[NU Sports] March Madness fun ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Well, we may have never been dancing ourselves, but we
can still enjoy the tournament! Maybe it's the thought
of spring break coinciding nicely with March Madness
and DirecTV this year, but I'm ready for the fun and
to cheer for the Big Ten.

So while we wait for the brackets, a little fun look
at the last two decades of March Madness and how the
Big Ten stacks up in the college basketball world ...

Bragging Rights
---------------
Tough to doubt the ACC's supremacy in college
basketball, with six of the past 20 national champions
and 21 final four bids in that span, more than 1 per
year! But a breakdown of Final Four appearances and
national titles in that span shows the Big Ten stacks
up fairly well ...

ACC: 21 Final Four teams, 6 national champions
Big Ten: 15 FF, 3 NC
Big 12: 11FF, 1 NC
SEC: 10 FF, 3 NC
Big East: 7 FF, 3 NC
Pac 10: 6 FF, 2 NC

Non BCS leagues
---------------
Outside of the 6 BCS leagues, there have been 6
schools that have made it to the Final Four: UNLV (3
trips), Louisville (2 trips), Marquette, Utah, UMass
and Cincinnati. Of those, only UNLV and Louisville won
a title - once each. It's also interesting to note
that 3 of those teams -- Louisville, Marquette and
Cincy -- are now in the Big East.

Double Dippers
--------------
Did you know ... that 1998 was the last time
we have had a Final Four with one team from four
different conferences. Since then, we have had leagues
send two teams to the Final Four - led by the Big Ten,
who did it three times since then, and narrowly missed
a fourth time in 2001. No non-BCS league has double
dipped and the Pac 10 is the only BCS league not to
accomplish the feat in the past 20 years. Also of
note, the year before this survey, 1985, the Big East
went one further and placed 3 of the Final 4 teams
with champ Villanova, runner-up Georgetown and also
St. Johns.

Big Ten: 2005, 2000, 1999, 1992, 1989
ACC: 2004, 2001, 1991, 1990
Big XII: 2003, 2002, 1988
SEC: 1996, 1994
Big East: 1987

Depth of the league 
-------------------
Just as it's tough to dispute the ACC's dominance,
it's also tough to challenge the Big Ten on depth of
the league. While other leagues are bolstered by 1 or
2 teams at the top who keep getting bids, the Big Ten
has spread it around nicely.

Big Ten: 7 (everyone except Purdue and Iowa -- who
double dipped in 1980, btw -- and PSU and NU)
SEC: 5 (Kentucky, Arkansas, Florida, Miss. St., LSU)
ACC: 4 (Duke, UNC, Maryland, GaTech)
Big East: 4 (UConn, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Providence)
Big XII: 4 (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Okie State)
Pac 10: 3 (Arizona, UCLA, Stanford)

GO CATS!!!
GO BIG TEN!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com