CSNbbs

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-...map=%5B%5D

I'm not really a follower of basketball but this is crazy.

No crazier than us hoping a team with 15 losses making it.

I have no issue with it myself.

I have a bigger issue with a middle of the pack SEC team getting an invite over a team that won their conference tournament.

For that matter, it is downright hypocrisy to criticize a team that won their conference tournament & then have no issues with a team getting a championship game BCS invite even though they didn't win their conference.

The only issue I have is that I believe the regular season champ should be awarded the auto bid.

(03-11-2013 08:38 AM)Memphis Blazer Wrote: [ -> ]The only issue I have is that I believe the regular season champ should be awarded the auto bid.

It's certainly more fair to do it that way, but it would surely eliminate some of the "madness" of March. There's no logical justification for it, but it's cool (as a disinterested fan) to see a random team get red hot for a week and steal a bid.

And there are the occasional situations where the tournament auto bid redeems a team that actually deserves it. We didn't necessarily deserve it, but the 1991 UAB baseball team stole the school's first ever NCAA bid for baseball the same way. We had a shortstop and a pitcher who had been injured, came back late, and the dynamic completely changed. We won the tournament with a .500 overall record. But it was a different team playing in May than in March and April.

Ultimately, I don't feel too sorry for teams that win the regular season title and lose the bid. It's the conference's decision, and every single conference uses the tournament. And generally nobody makes a case to give it to the regular season champion. So you roll the dice and take your chances....

Teams can lose important players late or get such players back late. In each case, it could be said a conference's tournament champ is a valid NCAA choice as well as the regular season champ. Both could be AQs to go to the NCAA in March. What IF UAB should "gell" in the C-USA Tournament and go on to win it? What if, as happened at least once in the past, Memphis should have a "bad game" and lose early leaving the tournament title up for grabs?

(03-11-2013 10:33 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote: [ -> ]Teams can lose important players late or get such players back late. In each case, it could be said a conference's tournament champ is a valid NCAA choice as well as the regular season champ. Both could be AQs to go to the NCAA in March. What IF UAB should "gell" in the C-USA Tournament and go on to win it? What if, as happened at least once in the past, Memphis should have a "bad game" and lose early leaving the tournament title up for grabs?

Well, in that scenario, Memphis still gets in. But in a lot of cases, the regular season champ is finished. And that's borderline unfair. I don't think MB's point is directed to the conferences where the tournament makes little difference except for seeding. It's the Libertys who steal bids that seem unfair. It'd be great if a conference could have two AQs, but that's not practical and, in some extreme situations, there might even be an issue that a conference would scheme to have its regular-season champ tank so that it gets two NCAA credits instead of one.

The rule I would put in is if the team that wins the conference tournament has a .500 or worse record, the bid goes to the regular season champ. The team that wins the tourney gets an NIT bid and the regular season champ goes to the NCAAs.

To me that would be a lot more fair.

(03-11-2013 10:44 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]The rule I would put in is if the team that wins the conference tournament has a .500 or worse record, the bid goes to the regular season champ. The team that wins the tourney gets an NIT bid and the regular season champ goes to the NCAAs.

To me that would be a lot more fair.

I guess you could figure out a way to "reward" teams with the NIT now that the NCAA owns it. But I think it makes sense to leave it up to the conferences. And they try to generate interest in their tournaments (i.e., moneymakers) with the carrot of the bid. There's really no better way to do it without diminishing the excitement of the tournament. Besides, nothing about this process -- or anything the NCAA has ever touched -- is "fair" anyway. We've known that for a long, long time.

You suggest a good point. Since the NIT is owned by the NCAA, they could be run as parallel tourneys with each winner playing a 2 of 3; 3 of 5 or 4 of 7 (World Series) for the NCAA NC.

One could say to let the conference decide who gets the bid, however I could see cases where it would be abused to get multiple bids.

No one forced any conference to award their auto-bid to a tournament champion. If that's the way they set it up, then the tourney champ should get the bid with no provisos.

Otherwise, just award the bid to the regular season champ and forget the conference tournament.

To do otherwise would be like saying no team seeded lower than 4th in the NCAA tournament is eligible to win the championship. Even if they win the whole thing, the national title still goes to the highest ranked team.

(03-11-2013 11:51 AM)the_blazerman Wrote: [ -> ]One could say to let the conference decide who gets the bid, however I could see cases where it would be abused to get multiple bids.

They already do that. Ivy League does not have a conference tournament and the regular season champ get the bid.

I guess we know who one of the two "1st round" play-in participants will be for the weakest conference champions.

My brother was an Auburn walk-on back when they played Syracuse in the Sugar Bowl, and kicked a last-seoncd field goal to tie and deny Syracuse a mythical national championship. When the coaches ran out to shake hands, Dick McPherson starting giving Pat Dye all kinds of crap about it being "bush league," and the Dye (who was likely drunk) replied, "Yew wanted a champ'nship so bad, you shoulda blocked the ***damned field goal."

And so it goes. You want the NCAA bid? Block the ***damned field goal.

And Syracuse fans provided Auburn with a great fund-raiser. They sent a shitload of ties to Aubun, which Dye autographed for sale by the boosters.

The regular season conference champs already have an automatic invite to the NIT if they lose the conference tournament & aren't selected for an at large NCAA bid.

Y

(03-11-2013 01:17 PM)the_blazerman Wrote: [ -> ]The regular season conference champs already have an automatic invite to the NIT if they lose the conference tournament & aren't selected for an at large NCAA bid.

And that is a poor reward for a hard fought season. Conference tournaments are made for Tv creation and devalue the regular season.

What harder to do? Win a regular season or a conference tournament

I am in agreement with your statement, just stating what is in place.