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Here is how Conference USA has fared in the NCAA Tournament. The league did not come into existence until the 1995-96 season. Its primary
descendents, the Great Midwest and Metro conferences, had overlapping memberships and therefore cannot be evaluated prior to 1996:
Conference USA has received 21 tournament bids in its six seasons. This averages exactly 3.5 per season.
Only four C-USA entrants have advanced to the Sweet 16 (19.0 percent). No C-USA teams have reached the Final Four since joining the conference.
The most "overachieving" C-USA team of this abbreviated era was Louisville in 1997. The No. 6 seeded Cardinals reached the East Region
finals before falling to North Carolina.
Cincinnati is the notable C-USA "underachiever." The Bearcats were No. 2 seeds in both 1998 and 2000, only to fall in the second round. The
2000 loss should have an asterisk, however, as it came on the heals of the tragic injury to Player of the Year Kenyon Martin.
Conference USA's overall NCAA winning percentage from 1996-2001 is .488 (20-21). Its "Bracketology Score" is 0.891. (Translation: NCAA
games played divided by number of games conference members were seeded to play; average score equals 1.000).
Joe Lunardi is the resident "bracketologist" for ESPN.com. He may be reached at jlunardi@home.com.
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