The Big East is down this year?

The Big East had three No. 1 seeds in last year's NCAA Tournament. Two teams made the Final Four; five reached the Sweet 16. At one point, the conference had nine teams in the top 25. Hell, two teams that were ranked in the top tennationally missed the tournament after being unable to handle the rigors of league play.

Let's just say there was a reason that there was talk about the league being the toughest conference of all-time.

During the off-season, however, the Big East lost as much talent as any league in the country. All told, the league lost nine guys – four of which were lottery picks – to the draft, and that doesn’t even include talents like Jeff Adrien, Levance Fields, Eric Devendorf, Kyle McAlarney, or Marquette’s three guards.

How good is the Big East this season?
(photo credit: Georgetown Voice)

Many people expected the Big East to be down this year.

But is the league really down?

Including the three wins tonight, the Big East is 44-2 on the season. The two losses? South Florida getting clipped by three against South Carolina in Charleston Classic, and Providence dropping an 84-75 decision at Alabama.

The SEC may be down, but we're not exactly talking Oregon State losing to Sacramento State here, are we?

Now take a look at some of those wins.

As we all know, Syracuse took out the preseason favorites in the Pac-10 and the ACC en route to the 2K Sports CvC title. Villanova was up by 18 on A-10 favorite Dayton before holding off a furious Dayton comeback. Seton Hall owns a win on the road against Ivy favorite Cornell, who beat UMass and Alabama already this year.

Or how about DePaul, the consensus bottom-feeder in the conference, knocking off MVC favorite Northern Iowa last night.

The Pac-10 is looking like it may be a two-bid league, and that's assuming that Cal puts it together. The SEC, while much improved from last year, may not be as good as was predicted by some during the off-season. The ACC has a number of good teams, but with no great teams (yet) it is looking more and more like the 2006-2007 season, when five teams finished at either 11-5 or 10-6 in league play.

Even the Big XII, which is hands down the best conference at the top this season, has taken its lumps early on with Kansas State and Oklahoma losing early.

Could the Big East be the second best conference this season?

Look, early season results are not a reliable way to rank players, teams, or conferences. Of the 44 wins the Big East has this year, a good 40 of them should be expected. Not to mention that teams like UConn, Pitt, Georgetown, and Louisville have looked less than impressive this season.

But there is something to be said for the success that the conference has had in the early goings.

Only time will tell if that success will continue.