A look at both the "good" and "bad" of each of the 31 conferences heading into the 2001-02 season:

America East: The good ... BU and Maine have a chance to win the title now that Delaware and Hofstra moved to the Colonial. The bad ... The RPI will plummet because of their departure. Hot coaching name: Maine's John Giannini keeps getting close to nabbing another job.

ACC: The good ... The Duke and Maryland games will be the two best in-conference games of any league this season. The bad ... Clemson, N.C. State and Florida State could face a frustrating February where the focus isn't on the court.

Atlantic Sun (formerly TAAC): The good ... Lefty Driesell's Georgia State Panthers aren't a one-year wonder, but could have trouble repeating their feat of winning a first-round NCAA Tournament game. The bad ... The bottom of the league will drag Georgia State's power rating down and hurt its seed even more.

	Lefty's got another talented bunch at Georgia State, but can Driesell's Panthers duplicate last season's March magic?

Atlantic 10: The good ... Saint Joseph's and Temple give the league two legit chances of making the Final Four in what could be one of the best in-city rivalries this season. The bad ... Rhode Island, Duquesne and GW better do their part to raise the power rating of this league or it could bring Saint Joseph's and Temple down.

Big East: The good ... This could be one of the best races of any league with no dominant team, and 10 teams who could make an argument for an NCAA Tournament bid. The bad ... The divisions and the lack of consistent crossover opponents hurts the Big East nationally and its chance to maintain rivalries within the league.

Big Sky: The good ... Weber State is returning to the top of the league, making Joe Cravens' hire looking better and better when the Wildcats took a chance on the longtime assistant. The bad ... Losing Cal State-Northridge hurts the league's appeal in California, preventing the schools using Southern California as a recruiting tool without a chance to play there each season.

Big South: The good ... Winthrop is the class of the league and has its best team under Gregg Marshall, a team that could actually win an NCAA Tournament game. The bad ... This league was half of the "play-in" game and needs to avoid that again this season to avoid the stigma of being one of having one of the worst power ratings (31 out of 31 last season).

Big Ten: The good ... It's rare today when the two candidates for MVP return a following season with Frank Williams (Illinois) and Luke Recker (Iowa) back for another season. The bad ... The dropoff for Wisconsin and Penn State will be painful to watch as these programs try not to fall from the NCAAs to last place in one season.

Big 12: The good ... .Like him or not, Bob Knight will give this league even more exposure and will prove immeasurable for Texas Tech, while the race for the top six spots is as tight as it was the past two seasons. The bad ... No matter how much better Baylor, Texas A&M and Kansas State get they still will have a hard time cracking the top six.

Big West: The good ... Jerry Green returned to UC Irvine after a foolish chance at declaring for the draft, and the Anteaters are still the team to beat ahead of UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and Utah State. The bad ... The days of two bids out of this league are long gone after sending one team the past eight NCAAs, even though Utah State beat Ohio State in the first round last March.

Colonial: The good ... Hofstra and Delaware joined a league that could have folded within two seasons, giving it more credibility and more of a presence in the Northeast. The bad ... Teams like William & Mary will find it harder to move up in the league with the addition of the America East teams.

Conference USA: The good ... Adding Rick Pitino at Louisville and the talent at Memphis raises the profile for the league and gives it a charisma it lacked last season. The bad ... Too many teams means few rivalries and no true champion in a league that should be about basketball not football.

Horizon (formerly Midwestern Collegiate Conference): The good ... Butler is as talented as last season and could reach the second round, even though the Bulldogs have a new coach (Todd Lickliter). The bad ... This league gets too little exposure with the race among Butler, Detroit and Cleveland State likely to be one of the better low-profile fights for first.

Ivy: The good ... Nothing against Penn and Princeton, but there's a realistic chance the streak of those two dominating the title since 1988 could be broken by Brown. The bad ... The RPI of this league continues to hover around 28, meaning the Ivy champ could once again get such a poor seed that it doesn't have much of a chance in the Dance.

MAAC: The good ... Jeff Ruland stayed at Iona instead of going to Seton Hall or Rutgers, Bobby Gonzalez has Manhattan back as an elite team in the league and the race is tight with those two, Niagara, Canisius and Fairfield. The bad ... All these good vibes go to waste in the NCAAs -- where the MAAC hasn't won a game since '95 -- as they try to produce Gonzaga-like programs.

MAC: The good ... The league deserves multiple bids and this could be the season with the teams playing better non-conference schedules, meaning a chance to improve the power rating before conference play. The bad ... Winning a division doesn't carry as much weight with the NIT as Central Michigan found out last season.

Mid-Continent: The good ... Having Valpo back atop the league means Homer Drew in the Dance and, trust us, that's a good thing. The bad ... Southern Utah could actually go from the NCAAs to last place after losing four starters, which shows how fragile this league can be for teams.

MEAC: The good ... Hampton's win over Iowa State last season gives this league the praise it deserves. The bad ... Hampton's Steve Merfeld and South Carolina State's Cy Alexander still can't get a sniff on higher-profile jobs.

MVC: The good ... This league continues to give teams a chance to move up, get to the NCAAs and then cycle back down in one of the most balanced divisions in Division I. The bad ... The Valley could catch a bad break like the MAC last season and have two to three deserving teams but only get one bid.

MWC: The good ... Utah's Rick Majerus is back on the bench and Wyoming has one of the most talented frontcourts that few have heard of but is making NBA scouts cruise through Laramie this fall. The bad ... Three teams might be deserving of bids, but the power ratings of the bottom two to three teams will likely make that implausible come March.

Northeast: The good ... Wagner's Dereck Whittenberg has a shot to get to the Dance as a head coach, which would reward the former N.C. State guard's patience for taking a lower profile position. The bad ... The league is simply too big and 12 teams can't be satisfied, not to mention able to keep the power rating out of the bottom three.

	Don't be surprised if Bryant Latimer and a dangerous Winthrop team actually wins an NCAA Tournament game this season.

Ohio Valley: The good ... Jeff Lebo didn't get the North Carolina gig but he should get an NCAA Tournament berth for Tennessee Tech. The bad ... Eastern Illinois forward Henry Domercant continues to get no love natinally for his scoring ability.

Pac-10: The good ... The league is actually deeper than last season with six legit NCAA Tournament teams entering the season, including an Arizona team that should be taken seriously from Day One (tonight). The bad ... Having eight teams in the Pac-10 tournament will crush the two coaches and their programs who don't make the field in Los Angeles.

Patriot: The good ... Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard stayed in Worcester to continue to build the Crusaders. The bad ... Army has its best team under Pat Harris but it will still be hard pressed to get out of the bottom of the league.

SEC: The good ... Forget the ACC's top two teams, the SEC has the most depth from top to bottom this season and should be rated as the top conference. The bad ... There will be at least one, maybe two teams, like Alabama last season, that will get shunned by the NCAA Tournament.

Southern: The good ... Fran McCaffery stayed at UNC Greensboro and should be back in the NCAA Tournament instead of trying to rebuild GW. The bad ... The Southern will likely produce a division champion that not only doesn't make the NCAAs but may not make the NIT, either.

Southland: The good ... Northwestern State got some pub for winning the "play-in" game and has a legit chance to get back to the same game this season. The bad ... The best team continues to get shut out of the NCAAs (McNeese State last season) by a hot team during the tournament.

SWAC: The good ... Alabama State was able to win the regular-season title and the conference tournament title so the best team represented the league. The bad ... The conference RPI continues to hover near the bottom, checking in at 30 of 31.

Sun Belt: The good ... Western Kentucky's Chris Marcus is the best low-post big man in the country, giving the program and the league a marquee talent. The bad ... Teams like South Alabama, New Mexico State and Louisiana-Lafayette get no publicity because of all the emphasis on Marcus and the Hilltoppers.

West Coast: The good ... Gonzaga is still the team to beat and has a legit chance to get to its fourth Sweet 16 in a row if the bracket breaks right for them. The bad ... An expected dynamite season by San Francisco's Darrell Tucker might not get noticed if the Dons can't get to the NCAAs.

WAC: The good ... Fresno State has a Wooden Award candidate in Melvin Ely and one of the best-kept secrets in Chris Jefferies. The bad ... Tulsa and Hawaii have postseason talent but might get squeezed out of the NCAAs unless they can take out the Bulldogs in the conference tournament.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.