Syracuse is a mainstay in the tournament, and were a 1 seed 2 of the last 3 years while playing in hands down the best conference in college basketball. Pitt had a down year last year, before that they made the tourney 9 straight years, and were never lower than a 5 seed for the last 5 of those years, they'll bounce back
The Big East was not hands down the best conference in basketball the past few years. They've been highly overrated. How many times did Nova and Georgetown have to get swagged on for you to see that?