Fall sports, from college football to the NFL, have been bizarre. Covid outbreaks, schedule adjustments and the need for endless flexibility. There's little doubt, bubbles will be burst far before Greg Gumbel has the chance to announce the bracket - if there is such a selection show this year.

Preseason predictions are less relevant than ever before. The sports landscape is secondary to those of national health and safety. We may see dramatic interruptions, and depending on how or when those interrupt, different teams will rise or fall as a result. 

Nonetheless, we push forward. Our conference previews will look at only the six power conferences throughout the NCAA: ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve and Pac-12.

From an individual talent and NBA scouting perspective, the SEC was the place to be last year. Although a bit of a bloodbath in terms of the standings, the experience and recruiting prowess of all these coaches is quickly raising SEC hoops into the conversation for best conference in the country.

Leading the way is traditional blueblood Kentucky with their one-and-done, talent-grabbing nature. It rarely fails, meaning most teams chase them. Rick Barnes at Tennessee and Mike White at Florida are running programs based on continuity, a nice changeup to Calipari's tactics. With recruiting wizards Ben Howland (Mississippi State), Tom Crean (Georgia), Cuonzo Martin (Missouri), Bruce Pearl (Auburn) and Will Wade (LSU) establishing footholds, the rest of the league is consistently rising.

Let's not overlook those unique spots, either. Frank Martin has coached South Carolina to deep runs in March, and he'll have an experienced group returning. Nate Oats has injected tempo into Alabama's program and is a proven winner. Eric Musselman is not shy in Arkansas and Texas A&M is always better than you think with Buzz Williams at the helm. As the bottom of the league rises, there are few easy outs and even fewer easy predictions to make. The SEC may not lead the country in number of ranked teams, but there are at least ten schools who have the talent to clearly be ranked this season.

Fall sports, from college football to the NFL, have been bizarre. Covid outbreaks, schedule adjustments and the need for endless flexibility. There's little doubt, bubbles will be burst far before Greg Gumbel has the chance to announce the bracket - if there is such a selection show this year.

Preseason predictions are less relevant than ever before. The sports landscape is secondary to those of national health and safety. We may see dramatic interruptions, and depending on how or when those interrupt, different teams will rise or fall as a result. 

Nonetheless, we push forward. Our conference previews will look at only the six power conferences throughout the NCAA: ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve and Pac-12. Many believe the Big Twelve is the nation's most potent conference, with a perennial national power in Kansas chased by a ton of rugged, athletic, blue collar groups. With star freshman Cade Cunningham at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys will look to play spoiler; they're banned from postseason play due to NCAA sanctions. They're the biggest wild card and unique piece in this puzzle.

​In recent years, teams have been hot on the Jayhawks tail, albeit unable to catch them. Texas Tech was national runner-up in 2019. Baylor held the nation's top spot for a large chunk of last season. Could either team catch up this year, or is there a different contender nipping at the Jayhawks heels?

​Fall sports, from college football to the NFL, have been bizarre. Covid outbreaks, schedule adjustments and the need for endless flexibility. There's little doubt, bubbles will be burst far before Greg Gumbel has the chance to announce the bracket - if there is such a selection show this year.

Preseason predictions are less relevant than ever before. The sports landscape is secondary to those of national health and safety. We may see dramatic interruptions, and depending on how or when those interrupt, different teams will rise or fall as a result. 

Nonetheless, we push forward. Our conference previews will look at only the six power conferences throughout the NCAA: ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve and Pac-12. A perennial power conference, the ACC has dipped in terms of prestige and national prominence the last couple seasons. Part of that comes from the dominance of Duke and Virginia at the top, and part is from other second-tier clubs like Florida State disappointing come tourney time. The up-and-down nature in recent years of other bluebloods, like Louisville, North Carolina and Syracuse has certainly hurt national perception. If two of those three are bad, the conference doesn't live up to expectations.

This year may be a different story. Five of those aforementioned six are a top-tier, though the conference has a sizeable gap between its top-five and the rest of the pack. Perhaps there will be a surprise or two ready to leap up the standings; we've seen some crazy moves up and down the league of late. Still, many coaches are just getting their feet wet. Mike Young at Virginia Tech, Steve Forbes is taking over at Wake Forest and Jeff Capel is in Year 3 of a daunting rebuild at Pitt.

It's do-or-die time for some other coaches. Kevin Keatts at NC State and Josh Pastner at Georgia Tech need to make moves into the top tier. Jim Christian at Boston College and Brad Brownell at Clemson have gotten plenty of chances without bearing major results. Establishment names like Mike Brey, Jim Boeheim and Jim Larranaga are always a threat if they have the pieces in place. There's no shortage of teams who could surprise in either direction, making the conference as a whole tough to predict and difficult to count on for strength come March.

The Fall sports, from college football to the NFL, have been bizarre. Covid outbreaks, schedule adjustments and the need for endless flexibility. There's little doubt, bubbles will be burst far before Greg Gumbel has the chance to announce the bracket - if there is such a selection show this year.

Preseason predictions are less relevant than ever before. The sports landscape is secondary to those of national health and safety. We may see dramatic interruptions, and depending on how or when those interrupt, different teams will rise or fall as a result. 

Nonetheless, we push forward. Our conference previews will look at only the six power conferences throughout the NCAA: ACC, Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big Twelve and Pac-12. We start these previews with the weakest conference of the lot, the Pac-12. No disrespect to the West Coast, but last season was underwhelming from a team standpoint, with only Oregon finishing the season ranked in the top 25.

There was an immense amount of one-and-done talent departing, from the Arizona guys to Tyrell Terry at Stanford and Onyeka Okongwu at USC, Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels at Washington, though there's some intriguing newcomers to replace them. Likewise, the mid-tier teams lost important upperclassmen cogs that will be difficult to replace. Colorado lost Tyler Bey, Oregon State saw Tres Tinkle depart, and Wazzou is without CJ Elleby. The Pac-12 is in a really odd spot.

There could be the possibility the Pac-12 is a five or six-bid league back in the NCAA Tournament, which they haven't been in the past couple. That said, the bottom and middle of the league are regressing, which hurts the league in-general.