one game, and four of them are still alive.

The Big East had ridiculous depth (as always), and it's backed that up in the tournament. The Big Ten had excellent teams at the top of the conference, and that has played out in the tournament as well.

What will be interesting is what happens in the two head-to-head matchups between the two conferences. Is Cincinnati tough enough to get the more talented Ohio State team off its game?

Can Wisconsin play strong enough defense, take care of the ball and slow the pace to keep Syracuse out of transition and win a boring game—its bread and butter?

One of these conferences has the opportunity in the Sweet 16 to prove that it is the country's most superior conference this year.

But let there be no question which two conferences were far and away the best leagues college basketball had to offer this year—the Big Ten and the Big East.

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