Big East Set to Dominate 2010 NCAA Tournament

The 2009-2010 NCAA basketball season was expected to be somewhat of a down year for the Big East conference.

The most dominant league in America was supposed to be good but not great. No conference lost more talented players to the NBA than the Big East.

The conference as a whole was supposed to drop back into the pack.

After further review, that was not exactly the case. 

As the NCAA Tournament is upon us and the regular season is complete, it is time to once again give the Big East its props. 

With eight teams in the Big Dance, the Big East matched its total from a year ago. While the three No. 1 seeds from last season could not be duplicated, the league did manage to have eight teams with single-digit seeds. 

People around the country argue that the Big 12 or Big Ten is the best conference in America, but when it comes right down to it, the Big East is college basketball's elite conference, and they always seem to prove it come tournament time.

So now that it is time to fill out a bracket, don't sleep on anybody from the Goliath that is the Big East conference. 

The key to filling out a good bracket is to not lose any Sweet 16 teams in the first round. A safe way to do that is to pick five or six Big East teams to make it through the first weekend. 

These teams are more battle-tested than anyone else in the country, and picking them to advance is a sure bet. After all, there is not a night off in the Big East conference.

Out of the 16 teams, eight made the NCAA Tournament, and five more made the NIT. If the NCAA is still thinking about expanding to 96 teams, it will have to include nearly the entire Big East conference. 

Last year, the Big East saw four of its teams go to the Elite Eight and two more to the Final Four. This year will be much of the same for America's top league.

Syracuse and West Virginia are as talented and experienced as anybody in the nation not named Kansas. Georgetown has the ingredients to make a run deep into March.

Only in the Big East conference can a team finish eighth and get a No. 3 seed on Selection Sunday. 

Imagine if Georgetown played in any other conference. Is there any chance they would finish eighth? Not hardly, especially after watching them dismantle Duke a few months ago. 

So with the NCAA Tournament finally here, the Big East conference will once again show its dominance over the rest of the country and prove it deserves to be considered the best conference in all of the land.

The Big Dance is starting today, but by the end of the weekend, will it turn into the Big East Invitational?