We were more than happy to see the non-conference portion of the college basketball season come to an end. But we’re going to have to revisit those numbers in March, when teams from far and wide will be thrown together at the NCAA Tournament.

You can get an appreciation for the relative merits of each conference by looking at the RPI or, preferably, the Pomeroy rankings. The current leader in RPI is the Atlantic Coast Conference, followed by the Pacific-10 and the Big East. Pomeroy has the Pac-10 on top ahead of the Big 12 and the ACC.

Fans of the Missouri Valley Conference were worried this summer about getting just one berth in this year’s Tournament, and it looks like their fears may have been justified. The MVC has slipped behind the Atlantic-10 on both the RPI and Pomeroy charts. No wonder Drake is 7-0 SU in conference play and 11-2 ATS overall this year.