The Big Tin

 We fall for this every year, of course. We're Charlie Brown; the Big Ten is Lucy with the football.

The Big Ten is the toughest league in the country! Hell, they might put FIVE teams in the Final Four!

The ACC, wow, you can smell it all the way up here. The Big Ten is better IN EVERY WAY!

The Big 12? Fuggedaboutit. The Pac-12? Do they even PLAY basketball anymore?

Every year. Every ... freakin' ... year.

And then we wake up the morning after the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and, damn, where did the Big Ten go? Nine teams made the field; only two are left. And one of the two is an 11-seed a lot of wise guys had getting knocked out in the first round.

Purdue and Michigan: That's what's left of the mighty Big Tin, er, Ten, going into the Sweet Sixteen.

The ACC?

Um, North Carolina's still around. Duke's still around. Miami's still around after kicking 2-seed Auburn and its oily coach Bruce Pearl to the curb by 18. 

The Big-12?

Hey, look, it's Kansas again! Also Iowa State. Also Texas Tech.

And the Pac-12?

Yep, Arizona's still alive. So is UCLA.

It's a hell of thing, this particular Sweet Sixteen. In addition to the Big Ten not having eleventy-hundred teams in the Sweet Eleventy-Hundred, there's an 8-seed (Carolina), a 10-seed (Miami), two 11-seeds (Michigan and Iowa State) and, of course, 15-seed St. Peter's. That's a lot of double digits still showing their faces at this point.

As for the Big Tin, er, Ten ...

Well, let's review.

Indiana lost by 28 to St. Mary's, which in turn lost by 16 to UCLA.

Illinois lost by 15 to Houston. 

Iowa State shocked Wisconsin by five, Duke eliminated Michigan State by nine, Villanova booted Ohio State by 10, Iowa lost by four to Richmond in a 12-over-5 upset, and Rutgers didn't even get out of the play-in round, losing to underseeded Notre Dame.

Nine in; seven out.

Every year. Every freakin' year.