The Holy Land of Hoops

Here are the latest national Power Rankings for the Big East schools from TeamRankings.com, listed by national rank and current through Saturday night's games:

8. Villanova
24. Creighton
39. Butler
58. Marquette
64. Georgetown
74. Providence
78. Seton Hall
100. St. John's
106. Xavier
107. DePaul

This ranking is an average between a true power rating, which includes margin of victory in its formula, and an RPI type rating, which does not include margin of victory. The more reliable formula at this point in the season is the true power ranking because of its value as a predictor of future performance - as much as any sample of a few weeks can be.

Here is how Team Rankinhs rates the Big East teams strictly on its true power ranking:

8. Villanova
28. Creighton
46. Georgetown
55. Butler
61. Marquette
76. Seton Hall
80. Xavier
81. Providence
103. St. John's
132. DePaul

Nere's the latest from TeamRankings.com, inclusive of last night's games and taking us through the first month of the season. First, conference comparisons:

1. Big XII
2. Big Ten
3. Pac-12
4. Big East
5. ACC
6. AAC
7. SEC
8. A10
9. West Coast
10. Mountain West
11. Missouri Valley
12. Colonial

Here's how the Big East stacks up in their composite ranking (predictive power + RPI). The number is the national rank:

5. Villanova
50. Butler
58. Creighton
59. Georgetown
64. Marquette
88. Providence
95. DePaul
99. St. John's
102. Xavier
129. Seton Hall

Here is how the Big East team stack up based strictly on the true power/predictive ranking:

8. Villanova
37. Georgetown
50. Creighton
53. Butler
68. Marquette
79. Xavier
92. Providence
98. St. John's
109. DePaul
123. Seton Hall

Based solely on what the Big East has done in competition this season, this statistical analysis says that this is a 1 bid league (Villanova) with 3 teams on the bubble, Georgetown, Butler, and Creighton, leaving the range at 1-4 teams who would be considered if decisions were based only on this month's results. Who would've thunk it?

The fact that the conference is as deep as it is means there is still time for things to change with OOC results in December and for some group of teams to take charge of the conference in January-March and improve their positions. OTOH, if everything continues as it has been and if everyone except Villanova plays a little above or a little above .500 in conference, then there could be a lot of NIT teams.

Here's how they see the country as a whole (composite ranking), purely based on statistical analysis of this year's results, showing how early it is and how much things can change:

1. Iowa State
2. Wichita State
3. Syracuse
4. Arizona
5. Villanova
6. Ohio State
7. Pitt
8. Michigan state
9. Memphis
10. UMass
11. Cincinnati
12. Baylor
13. Oregon
14. Oklahoma State
15. St. Mary's
16. Kansas
17. Dayton
18. BYU
19. Wisconsin
20. Gonzaga
21. UCLA
22. Uconn
23. San Diego State
24. LSU
25. Iowa
26. Kentucky
27. Colorado
28. Florida
29. Clemson
30. North Carolina Central

Some others you might be looking for:

42. Michigan
43. VCU
52. George Washington
53. Duke
54. St Louis
56. Southern Mississippi
57. Virginia
60. Louisville
74. North Carolina
81. Mercer
83. Arizona State
98. Penn State