The NCAA basketball conference races will not be kind to the top 25 this year.
New faces from the Conference-USA and the Colonial Athletic Association grace our top 25 this week. They add to a competitive group of teams that continue to jockey for national recognition as we march onward through January. Bubbles are starting to form and solidify among many of the power conference’s mid-tiers, but many weeks remain between now and Selection Sunday.
Conference races remain as tight as ever in the Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12. The SEC is the only major conference where the leader leads by more than one game. The top mid-majors, the American, C-USA and the WCC are all at one-game leads as well. The trend of close games and conference races will likely continue the rest of the way.
One underrated aspect of getting to do this list every week is showing smaller programs that surge in place of middling power conference teams. Not enough credit is given to the nation’s mid-majors because they play in smaller groups with less-heralded company. That is usually a grievous oversight given how many upsets take place in March. Power schools will always dominate the landscape, but their constant infighting opens the door to feature dominant Cinderellas in the lower ranks.
We are now near the halfway point for most conference races and very few things are decided. The top 25 will continue to shift as favorites fall and dark horses hit their strides. I have no doubt the season will remain as it has thus far.