BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

A year ago, it was the Thrill of Victory for the Big East.  "Now that the round of sixteen has been set, the commissioner of the Big East is unhappy that no teams from his conference have been eliminated.  No, seriously."  His gripe was about other teams from his conference being among the "last four out," or however they describe the conclave that sets the field.

This year, though, you will look in vain for DePaul or Marquette or St. John's still playing.

Them that has gets.  "How long have I been carrying on about College Sports, Inc. realigning until there are four major conferences of sixteen teams each and the National Collegiate Athletic Association becomes irrelevant?"

The joker in the deck has been the Big East.  "There's the little challenge of the basketball-heavy Big East alongside the football-powered Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, and Big Twelve."  How much can change in a year?  In the women's tournament, the same four conferences account for fifteen of the sixteen teams still playing, the sixteenth being ZooConn.  Notre Dame recently moved from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast for basketball.

Those other conferences whose continued existence provides that veneer of amateur athletics for College Sports, Inc?  Almost all were one and done, with some of the automatic qualifying teams getting those cherished sixteenth seeds in the first four games played.

End the fiction.  With thirteen of the Southeastern teams in the so-called Big Dance, it's become de facto the real tournament for the big four conferences.