Not exactly realignment related, but I figure we could use a little sports talk in between
I haven't been paying a ton of attention to the basketball season, but we are nearing its end and I wanted to see how all the big conference races were stacking up. Feel free to add anything as this is just a quick scan through.
Atlantic 10: Temple (10-2) and St. Louis (10-3) in a 2 man race for the conference crown. Temple won the game between them and there isn't another one.
ACC: North Carolina (11-2), Duke (10-2), and Florida State (10-2) all tied in the loss column have decent shots at the ACC crown. Duke still has a game left against both Florida State and North Carolina and thus is guaranteed an outright championship if they win out. Florida State and North Carolina both would need the other to lose for an outright championship.
Big 12: Kansas (12-2) is a half game ahead of Missouri (12-3). The final basketball Border War will be at Kansas Saturday and will likely either leave Kansas set up for an outright title or leave both with an excellent chance for a shared title.
Big East: Syracuse (14-1) has a 2 game lead over its closest competition with only 3 games left. Marquette and Notre Dame need to win out and hope Syracuse loses 2 vs. South Florida, @ UConn, and Louisville to get a share of the title. It should be noted that all three of those last 3 opponents are pretty good with South Florida actually at 10-4 in conference (a surprise to me who hadn't been paying attention to the Big East race).
Big Ten: A three team race in the Big Ten. Michigan State is in the drivers seat at 11-3. Ohio State (11-4) still controls its destiny for a share of the title at least as it ends the season at Michigan State. The Buckeyes did lose their first game against the Spartans in Columbus though. Michigan (11-4) need Michigan State to drop one and to win out to hope for a share of the title. Michigan State's toughest game left is probably actually at Indiana (Big Ten road games have been exceedingly hard to win this year).
Conference USA: Southern Miss and Memphis tied on top here with Tulsa and Central Florida a game back in the loss column. Southern Miss doesn't play any of those teams so it looks like they have the easiest path to the conference championship. Memphis does play Tulsa and Central Florida still.
Mountain West: New Mexico has a 2 game lead. Neither UNLV nor San Diego St. get another game against them so they'll have to win out and hope New Mexico drops at least 2 of its last 4.
PAC-12: Cal and Washington are tied at 12-3. Colorado is only one game back as far as losses go at 10-4. Colorado does play Cal so all they need is for Washington to lose one for them to be back in control of their fate.
SEC: Kentucky is undefeated in conference and has a three game lead over Florida. They will be outright champs.