Power rankings

The Big Ten put nine teams into the NCAA tournament last season. The ACC boasts No. 1 North Carolina. Yet neither is considered the toughest conference in 2022-23 by the Associated Press. The wire service rankings:

1. Big 12: The Big 12 kept its hold on the national title when Kansas won last season after Baylor earned the crown a year earlier. The Big 12 nearly had three in a row, but Texas Tech lost in the 2019 title game.

2. SEC: A look at the preseason Top 25 indicates the SEC could emerge as the best conference of all. It has five ranked teams, all in the top 20: No. 4 Kentucky, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 15 Auburn and No. 20 Alabama. In addition, Kentucky has consensus national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe, pictured.

3. ACC: Has the nation’s topranked team in North Carolina, which returns preseason AP All-American Armando Bacot from a team that lost to Kansas in the 2022 title game. No. 7 Duke sans Mike Krzyzewski had the nation’s top recruiting class.

4. Big Ten: Figures to take a step back after having three players (Iowa’s Keegan Murray, Purdue’s Jaden Ivey and Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis) among the top 10 picks in the NBA draft. No. 13 Indiana is the only Big Ten team ranked higher than 22nd in the preseason Top 25.

5. Pac-12: The league sent just three teams to the NCAA tournament despite benefiting from the resurgence of Arizona. The Pac-12 heads into this season with three ranked teams led by No. 8 UCLA.

6. Big East: No. 9 Creighton is the preseason pick to win the league, the first time the Bluejays have had that honor since joining the conference in 2013-14. The only other ranked Big East team is No. 16 Villanova under new coach Kyle Neptune.