If Kem Pomeroy is right, this season will again illustrate exactly what it means to be in a power conference. (And there is no question that the Big East is a basketball power conference, ranking third after the ACC and Big 12.) A few statistics:
• Just 6 conferences — the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac 10 and SEC, representing 21% of all Division I programs — account for 92% of the Top 25 teams in the country (23 out of 25).
• Those power conferences also include 78% of the Top 50 teams (39 out of 50) and 65% of the Top 100 teams (65 out of 100).
• 20 of the 32 conferences — representing 68% of all Division I programs (237 out of 351 schools) — don't include a single Top 50 team. Of those, 12 conferences don't include a Top 100 team.
We'll see how those predictions hold up as the season goes along. But the difference between the haves and have-nots in college basketball has never been clearer.
I'd actually take it a step further, particularly in regards to your Top 100 comment: The six conferences you note have 75 schools, meaning ~87% of them are in the Top 100.