One of the most unpredictable, bracket-busting starts to the NCAA Tournament in recent memory wasn’t enough to derail the nation’s top college basketball conference.

Amid historic upsets, a Catholic nun garnering international acclaim and wild, last-second buzzer-beaters, the Big 12 accounts for a quarter of the remaining teams in a March Madness event that has more than lived up to the hype. The Big 12’s four Sweet 16 teams are the most in league history, tying a mark set in 2002.

The league entered the 68-team field with seven contestants. Kansas, Texas Tech, West Virginia and Kansas State are left standing — Oklahoma and Texas lost in overtime and TCU was ousted in the final minute — to tie the Atlantic Coast Conference as the conference with the most Sweet 16 teams (the Big 12 can claim bragging rights, for now, since 4 of 10 league members remain compared to 4 of 15 ACC teams).

“Why does everyone watch it? It’s March Madness, and you never know what’s going to happen,” said Kansas State coach Bruce Weber.

The Big 12 finished the regular season with the nation’s top-rated RPI and set out to prove it was worthy of such a distinction.

The top three teams advanced unscathed.

No. 1 seed Kansas needed strong second halves against both Penn and Seton Hall to make its 10th Sweet 16 appearance under coach Bill Self, No. 3 Texas Tech used two gritty performances for its first Sweet 16 since 2005 and No. 5 West Virginia destroyed Murray State and Marshall, a pair of up-tempo, high-scoring teams, using its patented full-court pressure.

Then there’s No. 9 Kansas State. The Wildcats took a bit of an unorthodox route to the second weekend — and did so without leading scorer Dead Wade, who has missed the past three games with a foot injury — unseating Cinderella story Maryland-Baltimore County, the only 16-seed to ever beat a 1-seed, for one of the final spots in the Sweet 16.

“Obviously, we didn’t think 16 (seed) was going to beat a 1,” Webber said. “You thought it would be a little different situation, but we just said we could write history. No 9 has ever beaten a 16 to go to the Sweet 16, so we wrote our own history.”

Kansas State did what top-seeded Virginia couldn’t do. UMBC shocked the country last Friday with a 20-point drubbing of the ACC regular season and conference tournament champions.

Kansas State now is part of the South Regional whose section of the bracket looks like a toddler filled it out. Kansas State draws No. 5 Kentucky in Thursday’s regional semifinals. The winner gets either No. 7 Nevada or No. 11 Loyola-Chicago.

Friday night is a de facto showcase for the league as Big 12 teams play in three of the four games, with two coming in the East Regional. West Virginia and Texas Tech could meet in an all-Big 12 Elite Eight if the cards fall into place.

West Virginia, not Kansas, looked like the most dominant Big 12 team, demolishing its two opponents by a combined 40 points.

“This is what we came to do,” West Virginia guard Jevon Carter said. “We don’t just want to go to the Sweet 16. We want to win it all.”

Albeit unspectacular, Kansas continued its mantra of finding ways to win under challenging circumstances. The Jayhawks had to scrap their way to avoid an early exit, much like the Big 12 Tournament when they staggered and stumbled for the first 20 or 30 minutes before turning it on late.

Self said Kansas didn’t play well outside of a few brief stretches, although style points don’t matter this time of year.

“In the NCAA Tournament, you don’t worry as much if you played well or if you played poorly,” Self said. “You worry more about did we advance. And I think that’s all we did this weekend is we advanced.”

Still, handicappers like Kansas most among Big 12 teams. According to 5Dimes, an online betting site, Kansas has the third-best odds to cut down the nets at +725. West Virginia comes in at +1600 followed by Texas Tech at +2250 and Kansas State with the third-worst odds at +7000.

But if the first four days of the tournament showed us anything, sheer madness is capable of popping up at any moment.

More lower seeds (three 5s, two 7s, two 9s and two 11s) advanced to the second weekend than higher seeds (two No. 1 seeds were eliminated early for the first time since 2004).

Kansas and West Virginia are used to deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. Not so much for Texas Tech and Kansas State. A win by either school would mark the first Elite Eight appearance in program history.

A win by all four would be unprecedented. The Big 12 has never sent more than three teams to the Elite Eight.

“I just want to coach these guys another day,” said Texas Tech coach Chris Beard. “Just having so much fun with this group. Just want to have one more practice and one more film session and one more travel and then I’m sure when we get to the next destination, we’ll get greedy and want to do it again.

“But this is all about just surviving and advance. It really is. I’m just glad we get to live another day.”