Can the Big East Win the Big One?

Since the Big East grew to 16 teams a few years ago they have dominated the college basketball landscape, put the most teams in the tournament and churned out NBA lottery picks in mass numbers. The only thing lacking is a national championship, something the conference has not won since 2004, which came before expansion. In 2005 several teams from Conference-USA joined the Big East and many had quality basketball programs. Louisville, DePaul, Cincinnati, Marquette and South Florida made the league 16-strong and with their addition the conference the Big East boasts 40 Final Four appearances and 10 national championships. Of the 16 teams, South Florida is the only one who has not reached a Final Four, an incredible feat for any conference. Despite all these stats, the Big East has not won a title since their expansion and that leaves many pondering the question, "Why?"

The number one reason no team has been able to win the big one is because the regular season is too hard. Think about it, with so many teams playing at a high level and numerous teams ranked, they beat up on each other. I saw a stat a few games ago that said Villanova was 4-5 against ranked teams in their conference. That's nine conference games against ranked opponents with more to come, especially in the conference tournament. By the time the tournament rolls around everybody is wiped out from the competition in the regular season. They have just played potentially 4-5 games in their own conference tournament and then they are trying to win six more games against quality opponents in order to win the national championship. That's hard for a team to do.

Pittsburgh is the winningest team of the 2000s and they have never even made a Final Four. This year could be their year but they have already started to tail off in the last week of the year. A team who must endure that many tests is weaker at the end of the year and that is why we have not seen a Big East champion since the expansion. UConn, led by Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, won down in San Antonio in 2004 and since the next year the five C-USA teams joined. Since then the Big East has had five Final Four teams (Villanova, Georgetown, UConn, West Virginia and Louisville) and every single one of those teams lost in the semi-final game. Before expansion the Big East had titles in 2004 and 2003. Obviously, the additions make for great conference play but the league can not reap the benefits in postseason play.

This year the Big East could break their own record of eight teams getting NCAA bids this year but none of them seem to be a formidable national title contender. Pittsburgh has the best shot but no one else could go up against Kansas, Duke or Ohio State and expect to win. I would guess that none of the Big East teams will even make the Final Four this year because a lot of them are good but not great and that has been the theme in the Big East since expansion. Reality is, they need to divide into divisions or something to lighten up the schedule because, even though it makes for great television, the top 25 matchups every night aren't helping in the postseason. It's one thing to be battle-tested, but it's quite another to be worn down.

So to answer the question in the headline, no I don't think the Big East can win the big one anytime soon because they hurt their own chances with the regular season schedule. It would take a great team to do that and one that is very mentally and physically tough. I think the only team out of the Big East who could do that would be Pittsburgh but they should focus on getting to the Final Four first. For this year I would shy away from picking any team from the conference to hold up the crystal ball in Houston.