Rowland: Is the SEC really college basketball's best conference?

With the SEC winning its first annual challenge contest with the Big 12 conference and so many college basketball pundits lauding the league as the best in the nation, it's a fair time to ask: Is the SEC really the nation's best conference?

There's no singular, authoritative way to measure that, but digging into the numbers deeper and taking a comprehensive look at several potential angles is a good place to start.

The RPI might be falling out of favor with the NCAA tournament selection committee, slowly but surely and in the absence of a widely accepted alternative - but it's still a valuable tool in gauging some things.

"Average RPI ranking" is the average RPI ranking of the schools in each conference. The higher the score, the better. These numbers are updated as of Monday morning, so through the weekend's games.

1. Big 12 (0.5950)

2. ACC (0.5935)

3. SEC (0.5929)

4. Big East (0.5920)

5. Pac 12 (0.5617)

6. Big Ten (0.5572)

By that number alone the Big 12 would be the nation's best conference. Of course, the SEC just defeated the Big 12 in the two leagues' interconference challenge, six games to four. A 6-4 total in a slate of imprecise matchups is hardly conclusive especially with random home/away splits. But it is worth noting, especially since the SEC's top team, Auburn, did not participate in the challenge.

The Big 12 is also the nation's top conference according to win percentage.

1. Big 12 (145-62, 70%)

2. ACC (214-102, 68%)

3. Big East (145-68, 68%)

4. SEC (188-100, 65%)

5. Big Ten (200-114, 64%)

6. Pac 12 (158-98, 62%)

7. American Athletic (154-96, 62%)

A conference's straight-up record tells part of the story, but only in context.

The strength of schedule each conference has faced heavily influences a league's overall record. That's where the SEC's case begins. The SEC's average strength of schedule (measured by RPI) is the toughest in the country to date.

1. SEC (0.5856)

2. ACC (0.5746)

3. Big East (0.5722)

4. Big 12 (0.5720)

While the Big 12 has the overall record advantage over the ACC, Big East and SEC by a fairly solid margin (70% to 65% is not a small gap), the SEC's schools have played a substantially more difficult schedule to date. That factors almost half of the conference schedule to date and the full non-conference schedule for those schools. Given that the Big 12's average RPI ranking is the toughest in the country, it stands to reason that the SEC's average non-conference schedule was significantly tougher than the Big 12's to make up for the overall gap in strength of schedule.

There are different ways to measure a league's strength and that's why this exercise is mostly a matter of what a person chooses to value. Is a top-heavy league with multiple national championship contenders stronger than a conference with a deep pool of top 50 teams? It just depends on what you choose to value and, if we're being honest, there might not always be an easy answer.

The SEC's case for conference supremacy in 2017-18 would have to rest on the league being deep. Very deep.

Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee would all be in the NCAA tournament if the tournament started today. It's plausible that South Carolina, Missouri and Texas A&M could be in the tournament as well. That's nine of 14 conference teams "in" or on the bubble. However, ESPN's Joe Lunardi only projects Auburn as a top four seed currently.

The SEC is not the only league that can make a case based on depth, however. The ACC is projected to place Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Louisville, Florida State and Miami into the NCAA tournament, with NC State, Virginia Tech and Syracuse as potential adds as well.

The one big difference between the two leagues, when measured by quality and quantity of real depth, is that the ACC's upper echelon teams are ranked slightly higher than the SEC's with Virginia and Duke as a likely (UVA) and potential (Duke) 1-seed.

While the Big 12 has an impressive overall record and doesn't have many duds, as a smaller league with good depth, the league has not faced the kind of competition that the SEC has and just lost a head-to-head challenge that should have favored it in some respects.

The real battle for conference supremacy is between the SEC and the ACC. While the SEC has the toughest average strength of the schedule, the ACC currently has a slightly higher average RPI ranking and probably more viable contenders for the Final Four. For that reason, give the ACC an ever-so-slight edge that's still subject to change based on how teams perform in the NCAA tournament.

If you're skeptical of the RPI, and there's plenty of room to be skeptical of it, take KenPom instead and the SEC has four of that model's top 35 teams.