Considering that the Big East and the ACC were the only two conferences truly vying for the title of "best conference" all season, and that the ACC folded pretty quickly in the tournament, I'd say they earned the bragging rights this year. It isn't completely unexpected though, given their size. I'd love to see an "ACC-Big East" challenge, but I don't know how they would do it since they have a proportionally larger number of teams.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."