I was debating with another Illini fan about how much roster turnover is too much turnover in the transfer portal era, and we brought up how Michigan State and Purdue are having less transfer churn than other teams, and he made a snide remark about "Yea, and we saw how that worked out with Purdue"...I then said I would trade Illinois' season with Purdue's in a heart beat, and it got me thinking...how many teams would I rather have their season than Purdue? So I decided to do way too much, and rank each team's (until I got tired) season.

Sure, we're in for a good "rank the teams" Fanpost. Front-paged. --Mgmt

Criteria:

These rankings don't take into account fan base expectations, preseason expectations, or previous year frustrations/succeses. Just because Illinois hasn't been to the sweet 16 since Watergate doesn't mean I lower this season further, and just because FAU hadn't won a tourney game ever doesn't mean their fun run gets elevated higher. They are based entirely on how one team's season stands against another in a vaccuum.

1. The Champion is king, and the Final 4 stands out above all else.

2. Tourney advancement matters, but so does hanging banners. Just because an 8 seed knocks off a 1, it does not mean they had the better season. Regular season banners matter more than conference tourney, outright champs matter more than shared, and the more powerful the conference the more weight it holds (Winning B10>Winning American East)

3. Making the real NCAA tournament trumps anything you can do in the NIT, but if you lose in Dayton you are fair game to be below non tourney teams.

4. Once we are parsing round of 32 or 64 teams with somewhat similar regular seasons, putting up more of a fight in the tourney matters.

So lets get to it!

Results

1. UConn Huskies

2. San Diego State Aztecs (NCAA final, MWC regular season and tourney champs)

3. Miami Hurricanes (Final 4, ACC shared regular season champ

4. Florida Atlantic Owls (Final 4, C-USA dual champs) 3 and 4 are close, nudge goes to Miami putting together a more difficult and convincing tourney run.

5. Alabama Crimson Tide (Sweet 16, Dual SEC champs)

6. Gonzaga Bulldogs (Elite 8, Dual WCC champs)

7. Texas Longhorns (Elite 8, Big 12 tourney champs)

8. UCLA Bruins (Sweet 16, Pac 12 dual champs)

9. Houston Cougars (Sweet 16, AAC regular season champs)

10. Kansas State Wildcats (Elite 8)

11. Creighton Bluejays (Elite 8)

12. Kansas Jayhawks (Round of 32, Big 12 regular season champs)

13. Marquette Golden Eagles (Round of 32, Big East dual champs)

14. Purdue Boilermakers (Round of 64, Big 10 dual champs)

15. Princeton Tigers (Sweet 16, Dual Ivy champs)

16. St. Mary's Gaels (Round of 32, Shared WCC regular season title)

17. Xavier Musketeers (Sweet 16)

18. Tennessee Volunteers (Sweet 16)

19. Michigan State Spartans (Sweet 16)

20. Arkansas Razorbacks (Sweet 16)

21. Duke Blue Devils (32, ACC conference champ)

22. Virginia Cavaliers (64, ACC shared regular season title)

23. Memphis Tigers (64 in a nail biter to FAU, AAC tourney title)

24. Furman Paladins (32, Southern Dual Champs)

25. Baylor Bears (32)

26. Kentucky Wildcats (32)

27. TCU Horned Frogs (32)

28. Northwestern Wildcats (32)

29. Indiana Hoosiers (32)

30. Penn State Nittany Lions (32)

31. Pittsburgh Panthers (32)

32. Auburn Tigers (32)

33. Maryland Terrapins (32)

34. Missouri Tigers (32)

35. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (32)

36. Arizona Wildcats (2 seed, but won nothing this year)

37. VCU Rams (A10 dual champs)

38. Charleston Cougars (CAA dual champs, regular season shared)

39. Drake Bulldogs (MVC conference champs)

40. Kennesaw State Owls (ASUN dual champs, regular season shared)

41. Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (Summit Dual Champs)

42. Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns (Sun Belt conference champs)

43. Iona Gaels (MAAC dual champs)

44. UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (Big West dual champs, regular season shared)

45. Colgate Raiders (Patriot Dual Champs)

46. Vermont Catamounts (Am. East Dual Champs)

47. UNC Asheville Bulldogs (Big South Dual Champs)

48. Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders (Southland dual champs)

49. Howard Bison (MEAC dual champs)

50. Kent State Golden Flashes (MAC conference champs)

51. Montana State Bobcats (Big Sky conference champs)

52. Grand Canyon Lopes (WAC conference champs)

53. Northern Kentucky Norse (Horizon conference Champs)

54. West Virginia Mountaineers

55. Arizona State Sun Devils

56. NC State Wolfpack

57. Illinois Fighting Illini

58. Iowa Hawkeyes

59. USC Trojans

60. Providence Friars

61. Utah State Aggies

62. Boise State Broncos

63. Texas A&M Aggies

64. Iowa State Cyclones

65. North Texas Mean Green (NIT champs)

66. Utah Valley Wolverines (WAC regular season champs, NIT semifinalist)

67. UAB Blazers (NIT finalist)

68. Mississippi State Bulldogs (Dayton)

69. Wisconsin Badgers (NIT Semifinalist)

70. Nevada Wolf Pack (Got destroyed in Dayton)

71. SEMO State Redhawks (OVC tourney champ, beaten in Dayton)

72. Texas Southern Tigers (SWAC tourney champ, beaten in Dayton)

73. Oklahoma State Cowboys (NIT quarterfinalist)

74. Oregon Ducks (NIT quarterfinalist)

75. Vanderbilt Commodores (NIT quarterfinalist)

76. Cincinnati Bearcats (NIT quarterfinalist)

Alright, that is sick enough.