College Basketball Conference Power Rankings at Week 9

The beginning of a new year means one thing in college basketball—the renewal of conference play and the best intraleague rivalries.

In the coming weeks we will be treated to classic games such as Duke versus North Carolina, Syracuse versus Georgetown and Michigan versus Michigan State/Ohio State/Indiana. If that doesn’t get you excited as a college basketball follower, then you may want to test your fanhood out with another sport.

The start of conference play also means that this past week was the last chance for the leagues to test their mettle against each other. Read on to see where the conference power rankings stand at the conclusion of nonconference games.

No. 10: Missouri Valley Conference

This is probably a temporary demotion and not really of any fault of the Missouri Valley Conference (as you will see), but the MVC stands at No. 10 this week.

Again, this may not be completely fair considering the league only played a handful of games this week, most of which were conference games. In fact, the only nonconference contest the MVC played this week was Indiana State’s impressive road upset of Miami on Tuesday.

The Sycamores followed that up with an underrated victory over Illinois State to start conference play in style. Creighton and Wichita State also showed why they are the conference favorites with opening league wins over Evansville and Northern Iowa respectively.

There’s a decent chance the MVC will move back up again in the coming weeks, but it is just collateral damage for the time being because of the West Coast Conference’s great week.

No. 9: WCC

As I mentioned, a great week for the West Coast Conference results in the temporary reward of moving up a spot in these ever-important conference power rankings.

Here is a summary of the good news for the WCC: Gonzaga made mincemeat of the Big 12 by knocking off a ranked Oklahoma State team and an underrated Baylor squad, Saint Mary’s took care of business against Rhode Island and Yale before squeaking by Harvard and BYU crushed Virginia Tech.

Furthermore, Santa Clara was winning in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the second half against the nation’s top team before collapsing at the end. As much as the Broncos may not want to hear it, their showing against Duke was certainly a moral victory.

The WCC may not stay at No. 9 on this list all year, but that is where it finds itself for the time being.

No. 8: Atlantic 10

There were a handful of notable results for the Atlantic 10 this week, and most of them were not favorable for the league.

The good news was that Saint Louis picked up an impressive win over a ranked New Mexico team that was coming off a win against Cincinnati, and Butler destroyed Vanderbilt.

Unfortunately, most of the A-10’s other teams didn’t have that type of luck. Iona knocked off St. Bonaventure, a terrible USC team beat Dayton, Tennessee won against Xavier, Penn State beat Duquesne and Davidson beat Richmond.

The A-10 will have better weeks, but for the time being, it stays at No. 8 on the conference power rankings list after struggling around the holidays.

No. 7: SEC

The SEC is once again the worst power conference league this week thanks in large part to Missouri’s loss to UCLA.

The Tigers were the best team in the SEC (according to the rankings) and lost to a middling squad in the other conference (Pac-12) it is battling with for this dubious distinction.

The SEC also lost to Illinois (forgivable), Butler (forgivable), Louisville (forgivable), Alabama A&M (not forgivable in the slightest) and Tulane (not forgivable even though Tulane isn’t terrible).

The Kentucky Wildcats blew their chance to reestablish itself as a Top 25 team late against archrival Louisville. Throw that on top of the fact that the league’s highest ranked team lost to UCLA and there is no way I could justify moving the SEC any higher than No. 7 in these rankings.

No. 6: Pac-12

The Pac-12 still has only one ranked team, but it picked up an impressive victory when UCLA upset No. 7 Missouri this past week.

That one ranked team, the Arizona Wildcats, beat San Diego State, who was also ranked, in its only game of the week. Sean Miller’s team remained in the No. 3 spot in the latest AP poll.

There were not any other notable wins for the league this week (although beating San Diego State and Missouri is certainly noteworthy), but there were a few disappointing losses. Oregon State lost to Towson, California (who has completely fallen off the map) fell to Harvard and Connecticut beat Washington in the battle of the Huskies.

Overall, it was a good week on the top of the Pac-12, which is enough to keep the conference in the No. 6 spot.

No. 5: Big 12

Oklahoma State may find itself out of the rankings next week after its loss to Gonzaga, but for the time being, the Big 12 has three ranked teams and looks as good as it has all year.

Kansas is a Final Four contender, the Cowboys will be a tough out in March and Kansas State will ensure that the Jayhawks won’t be the only show in town this season.

Oklahoma’s victory over Ohio was the only notable win for the conference this week, but the Big 12 probably won’t be sending Gonzaga any New Year’s cards after the Zags beat Oklahoma State and Baylor.

It was a slow week for the Big 12 overall, so let’s slot it in the No. 5 spot for the time being. With three ranked teams, that seems fair for now.

No. 4: Mountain West

This week was a classic case of what could have been for the Mountain West if just a couple of plays would have gone the other way.

It started off with a one-point loss by San Diego State to No. 3 Arizona in a game that the Aztecs could have very easily won had they scored on their last possession. The league bounced back when New Mexico went into Cincinnati and knocked off a Top 10 team.

Saturday then brought more disappointment when UNLV lost a heartbreaker in North Carolina and Air Force fell by 17 to Florida despite only trailing by two at halftime. The bad news continued Monday when the Lobos followed their victory in Cincinnati by losing to Saint Louis.

Another week with this many disappointing results will move the Mountain West down in the next conference power rankings, but for now, let’s give it the benefit of the doubt since most of those games were against superior competition.

No. 3: ACC

It was a bad start to the week for the ACC when Miami inexplicably lost a neutral floor game to Indiana State. Yes, that is the same Hurricanes team that beat Michigan State earlier in the season.

However, the weekend brought a bit of redemption to the conference as North Carolina knocked off a ranked UNLV team and everyone else who played outside of Virginia Tech took care of business against inferior foes.

The only alarming news of the weekend was the fact that the Hokies got crushed by a decent BYU team, unless you consider Duke’s early struggles against Santa Clara alarming for the top team in the nation.

There weren’t really many quality wins for the ACC this week, but most of the teams did exactly what they were supposed to.

No. 2: Big East

Conference play started off with a bang for the Big East when Cincinnati went into Pittsburgh and knocked off a ranked Panthers team in a nail-biter.

The league also picked up a couple of marquee out-of-conference victories when Louisville enacted some revenge on rival Kentucky and Connecticut took out Washington.

There were also some disappointing results for the conference. Loyola beat intracity rival DePaul, Brown shocked Providence and New Mexico upset Cincinnati on the Bearcats’ home floor.

Ultimately, the Big East is the second-best conference because of its presence in the Top 25 AP poll. Louisville is No. 4, Syracuse is No. 7, Cincinnati is No. 14, Georgetown is No. 15, Notre Dame is No. 21 and Pittsburgh in No. 24 (for the time being).

Conference play should be entertaining.

No. 1: Big Ten

The Big Ten may not be quite as dominant of a force from top to bottom as many expected heading into the season, but no other conference can counter the fact that 40 percent of the Top 10 resides in the nation’s best league.

Furthermore, Illinois sits at No. 11 and Michigan State is at No. 18 (for now, the Spartans just lost to Minnesota in their conference opener). Unranked Wisconsin is playing better, and games in Iowa will not be the walk in the park they usually are this year (just ask the Hoosiers).

There weren’t any notable games in the Big Ten this week besides the two conference openers (Gophers over Spartans and Indiana over Iowa), although the Illini barely squeaked by a terrible Auburn squad.

Nevertheless, with Michigan at No. 2, Indiana at No. 5, Ohio State at No. 8 and Minnesota at No. 9 (which may be too low), the Big Ten is once again the best conference in the country.