Big Ten Is the King of College Basketball, and Its Reign Has Only Just Begun

In the first five years after 2013's great schism in the Big East, the answer to the annual "best conference" question in men's college basketball was almost indisputably: the Big 12 with a side order of the ACC.

Over the past three seasons, though, the Big Ten has not only surged into first place but has also created some serious separation from most of the field.

We want to be sure to emphasize the "most," because the Big 12 is still extremely good. Our intent isn't to downplay its strength. That 10-team league has four squads (Baylor, Kansas, Texas and West Virginia) ranked in the AP Top 10 with a fifth (Texas Tech) at No. 13. Those five teams are also in the top 13 on KenPom.com. In other words, 50 percent of the Big 12 ranks among the top 4 percent of teams in the country. That's mighty impressive.

But the 14-team Big Ten has nine representatives in the AP Top 25, as well as 12 teams in my most recent 2021 NCAA tournament projection.

Having nine ranked teams is just absurd. Even this past September in college football—during the two-week stretch when four of the 10 conferences were not eligible for the AP Top 25 because they weren't planning on playing this fall—there were never more than eight ranked teams from the same conference at any point. And Division I college basketball has nearly three times as many teams as the FBS.

There was one week early in the 2015 football season when the SEC placed 10 teams in the AP Top 25. I believe that's the all-time, single-conference record for either sport. But I would daresay nine Top 25 teams more than a month into the basketball season is more impressive than 10 teams one week into the football season.

And this isn't just some pandemic-fueled, flash-in-the-pan start for the Big Ten.

This has been brewing for a while.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

The Big Ten sent a league-record eight teams to the 2019 NCAA tournament, and it could have been more. Penn State, Nebraska and Indiana all missed the Big Dance despite finishing the year ranked Nos. 43, 47 and 52, respectively, on KenPom. Moreover, the entire conference ended up at No. 84 or better, indicating that even the conference's worst teams were respectable.

The league was even more loaded last year.

Had there been an NCAA tournament, the Big Ten was likely going to receive 10 bids—maybe even more if Purdue and Minnesota made runs in the conference tournament. Nebraska and Northwestern were pretty bad, but for four months it felt like the Big Ten had 12 teams capable of reaching the Sweet 16. Whether any of them were good enough to reach the Final Four was another story, but the year ended (abruptly) with a dozen Big Ten teams in the Nos. 7-34 range on KenPom.

Now with Northwestern taking a huge step forward, the great have gotten greater.

We didn't get anywhere close to our usual supply of nonconference games this year, but the 2020 portion of this season suggests Nebraska is the only Big Ten team lacking in tournament potential.

Penn State is probably the second-worst team in this league, but the Nittany Lions beat a solid VCU and won by 20 on the road against an otherwise undefeated Virginia Tech.

Michigan State might be the third-worst team in the Big Ten—there have been many, many moons since the last time that was the case—yet the Spartans defeated both Duke and Notre Dame and were one of the five teams (along with Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Rutgers) to enter Big Ten play with an unblemished record.

And, again, those teams appear to belong in the bottom 25 percent of the league.

Higher up the standings, the Big Ten is overflowing with individual star power.

Iowa's Luka Garza is already running away with all of the National Player of the Year awards. Illinois' Ayo Dosunmu is one of the few players who might be able to catch Garza. Dosunmu's teammate, Kofi Cockburn, might be the most alluring NBA prospect in the conference. Minnesota's Marcus Carr is a cold-blooded walking bucket who's averaging 24.0 points and 6.1 assists per game.

That's not all.

Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis and Purdue's Trevion Williams are old-school big men who could go off for 25 points and 15 rebounds in any game. Michigan's standout freshman center, Hunter Dickinson, has been one of the biggest breakout sensations of the year. In Ron Harper Jr., Jacob Young, Geo Baker and Montez Mathis, Rutgers has one of the country's best backcourts. And Wisconsin's all-senior starting lineup is quite the force of nature.

So will this be the year the Big Ten's national championship drought finally ends?

Al Goldis/Associated Press

Since Michigan State last won it all in 2000, the Big Ten has had 14 teams reach the Final Four, including two years (2005 and 2015) with dual representation in the national semifinals. Seven of those 14 teams reached the national championship game. But none won it.

At some point, the league's horrific luck in April has to balance out to some extent, right?

They certainly have candidates. Entering play Wednesday, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois all ranked in the top six on KenPom. Michigan, Ohio State and Rutgers were also in the top 20. And while Indiana was a bit further back at No. 23 with a 5-4 record, the Hoosiers might have the conference's best defense.

The NCAA tournament is a fickle beast, and there's little question that Gonzaga is the favorite. But the Big Ten will have a whole bunch of pingpong balls in that lottery.

And speaking of lotteries, that's where things get really interesting for the Big Ten.

In spite of all those talented players we mentioned, this conference doesn't have a single player in the mix for a lottery pick in 2021. B/R draft expert Jonathan Wasserman put out a new first-round mock draft on Christmas Eve, and here's the full list of Big Ten players from it: Dosunmu at No. 25.

In a season when everyone is getting a free year of eligibility, how many of these guys might come back?

Illinois will almost certainly lose both Dosunmu and Cockburn and take a sizable step backward, but I wouldn't bet my life that anyone else will leave for the draft.

Even if Garza wins the Wooden Award, he might consider coming back for another year of fun if it doesn't seem like the NBA is in any rush to get him. And if all of Wisconsin's veterans return, we might need to refresh all the "Perry Ellis played for Kansas for an entire decade" jokes, because it already feels like Brad Davison and D'Mitrik Trice have been with the Badgers for ages.

Every player in every league is getting that free eligibility, but it does seem likely the Big Ten will benefit from it more so than any other major conference. Maybe the Big East could also gain some ground, with just James Bouknight and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl in Wasserman's mock draft, but the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC are all expected to lose at least four first-round picks.

The Big Ten already holds commitments from four 5-star recruits in the 2021 class, too, so the league might gain more talent than it loses.

That list of 5-star guys includes Bryce McGowens, who is the highest-rated recruit to ever sign with Nebraska. If he can be the driving force who brings the Cornhuskers back to semi-relevance, the deepest conference ever will get even deeper.

Kerry Miller covers college football and men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames. Recruit ratings via 247Sports.