The college basketball landscape is shifting, and while the power conferences - the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC - continue to dominate the national conversation, there’s a new battle brewing just beneath the surface. The question: Can the reimagined Pac-12 leapfrog the Big East to become the top “best of the rest” league next season?
That’s the vision being pitched by Pac-12 officials as the conference prepares for a major facelift. With Gonzaga and five Mountain West programs joining forces with Washington State and Oregon State, the Pac-12 is aiming to rebrand itself as a top-five basketball league. And that’s not just internal spin - ESPN’s Joe Lunardi recently echoed the sentiment in his Bracketology projections, suggesting the new-look Pac-12 could rival or even surpass the Big East in both total NCAA Tournament bids and percentage of teams dancing in March.
Let’s unpack that.
Right now, the Big East holds firm as the fifth-best conference in the country, behind the four power leagues. It’s a league with pedigree and punch, home to national title contenders like Connecticut and historically strong programs like Villanova.
The latest NET rankings back that up: the Big East boasts four teams in the top 50 - No. 8 UConn, No.
25 St. John’s, No.
34 Villanova, and No. 50 Butler.
Compare that to the incoming Pac-12 lineup, and the gap becomes clear. Only three future Pac-12 teams crack the NET top 50: No.
4 Gonzaga, No. 26 Utah State, and No.
47 San Diego State. That’s a solid trio, but the depth starts to thin out quickly.
Go a bit deeper, and the Big East continues to hold the edge. It has eight teams in the NET top 100.
The new Pac-12? Just five.
And at the bottom of the rankings, the contrast is even starker. The lowest-ranked Big East team, Marquette, sits at No. 144 - not great, but manageable.
Meanwhile, Texas State, one of the incoming Pac-12 members, is buried at No. 285.
So, on paper - and through the lens of the NET algorithm - the Big East has the upper hand in both top-end talent and depth.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
The Mountain West teams set to join the Pac-12 are currently being weighed down by the bottom feeders in their existing conference. Programs like San Jose State (No. 255) and Air Force (No. 344) are dragging down the collective metrics. Once the new Pac-12 forms as a nine-team league, the average quality of competition should rise - and with it, the NET profiles of its members.
That’s one of the main reasons the Mountain West schools made the jump. They’re betting that a stronger schedule, both in basketball and football, will give them a better shot at NCAA Tournament bids and, for football, a clearer path to the expanded College Football Playoff.
But for the Pac-12 to truly close the gap - and maybe even pass the Big East - it’s going to take more than just Gonzaga and San Diego State carrying the banner. The conference needs three or four teams in the tournament regularly, and it needs someone outside of the usual suspects to make noise in March.
The Big East has depth - St. John’s, Butler, Marquette, Xavier, and Creighton all have the potential to make a run in any given year.
The Pac-12 will need its own version of that middle class. Colorado State, Utah State, and Boise State are the most likely candidates to step up, but they’ll need help.
If programs like Washington State, Oregon State, Fresno State, and Texas State can’t elevate their game, the Pac-12’s ceiling will remain limited.
This isn’t just about rankings or tournament bids - it’s about perception. Conference supremacy is often decided not just by who’s at the top, but by how strong the league is from top to bottom.
Right now, the Big East has the edge. But the Pac-12’s reformation gives it a chance to rewrite the narrative.
The pieces are in place. Now it’s up to the programs to deliver.