And So It Begins...

College basketball is officially upon us! The season officially started this past Monday, as North Carolina donned some really ugly throwbacks in its rout of FIU. Today many more teams such as Georgetown, Kentucky, and Washington began their quest to reach the NCAA tournament. While all those three teams will end up with a strong seed come March, it would be unfair to overlook the way college basketball actually pans out in the 4.5 months leading up to the Madness. Remember last year's "strong" Big East? Yeah... how'd Notre Dame and the aforementioned Hoyas end up doing? So who knows. I mean, sure you have your sure bets in Michigan State, UNC, and Kansas, but who really knows what will happen? What if Cole Aldrich sprains an ankle and he's out during the meat of the Big-12 season? Or if Zeller/Davis of UNC get injured as they are tall and skinny guys and UNC drops a couple games including one to hated Duke?

The beauty of the basketball season as opposed to the football season (and I'm not even talking about a legitimate determination of a champion) is that it is longer and much more intriguing even though many of the top teams maintain their preseason position, but it is easier for teams to move up and earn strong bids, just ask Kansas circa 2009. As a UCLA student and an avid fan, it could be easy to be slightly discouraged because for the first time in my four years here we are not the favorites to win the Pac-10. However, I see no reason why a Howland coached team with so much promise (how about two top 10 recruiting classes) cannot challenge the likes of Washington and Cal for the top spot. Sure, they have heavy guard play which is exactly what UCLA will lack, but UCLA has a huge height advantage, which could be served as a positive sign. I can go on and speculate and ramble on about what could happen, but the beauty of the basketball season is that we get to see these great match ups not only once like football, but twice! Well, at least in the Pac-10 since it plays a true round robin. Oh basketball, how have I missed you...

The Most Academic Conference is...

The Ivy League, but we all knew that. The real question is which conference that excels at sports other then polo, crew, and the fan fave "who has the biggest house in the Hamptons?" is the most academically great. To establish the champion in this debate I decided to use the US News rankings. Though I am not the biggest fan of these rankings (since they give an obvious bias towards private schools), it is a good system and is widely accepted. So here are the numbers for each BCS conference (the other ones are a joke, seriously, they are):

ACC:
Number of Public Schools: 8
Number of Private Schools: 4
Schools in the top 25: 2
Schools in the top 50: 6
Average Rank: 48.25

Big East:
Number of Public Schools: 7
Number of Private Schools: 9
Schools in the top 25: 2
Schools in the top 50: 2
Average Rank: 51.29
SIDENOTE: There are also 2 unranked colleges here (Nova and Providence), and 7 Tier 3 which did not have actual rankings.

Big Ten:
Number of Public Schools: 10
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 0
Schools in the top 50: 4
Average Rank: 49

Big 12:
Number of Public Schools: 11
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 0
Schools in the top 50: 1
Average Rank: 86.50
SIDENOTE: OSU and Texas Tech are Tier 3 schools.

Pac-10:
Number of Public Schools: 8
Number of Private Schools: 2
Schools in the top 25: 3
Schools in the top 50: 5
Average Rank: 62.11
SITENOTE: Oregon State is a Tier 3 school

SEC:
Number of Public Schools: 11
Number of Private Schools: 1
Schools in the top 25: 1
Schools in the top 50: 2
Average Rank: 89.10
SITENOTE: MSU and Ole Miss are both Tier 3 schools

Now, here is the formula to crown the champion:

• 6 points for highest % in each category (and 5-1)
• -2 points for each school not ranked

Final Standings:
1. ACC - (17)
2. Pac 10 - (13)
3. Big Ten - (11)
4. SEC - (2)
5. Big 12 - (1)
6. Big East - (-4)