In this year’s DI NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Big East conference will be represented by three teams: the UConn Huskies, Marquette Golden Eagles and the Creighton Bluejays.
According to FOX Sports, it is the first time since 1993 and just the second time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 that only three teams from the Big East will be dancing in March.
“We have great respect for the NCAA men’s basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA Tournament,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said in a statement. “It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee’s final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.”
In college basketball, the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings consider the quality of a win or loss in the different quadrants. Wins and losses in the different quadrants are heavily considered by the Selection Committee when March comes around. Quadrant 1 occurs when a program plays against an opponent ranked 1-30 at home, ranked in the Top 50 at a neutral venue or ranked in the Top 75 at an opponent’s venue. Quadrant 2 is similar but considers how teams play at home against opponents ranked 31-75, at a neutral site against teams ranked 51-100, and away against teams ranked 76-135.
At the conclusion of the regular season, here’s how the Big East stacked up against the other conferences in Quad 1 and 2 games: 4.55 Q1 wins per team (second); Five teams with five or more Q1 wins (second); 8.73 Q1 & Q2 combined wins per team (second); 13.64 Q1 games played per team (second); Most Q1 & Q2 combined games played per team (20.82). The Pomeroy ratings had the Big East listed as the second-toughest conference during the regular season.
All this is to say that the Big East was tough to play in this year. Normally playing well in a tough conference equates to a bid to the Big Dance. However, that wasn’t the case for teams like St. John’s, Providence and Seton Hall.
St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino was vocal about being snubbed from the Tournament and showed support for the other teams that missed out in an X post that has garnered 1.2 million views.
“I believe in getting better, not bitter,” Pitino wrote. “I totally believe that six teams from the Big East belonged in the field. I know our players along with Providence are totally disappointed with the decisions made. But not having Seton Hall at 13-7 in BE play with wins over the top teams is flat out wrong!”
The Big East teams didn’t exactly have luck on their side heading into Selection Sunday, either. NC State made a comeback against UNC to win the American Coast Conference Tournament while Oregon also went on a run to claim the Pac-12 title. In the American Athletic Conference Tournament, UAB overcame Florida Atlantic to win the conference title while Duquesne won the Atlantic 10 as a 6-seed. New Mexico stole a fifth bid by winning the Mountain West Tournament. All those teams, as conference victors, earned automatic bids to March Madness.
Still, as John Fanta so graciously points out in an article for FOX Sports, “How did Virginia, with a 2-7 Quadrant 1 record and a 34-point loss to a Virginia Tech team not included in the field, qualify for the tournament over Seton Hall?”