I’m a big conference guy when it comes to appreciating where the strength is in college basketball. Always have been, always will be.

While a segment of the college hoop fandom yearns for schools such as Monmouth and Arkansas at Little Rock and Valparaiso to find a way into the NCAA Tournament if they fail to win their conference’s automatic berth, I say too bad. Yes, the deck is stacked against those schools. No one is going to play at Valpo, for example. Monmouth opened eyes back in November with wins over Notre Dame, Southern California, UCLA and Georgetown. But since then the Hawks have lost at Canisius, Army and Manhattan. Sorry, you better win the MAAC Tournament if you want to go dancing in March.

This subject is relevant at this time of year because the TV and radio talking heads are beginning the utter the word "bubble" in every other sentence. This team loses, it’s on the bubble. This team wins, it’s off the bubble.

Amid all the bubble talk, just remember one thing: the big conferences are set to clean up once again. In the latest NCAA Ratings Percentage Index, the Big 12 has seven of the top 30 teams; the ACC has seven of the top 35; the Pac-12 has seven of the top 36; the Big Ten has five of the top 30.

There are three weeks of games remaining before Selection Sunday but if you don’t reside in those leagues, you’d best be wary. There are a few exceptions, of course, such as Villanova and Xavier from the Big East, Kentucky from the SEC and Dayton from the Atlantic 10. But every other team in the A-10, the American, the Big East, the SEC and anywhere else is essentially on the bubble.

Unlike in football where the self-proclaimed Power Five hold all the power, the best conferences in college basketball can change yearly. Two years ago the Atlantic 10 was among five leagues that secured six or more NCAA bids. Those five leagues placed 31 teams in the field of 68 and 10 advanced to the Sweet 16. In 2015 the Big East was one of four conferences with six or more teams. Those four leagues accounted for 26 bids and 10 of the Sweet 16 participants.

Notice that the undisputed best college football conference — the SEC — was not included in the previous paragraph. After Kentucky, the SEC has been paper-thin for years. After all, spring practice is much more important than March Madness in Tuscaloosa, Athens and Baton Rogue. That’s about to change after a series of strong coaching hires, but the league will be lucky to get more than three teams into this year’s field.

This all leads to a discussion of the Big East and A-10. These leagues may be swimming against the financial tide in a college sports world dominated by football money, but you can compete in basketball. Ask Villanova, which is second in the RPI and looking at a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs for the second year in a row. Look at Virginia Commonwealth, which has sold out its arena 81 times in a row and is in position to go to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season. Basketball at those schools is important, fully funded and successful. Anything less than a full commitment and you cannot consistently compete on a national scale.

Providence is doing its best to be all in as well. Under Ed Cooley, the Friars have acted like a big conference team. They’ve scheduled aggressively, travel via charter nearly all the time, pay their head coach well north of $1 million and are filling their arena like few times in history. A basketball practice facility is finally off the drawing board and, when completed, will get the Friars on equal footing with many of the top 75 programs in the country.

But this season the Big East won’t be among the big conferences on Selection Sunday. The league has two of the top 10 teams in the RPI (‘Nova, Xavier) but doesn’t have the depth of last year when six teams played in the NCAAs. That means the Friars are among the waves of teams in college basketball that find themselves on the bubble right now. Four gut-check games remain in the regular season, starting on Thursday at Seton Hall. If PC can win three of the four, they’ll be dancing for the third straight season. Anything less will put a bid in jeopardy.