Reading through some of the basketball recruiting threads got me thinking about this. With the success of the Big Ten in basketball plus the recent resurgence of the conference in football with the AP #1 and #2 teams both from the Big Ten, is there any other conference that can make a claim to being better than us from the perspective of both football and basketball combined?
Obviously the SEC has had lots of football success and then Kentucky in basketball and in the past Florida was a basketball power. But nowhere near the overall depth of basketball talent throughout the conference.
And the ACC is kind of the inverse with lots of basketball talent but just Florida St with real consistent football success. Clemson always has great recruits but kind of mixed results, Virginia Tech has been down recently, Miami is still a shell of their former selves, etc.
Then the Pac12 has Arizona basketball and obviously UCLA as well but they have been down recently. The Pac12 football has a lot of depth but haven't won a national title in a long time. As good as Oregon has been they've never won a title. USC still hasn't been able to put it all together again since Pete Carroll left, etc.
Lastly the Big12 has had the vast majority of their basketball success come from a single program (Kansas) and nowhere near the depth of the Big Ten. The conference has fewer members than the other conferences so they are at somewhat of an inherent disadvantage when comparing them to other conferences in terms of cumulative success in football and basketball.
Anyway, I'd be interested in other opinions on this. Obviously in terms of conference realignment basketball doesn't really matter but it's still an interesting topic of conversation I think.
Obviously the SEC has had lots of football success and then Kentucky in basketball and in the past Florida was a basketball power. But nowhere near the overall depth of basketball talent throughout the conference.
And the ACC is kind of the inverse with lots of basketball talent but just Florida St with real consistent football success. Clemson always has great recruits but kind of mixed results, Virginia Tech has been down recently, Miami is still a shell of their former selves, etc.
Then the Pac12 has Arizona basketball and obviously UCLA as well but they have been down recently. The Pac12 football has a lot of depth but haven't won a national title in a long time. As good as Oregon has been they've never won a title. USC still hasn't been able to put it all together again since Pete Carroll left, etc.
Lastly the Big12 has had the vast majority of their basketball success come from a single program (Kansas) and nowhere near the depth of the Big Ten. The conference has fewer members than the other conferences so they are at somewhat of an inherent disadvantage when comparing them to other conferences in terms of cumulative success in football and basketball.
Anyway, I'd be interested in other opinions on this. Obviously in terms of conference realignment basketball doesn't really matter but it's still an interesting topic of conversation I think.
