The San Francisco Chronicle's Michelle Smith ranks the toughest conferences, with and without math:

For all the talk about how, on any given night, the Pac-10 can be a tough conference - and most of that talk comes from Pac-10 coaches - in truth, there is tougher basketball being played in other major conferences around the country.The Pac-10 ranks No. 6 in conference RPI (by collegerpi.com and RPIratings.com), the lowest ranking among the major conferences. The consensus conference RPI rankings are 1) Big 12, 2) Big East, 3) ACC, 4) SEC, 5) Big Ten and 6) Pac-10.