Welcome back, sports fans, to our 589th episode on this platform. We do not count the previous email version which could not have been more than 100-150. At first it was just the rankings from week 4 until rivalry week (10 per year), then we added predictions (so 20 per year). No matter, officially, we are now at 589 now. Last season’s final basketball post was on April 7, 2025, and it was our 482nd article. We started the 2025-26 sports season with a look into the seemingly never-ending conference realignment. That post, number 483, was May 10, 2025. So, this is the 107th article in the last 271 days. Thank you for sticking with us through the long seasons. Our estimation is 16 more posts, after today, before the post-conference-tourney tournaments. During those final tests, we are planning to treat each day like the bowl season for football – a quick post to highlight the games that day with predictions. Once the tournaments are completed, we will have our final Top 363 and Top 365 as we sign off for this fiscal year. There are a number of new conference realignments, so our best guess right now is, sometime in early May, we will start the new 2026-27 seasons off with that topic.
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But this post is all about the Men’s conferences. There is one that is rising to the top as the strongest conference – the Big 12. They have 5 of the top 12 spots, and 7 of the top 16. Those offset Kansas St (10-12/120) and Utah (9-12/168) pretty well. Their average Score is nearly 4 points above the next couple conferences. The SEC, ACC, and Big Ten are virtually tied with the Big East dragging behind a little compared to the other Power conferences. UCONN is 4th, but only St Johns and Villanova are also in the Top 30. The SEC is 2nd in average Score, but the ACC is 2nd in average RPI. Here are all the conferences from the Big 12 to the MEAC. The parenthetical number in the Avg Score column is that conference’s rank if they were a single team in this week’s ranking (note: records based on games through Tuesday)
| Rank | Conf | Record | Avg Score | AVG RPI | Best Team | Worst Team |
| 1 | B12 | 236-110 | 70.02 (39) | 0.612 | Arizona (22-0/2) | Utah (9-12/168) |
| 2 | SEC | 230-122 | 66.28 (49) | 0.595 | Vanderbilt (19-3/10) | Oklahoma (11-11/162) |
| 3 | ACC | 260-139 | 66.05 (50) | 0.597 | Duke (21-1/3) | Boston College (9-13/187) |
| 4 | Big Ten | 257-139 | 65.72 (51) | 0.594 | Michigan (20-1/1) | Maryland (8-13/210) |
| 5 | Big East | 149-96 | 61.07 (62) | 0.578 | UCONN (22-1/4) | Marquette (8-15/238) |
| 6 | Atlantic 10 | 190-127 | 51.23 (109) | 0.521 | St Louis (22-1/20) | Loyola Chicago (6-18/341) |
| 7 | Mtn West | 152-114 | 50.38 (118) | 0.529 | Utah St (18-3/38) | Air Force (3-19/356) |
| 8 | West Coast | 163-121 | 49.13 (131) | 0.512 | Gonzaga (22-1/18) | Pepperdine (6-17/334) |
| 9 | Missouri Valley | 144-115 | 46.19 (160) | 0.499 | Belmont (21-3/48) | Evansville (5-18/343) |
| 10 | American | 156-129 | 45.32 (167) | 0.496 | Tulsa (19-3/59) | UTSA (4-17/353) |
| 11 | WAC | 88-67 | 45.07 (169) | 0.480 | CA Baptist (16-6/70) | S Utah (8-15/300) |
| 12 | MAC | 165-132 | 43.92 (178) | 0.482 | Miami OH (23-0/56) | Ball St (7-15/329) |
| 13 | Coastal | 160-134 | 43.38 (181) | 0.479 | Wilmington (19-3/64) | Northeastern (6-15/322) |
| 14 | C-USA | 140-117 | 42.70 (186) | 0.472 | Liberty (18-3/60) | Delaware (6-15/331) |
| 15 | Ivy | 87-77 | 42.65 (187) | 0.475 | Yale (16-4/54) | Brown (7-13/321) |
| 16 | Big West | 130-118 | 41.57 (200) | 0.471 | UC Irvine (15-7/88) | Bakersfield (8-15/304) |
| 17 | Sun Belt | 163-162 | 39.47 (217) | 0.463 | Marshall (14-8/92) | ULM (3-20/363) |
| 18 | Horizon | 127-130 | 38.63 (225) | 0.454 | Oakland (14-10/93) | IU Indy (6-18/348) |
| 19 | MAAC | 146-153 | 38.41 (225) | 0.458 | Marist (15-7/108) | Rider (3-18/360) |
| 20 | SoCon | 112-116 | 37.37 (233) | 0.445 | E Tenn St (16-7/116) | VMI (6-17/347) |
| 21 | Big South | 106-106 | 37.10 (237) | 0.443 | High Point (20-4/86) | Gardner Webb (3-20/362) |
| 22 | Southland | 132-143 | 36.84 (239) | 0.449 | McNeese (18-5/63) | SELA (6-17/336) |
| 23 | Big Sky | 110-115 | 36.55 (243) | 0.440 | Portland St (15-6/124) | E Washington (5-17/344) |
| 24 | Summit | 104-111 | 34.99 (252) | 0.431 | North Dakota St (19-5/100) | Kansas City (4-19/358) |
| 25 | Ohio Valley | 122-131 | 34.78 (255) | 0.428 | UT Martin (18-5/131) | W Illinois (4-19/357) |
| 26 | Atlantic Sun | 119-149 | 34.60 (255) | 0.442 | Lipscomb (15-8/121) | North Florida (5-18/346) |
| 27 | Patriot | 104-111 | 32.74 (276) | 0.424 | Navy (17-6/161) | Lafayette (7-16/333) |
| 28 | Northeast | 89-131 | 29.42 (300) | 0.403 | Long Island (14-8/145) | Chicago St (3-19/361) |
| 29 | American East | 79-123 | 29.23 (301) | 0.408 | Vermont (14-9/186) | Binghamton (5-18/359) |
| 30 | SWAC | 91-165 | 27.32 (315) | 0.407 | Bethune (11-11/199) | MS Valley (1-21/365) |
| 31 | MEAC | 63-115 | 25.07 (331) | 0.382 | Howard (14-9/236) | Coppin St (3-21/364) |
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That’s it for today and for this week. Tune in Monday for the Women’s Top 363. Thank you, again, not only for reading today, but for following us throughout the football and basketball seasons. We cannot be grateful enough for your sharing with others or for your feedback, questions, and suggestions, JoJo and G.
