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[QUOTE="Knicks411, post: 5740489, member: 767"]
The interesting thing is if you look at something like Ken pom ratings, the absolute best teams have definitely gotten better (and in fact, we've mostly seen the best teams make the final four, especially the last 2 years).

I pulled the ken pom team ratings going all the way back to 1997, and pulled down the highest individual rating for every year, along with the average of the 5 highest and the 10 highest.  Here is what the average rating of the 5 highest KP team looks like in graph form.  2025 and 2026 are, by far, the highest totals on the list; 2025 the top 5 teams had an average rating of +35.66 and this year its +36.68 (granting there are 3 games left this year so the 2026 numbers could change.  Prior to 2025, the highest season average on record was 2015 at +33.22.  I'll save everyone the chart, but top 10 is similar; the last 2 seasons the average top 10 team is at least 2 points better than the highest average prior to 2025.

Final little nugget here, and granting this is all selective endpoints; but in the entire Ken pom history, there have been 13 teams with a rating of +35 or higher.  7 of them have occured in the last 2 years, with additional entries in 2021 and 2024.

Anecdotally, it would make sense to me the best teams are better now, you have a much better chance of keeping good players in school for an extra year or two now.  That said, to go back to the original point it could be true that while the best teams may be better, it's also possible there will be more variety in those teams (though I dont want to overstate that too much; Duke and Houston were top 5 each of the last 2 years, Florida has been 3rd and 6th, Arizona 13th and 2nd.

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