(01-30-2016 10:18 AM)solohawks Wrote:  

(01-30-2016 12:49 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-30-2016 12:31 AM)BruceMcF Wrote:  The Big East got the autobid because after they were voted into the non-FB subdivision list, they met all the criteria.

You're correct, Bruce. Here is the report of the NCAA board meeting at which the new Big East was voted in. See item 5: "The Board voted to approve the Big East Conference as a Division I core conference to be added to the Division I governance and championships structure, effective for NCAA purposes on August 1, 2013. "

Great find wedge. This does lead me to believe that if a conference split a la the big east and met the new 7 schools for 8 years rule a la the big east then they would be voted in via precedent

A conference can make that argument when asking the NCAA board to vote them in, but there is no rule requiring the board to give a new conference an autobid. The biggest factor favoring the Big East is that its members excel at men's hoops and thus their champ will almost always be deserving of an at large bid even if they had no autobid. Also, this split was a legitimate "divorce" of two groups with vastly different interests who did not want to be together anymore; it wasn't some attempt to pull shenanigans or find a loophole or just get extra autobids. And, the core of that new BE group had been together for 30 years, not just 8. It would be a big mistake to just assume that an autobid would be given to a new league that didn't have all these factors going for them. The top basketball conferences absolutely do not want to create new autobids that would effectively push at-large teams out of March Madness, and the NCAA board will act accordingly.