Folks just be talking.

I’m sitting at the crib, watching basketball like I do. College basketball this time.

I don’t even remember what game it was any more (might have been pt. 2 of Texas Tech vs. West Virginia), but it was a Big 12 game for sure. Anyway. I’m like half paying attention when I hear one of the cats announcing say something WILD.

Keep in mind we’re all in the middle of one of the weirdest stretches of life EVER, so basketball has been different like everything else. College basketball’s “Blue Bloods” aren’t hooping like they normally do. Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Carolina are all not at their usual level. It’s been a weird year to say the least, but just saying crazy stuff in the middle of calling a national televised game still won’t fly.

Middle of the second half, again, I’m half paying attention to this game while on my phone, but my ears caught a segment that ended with some arrangement of words that made it clear this man believed the Big 12 had EASILY been the best conference on major college ball since 2014. I mean, he made this point crystal clear. He was certain.

Now, “why 2014?” is the obvious follow-up and the exact question I first asked after getting past the initial shock of the idea. I had to go look some stuff up and it led me here. I figured I’d share.

In 2014, UConn won their third national championship since 2004. That puts UConn at the head of the table when it comes to national titles since the century mark, along with rivals programs Carolina and Duke.

So, we’ve established that 2014 didn’t end in a natty for the Big 12. (Their last was in 2008 by Kansas) Well why 2014? Your guess is as good as mine.

As a fan of an ACC team, I have zero issue stating that they have been down as a conference the last two seasons. Though I’d argue that the top teams in the conference can still compete with anyone and that the issue is just the lack of usual depth among the second and third tiers.

Last year, I would have taken Florida State’s teams against almost anyone in the country. They were great. And they seem to be headed in the same direction this year. They’re just a strong ball club, built the way an elite college team typically is. They have size at every position, a Leonard Hamilton staple. They can score at all three levels with efficiency, and they defend as well as anyone in the country. That’s a ball team.

Alright, so, the Big 12 didn’t win the national championship in 2014. Did they make the Final Four? Nope. In fact, of the Big Five basketball conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, B10, Big 12 and Southeastern) they are second to last in Final Four appearances since 2014 with three. The Big East has the least, but neither of their two appearances has ended without hoisting a trophy, as Villanova finished the job in both 2016 and 2018. This trend for the Big 12 is not only true for that period, but it even holds when you move back to 2000. Since 2000, the Big 12 is last of the Big Five in Final Four appearances, with 10. The B10 comes in first with 16, while the ACC has 15, the Big East has 12 and the SEC has 11.

Making it to the Final Four isn’t the only point though. Who wins once their teams get there? The easy answer to that is the ACC and Big East.

Those two conferences are the only two with winning records in the Final Four since 2000. The ACC is 18-7, while the Big East is 12-6 and a perfect six-for-six in national title games. The SEC sits at eight-and-eight, the B10 is nine-and-fifteen and the Big 12 is five-and-nine.

Alright, so Final Fours are one way to determine a conference’s strength over time, but lets look at some others. If you want just straight NCAA Tournament wins, you’ll find the ACC at the top again. Since 1985 (the year the NCAAT field expanded to 64), the ACC has won two/thirds of their games with 318 wins to 162 losses. In that same period, the Big 12 has the least wins and the lowest percentage of wins among the Big Five with a 159-117 record for 58 percent.

The remaining three conferences have all won over 60 percent of their NCAAT games with the Big East coming second, B10 third and SEC fourth. That is all according to the NCAA website, and does not include the 2019 tournament.

The tournament will either make or break your team, or conference in this case. It’s now a 68-team single-elimination tournament. Meaning if you have a bad night, shoot, even an okay night, at the wrong time, you could be watching the next round from the couch. It’s magnificent. I love it.

But who brings home the most trophies? Well, that’d be the ACC too. Since 2000, the ACC has brought home eight of them thangs, with the Big East riding their perfect title-game record to six rings. The SEC has won three and the B10 and Big 12 are tied with one each.

That makes that 19/20 national championships from the Big Five over that span. The only one outside came from UConn in 2014, when they hoisted the trophy after their switch to the American Athletic Conference.

But if 2014 is the marker for national championships too, the ACC leads that with three, while the Big East gained two from Villanova. (No National Champion for 2020)

The numbers are pretty clear, so I’m not crazy. The past two years haven’t been their best, but the ACC has clearly been the best conference since 2014, according to the NCAA’s numbers, they’ve been dragging everyone except the Big East since the tournament expanded. I didn’t think I was making this up, but it’s always good to confirm.