The Gap between the Have's and Have Not's is Growing

 March Madness is down to 16 teams. I feel like we have never seen so many blowouts during the first four days. The upsets that we saw on Thursday and Friday will still there but I believe that has more to do with teams being poorly seeded.

 The gap between the strong conferences and the weaker ones is growing. Sadly. Any good team gets gobbled up by a bigger conference. At this rate, the ACC, Big 12, Big 10 and SEC will have 20 teams each by 2030. 

Here is the breakdown by conference of teams remaining. 

ACC: 4

Big East: 3

Big Ten: 2

Big 12: 2

SEC: 2

Mountain West: 1

Pac-12: 1

WCC: 1

The Pac 12 is gone next year. But hopefully not forever. There are eight conferences represented. How much longer until we only see four conferences represented. The Mid majors change conferences as well but don't always find the same success. George Mason and Davidson haven't had a great deal of success in the A-10. 

The only thing that might save the Tier 2 conferences in basketball are that most of the realignment moves are football based. This is what is keeping A-10 and WCC teams trapped. If your school isn't playing Div I FBS football the best options are the Big East. They seem to snag teams from the MVC or A-10. 

The thing that can keep the Mid Majors going are if successful teams come up from Div II can be fun teams like Grand Canyon and James Madison. 

But there is only so much Pie to go around. Not every team can be in a major conference. I've read stuff that by 2040 there will only be two conferences. The Big 10 and SEC. 

It's scary, if this was 2006 than we would have had the MVC and C-USA represented as well. It's sad when conferences lose strong teams and can't replace them. The Big West had a a #1 seed represented in 1990 in UNLV. The Big West will likely never have a team #1 seed ever again.