I read this and wondered what he meant by "gaming". It's as if he's implying that the Big 12 is somehow gaming things by having so many good teams in it and it's not fair to other conferences who are weaker.
In the end, you still have to win. While a loss to Houston or ISU isn't a "bad loss" it's still a loss and if you're at the bottom of the Big 12, and have a cupcake non-con schedule, you're still going to have trouble making the tournament.
The alternative is seems is to be like Gonzaga. Most years, they play a mid-level non-con slate and then run the table on a conference that has more cupcakes than my local bakery. So Gonzaga enters the tourney as a top ranked team with few losses. Granted, it didn't work out this year for them, but that's a similar anomaly to KU losing a home game to an unranked opponent in AFH. Lightning DOES strike occasionally.
If other conferences want to 'game' the system, they need to play better basketball. No matter what else you have to say about this season, the Big 12 has once again proven to be one of (if not THE) toughest conference in the country.
