They’re back. Then again, they never really went away.

Entering this college basketball season, most of the prognosticators and talking heads went out of their way to claim that the 16-team Big East was in a “rebuilding” mode. After all, the league couldn’t possibly be as good as it was a year ago, right?

Well, after less than a month, the retrenching has begun. Entering Saturday’s games, the conference had a 68-8 cumulative record. And the wins haven’t all come against Savannah State, North Florida and Prairie View. North Carolina, Michigan, Xavier, Dayton and Maryland have all fallen into the victims department, and a month of nonconference games remain.

What’s so surprising is that the cognoscenti were duped. The inherent beauty — and also curse — of the monster Big East is its size. With 16 different schools serious about winning in basketball, you’re going to have plenty of good teams. Every year. With no exception.

Some years will be better than most. The 2008-09 season was clearly the greatest the conference has enjoyed since it cashed in for three Final Four teams (and a national titlist in Villanova) in 1985. One week during the regular season, a record nine teams were ranked in the writers’ poll. Seven Big East teams secured lucrative NCAA Tournament bids. Three (Louisville, Pittsburgh and UConn) began the tourney as No. 1 seeds. As the tourney evolved, the Big East kept grabbing the headlines. A record five teams reached the Sweet 16. It had half of the Elite Eight teams and half (Villanova and Connecticut) of the Final Four.

The only prize that went unclaimed was the national title, which North Carolina won after beating ’Nova in the semifinals.

So as this season dawned, the prospect of the Big East — or any conference — repeating that production didn’t look good. That remains to be seen, but when some expert says or writes that the league will be “down,” view it with skepticism. The Big East will never be “down.” Down from 2008-09? Maybe. But with the money and the attention and the markets and the coaches in place at schools such as UConn and West Virginia, Louisville and Syracuse, there will be no bad seasons.

The early returns this November are shockingly strong. Villanova won the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Syracuse won the Coaches vs. Cancer event. Marquette (Old Spice Classic) and West Virginia (76 Classic) play for titles today. Teams such as Cincinnati, DePaul, Seton Hall, South Florida and St. John’s have all secured wins they’re proud of.

The guess at the start of the season was that Villanova and West Virginia were the class of the league. That may still be true, but Syracuse’s wins over North Carolina and California, and especially the emergence of transfer forward Wesley Johnson as the best pro prospect in the league, places the Orange in the mix. Pittsburgh basically has a whole new team, but the Panthers were tied with a loaded Texas team after a half. They won’t be going away easily. Louisville lost two lottery picks (Earl Clark and Terrence Williams), but Rick Pitino has a team that’s more than dangerous. UConn is stacked with big-time athletes, and will add another once newcomer Ater Majok joins the team at mid-semester. Marquette was picked 12th in the coaches’ preseason poll, but it will be in the Top 25 polls on Monday. Buzz Williams still has Lazar Hayward and a whole bunch of new guys, but it’s clear he does not recruit bad players.

“That was as quick a team that I can recall,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after losing to Marquette. “That’s incredible quickness at all five positions.”

So do not fret for the “rebuilding” Big East. The conference may only be stepping sideways, not backward. The league with teams on ESPN nearly every night may not own half of the Elite Eight or the Final Four again next March, but then again, don’t rule out that possibility just yet.

kmcnamar@projo.com