March Madness is Coming!

This is the time of year when college basketball gets really interesting. Because it is the major sport with (by far) the largest tournaments (men and women's), there are a lot of teams who still have a shot at the big dance.

If you haven't been paying attention, here are the top 25 men's teams (from the AP poll) as of last night:

1. Duke
2. Gonzaga
3. Virginia
4. Kentucky
5. Tennessee
6. Nevada
7. Michigan
8. UNC
9. Houston
10. Michigan State

Ok, can I take a little break for commentary right here? First of all, I find it fascinating that you have 6 big state schools (predictably), but also a commuter school (Houston), a smaller state school (Nevada), and a little private school (Gonzaga) along with a Duke (Duke). It's a better mix than we see in football. And it gets even more interesting in the next batch:

11. Marquette
12. Kansas
13. LSU
14. Texas Tech
15. Purdue
16. Florida State
17. Villanova
18. Louisville
19. Iowa State
20. Virginia Tech
21. Iowa
22. Wisconsin
23. Kansas State
24. Maryland
25. Buffalo

Just outside the 25 top-ranked teams we find Wofford and Yale(!). Weird. And what is missing from this whole group?

The entire Pac-12! The Big 10 has six teams ranked, and the Pac-12, home of legendary programs like UCLA and Arizona, has nobody. That's very odd.