Breaking Down the Most Exciting Conference Title Races in College Basketball

Down the stretch they come.

If you don't think regular-season conference titles mean anything in college basketball, then I'm afraid you're not watching. Maybe you're watching some other sport instead of college basketball because someone misinformed you.

Yes, the conference tournaments are a rich plumb, particularly at the mid- and low-major levels, because of the automatic bid a tourney title confers. But a regular-season title is a nod to consistent excellence over the course of five months. That resonates long after a tournament title disappears, particularly in power conferences where an automatic bid tends to be essentially meaningless among the top half of the competitors, while at-large bids are largely decided in the regular season.

With all that in mind, here now are the four conference races that are tightening at the final quarter pole, or eighth pole, or whatever. Keep an eye on these, as they could be headed for a photo finish.

All information current as of Saturday, February 25.

ACC

Robert Franklin/Associated Press

Xavier Rathan-Mayes (right) shoots over Matt Farrell.

On Saturday, Duke's loss to Miami clinched a share of the ACC regular-season title for North Carolina.

But the intrigue isn't over yet.

After the Tar Heels, the bottleneck is decidedly narrow, and the stakes are high.

Bracketologist Joe Lunardi expects 10 tournament teams from the loaded ACC. With two regular-season games left, give or take, seeding and positioning are top of mind. Interesting, then, that there are six teams—North Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Notre Dame, Duke and Miami—within three games of one another.

And Florida State still has to play Miami. Virginia and Duke must both still go through North Carolina. Notre Dame closes its campaign at Louisville. The list goes on.

With such a crowded conference field, the excitement won't be over until the final whistle.

Big Ten

Chris Knight/Associated Press

Caleb Swanigan of Purdue takes a shot.

There are six teams within 2.5 games of one another at the top of the Big Ten standings.

After their Saturday loss to Iowa, Maryland dropped two games behind conference-leading Purdue. But Wisconsin is still right there, just a half-game back with Michigan State, Iowa and a streaking Minnesota team to close out the season.

Let's also not forget about the intrigue within the intrigue: Northwestern is in the thick of a play for its first-ever tournament berth. As all non-rock dwellers know, the Wildcats are the last power-conference team not to have the Big Dance on their resume. They close with Michigan and the Boilermakers.

Pac-12

Chris Pietsch/Associated Press

Oregon's Dillon Brooks

There's a pretty wide gulf between the top of the Pac 12—Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, California, Utah and USC—and the rest.

That's six teams. If Lunardi's tourney projections hold true, one team will be on the outside looking in.

That might add extra heat to the final stretch out West. At the top, Arizona fell back into a tie with Oregon Saturday atop the conference following the Wildcats' loss to UCLA. UCLA, for its part, is 1.5 games behind the leaders.

Those three won't see each other again in the regular season. Farther down, where the jockeying gets really heavy for postseason hopes, California at Utah on March 2 is shaping up to be a big one.

SEC

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De'Aaron Fox (left) and Kentucky coach John Calipari

On Saturday, Kentucky avenged its early loss to Florida. The win put the Wildcats ahead of the Gators by one whole game in the SEC standings.

With underachieving Vanderbilt and Texas A&M remaining, Big Blue might have the regular-season title wrapped up. But with such a young group, you never know.

If Florida can handle Vandy and a tough Arkansas squad—itself just three games out—it might be able to swoop in and undermine the bluest of blue bloods.