Well, the thing is, and you have every right to think however you do, but it seems very subjective. So I guess since Indiana beat UNC and Kansas early in the season, it should be assumed that Indiana is better than those teams? Is that how you look at things? I mean, teams are exactly as good in March as they were in November, right?
Minnesota and Iowa are two teams who have very young rosters. Minnesota not only had a young roster, but it had 2 new freshmen, 2 transfers, so its in a lot of ways a very different team than last year, and needed time to gel and learn to play with each other and all. So are you going to judge them as worse than FSU, for example, despite the fact that they just might be better than FSU is right now? MSU beat us twice, but would you bet against Minnesota if they meet MSU in the Conf tourney? Wisconsin beat UMn in the Barn, but would you bet against them in their game IN Wisconsin coming up?
The NCAA Selection Committee tries to do as good of a job as they can of getting the best teams in, and giving them seeds that they earned and they try to look at their entire body of work, but then, the only way anyone can fairly judge which teams are the best, is when they all meet up in the NCAA tourney.
It's the way EVERY college sport does it, except for football. If a Gymnast has a bad day, and falls or doesn't hit their spot or a wrestler makes one little mistake, it can ruin their whole season. It can suck, I know, I was a multi-sport athlete, but that is just the way it is, and there is really no other way to figure things out, realistically. At least for the best team athletes, if they make it onto a professional team, and into the playoffs, they have multi-game playoffs in most of the sports.
All I am trying to say is, you can judge teams or conferences however you please, but not very many people are ever going to stop looking to the NCAA tourney to judge teams and conferences. As a Gopher bb fan, that doesn't make it easy, and it doesn't always seem fair, but it is what it is, and nothing is ever going to change that.