Below is a ranking of the six best conferences in men’s college basketball, all of which you can watch on Fubo.
In college basketball rankings can be largely dependent on how hard teams conference schedules are. The harder the conference, the harder the schedule, the more those teams beat each other up leading to more losses and lower rankings. Here is where each team in the Power 5 Conferences (Big 10, Big 12, Big East, ACC, and SEC) rank heading into the college basketball season.
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6. Pac-12
Despite being a powerhouse in some years, this year, the only relevant teams in the Top 25 rankings are No. 12 Arizona and No. 21 USC. Arizona might be better on paper, but USC has to be the more exciting team with returning scorer Boogie Ellis, No. 1 overall recruit Isaiah Collier, and Bronny James, son of LeBron James. These two teams will meet twice this season, but without anyone else in the conference ranked, it is still an easy conference schedule.
5. Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference enters this college basketball season with just three ranked teams in the Top 25. It might have been higher a week ago if Michigan State had not suffered a loss to James Madison in its opening game. By the end of this week, the Big Ten will have one Top 5 team in No. 3 ranked Purdue and two teams later in Michigan State and No. 25 Illinois. The conference schedule for most teams will including a depleted Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State without Jalen Pickett.
4. ACC
The Atlantic Coast Conference is typically one of the best in the country. The pair of Duke and North Carolina are perennially ranked inside the Top 10 in the country. However, this year, the Tar Heels have fallen and start the season ranked No. 19 in the nation. Duke keeps the conference alive being the No. 2 team in the nation with 11 votes for the No. 1 spot and eyeing down one of the best recruiting classes in the country. They also have a third team ranked in the Top 25 with the No. 13 ranked Miami Hurricanes. They will also take on Tony Bennett at Virginia, who is typically ranked.
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3. SEC
The SEC has the most ranked teams inside the Top 25. However, most of them are found at No. 15 or below. Only Tennessee ranks inside the Top 10 and is likely to make waves in the conference again. Outside of it, Arkansas is at No. 14, Texas A&M at No. 15, and Kentucky at No. 16 are back-to-back-to-back in the middle of the rankings and have every opportunity to dominate this season. Alabama ranks No. 24 and is the lowest ranked team in the conference.
2. Big East
Typically, when you think of Power Five in college football, this would include the Pac-12 not the Big East. However, in college basketball the Pac-12 only has two ranked teams that are not in the Top 10. In the Big East, though, four teams are in the Top 25 with three teams ranked inside the Top 10. The highest ranking team is No. 5 Marquette. It also has No. 6 UConn and No. 8 Creighton, who will all be extremely tough opponents and might even knock each other out of the Top 10 eventually. Villanova is the last team ranked at No. 22 and that doesn’t even include non-ranked Xavier, St. John’s, and Providence who are all great teams that could break into the Top 25 within a couple of weeks.
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1. Big 12
These first two could have been interchangeable for toughest conference. The Big East has more Top 10 teams, but the Big 12 has the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. Kansas holds that ranking for now. They also have newcomer No. 7 Houston and a Kelvin Sampson-led defense. The other two teams ranked in the conference are No. 18 Texas, who will be minus three top stars from last year’s Top 10 team, and No. 20 Baylor who lost several starters to the transfer portal. However, like the Big East, Cincinnati, Texas Christian and Texas Tech are all teams that could break into the Top 25 at any moment.
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