Big East

Unlike the NBA, where most starting lineups are set in stone weeks before the season, NCAA starting fives are highly unsettled and constantly in flux.

In this the tenth year of the Bowl Championship Series, you have to think back to where the Big East was five years ago to appreciate its growth. The spring of 2003 should have been a happy time for the conference due to its success on the basketball court, but the departure of Miami and Virginia Tech (with Boston College to follow a year later) was thought to be the kiss of death. After some growing pains, a funny thing happened: the Big East could play some football.

In recent weeks, the Rise & Fall series has chronicled the progress (or regress) of college basketball's major conference teams. But if I equated each team to a civilization, I was mistaken. It is really the NCAA conference that equates to a burgeoning civilization or nation, each with its sometimes stable and sometimes rotating member states. Like civilizations, the prestige and power of conferences wax and wane..

Like civilizations, all great basketball programs eventually fall.. replaced by an upstart newcomer. In this week's Rise & Fall series, we'll take a look at which BCS programs are rising, falling, or merely treading water. Up today, the:

BIG EAST

We'll be rolling out our annual 144 Teams in 144 Days preview in just a couple weeks.. so it seemed like a good time to throw out my offseason Top 50 picks. With Draft entries settled, we have a clearer look at what is already shaping up to be another wild and exciting season of college basketball!

We're only one day beyond the 2008 National Championship Game.. but its never too early to start thinking about next year's Tournament. Here's an early projection of the 2009 NCAA Tournament field: