Villanova is better then Syracuse based on what? A last second win over a 3 loss Kansas team on a desperate 3?
Secondly Syracuse has been a 3, 1, 3, 1, 4 seeding in the last 5 NCAA's. Keep this in mind after a 9-5 start in 2010-11 Villanova lost 6 straight to end the season including 5 straight in the BE and then went 5-13 the next year (that is a stretch of 5-18 in the BE conference). That is AWFUL. Syracuse, UNC, Duke, Louisville WILL NEVER go thru a stretch that bad. NEVER.
My point is not to disparage Nova or Wright my point is Villanova is a program that is very good but not even close to that level even if you concede they are better then Syracuse right now and I don't.
And the A-10 argument is my point, there is NO ONE who puts the A-10 in a top 5 conference. Again you have 12-14 teams and you get 5 bids, that is nice but it is a product of having a lot of teams and look at the seeds. No 1, 2 or 3 seeds.
The BE at 16 teams was not the best conference because it always got the most bids (that was nice) but because it got 1, 2 and 3's consistently. Remember in 2009 they got 7 teams but look at how good they were. 3 no. 1's is still a record. 2 number 3 seeds and 2 no. 6 seeds means the committee felt that the BE had 7 teams among the top 24 (multiply 6 by 4) in the country. Or 5 teams among the top 12 in the country. NEVER happened before.
And this early look at the top 16 teams for the NCAA's has exactly ONE BE school, 3 ACC, 3 Big 10, 3 Big 12, 3 AAC, 2 PAC 12, and 1 SEC school.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20131217/bracket-watch-wisconsin-badgers-ncaa-tournament/The BE is NOT close to being among the top 2 conferences in the country. No way. More importantly what happens when McDermott leaves, is Creighton still going to be solid/decent?