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What's the point of playing regular season conference games, if they count for nothing? It's a shame that FAU or FIU could potentially be dancing and we are playing at Bartow in the NIT. The conference should select the best team (UAB)to represent CUSA in the NCAA tournament. I'm pretty sure that the conference commissioner can select which team they want to represent them in the NCAA.

You sound like a Louisiana Tech fan, circa March, 2015.

One of the best things to me about basketball is everyone having a shot if they get on a winning streak. I like the tournament champ getting the auto bid. Sure it would suck to win the regular season title and then lose in the tournament but that's the fun of basketball. Besides the regular season title can be skewed in one schools favor in a given year. For example having to play Middle Tennessee and Marshall twice in a season vs someone else who may play them only once but then UNT and UTSA twice.

(02-23-2016 10:17 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  One of the best things to me about basketball is everyone having a shot if they get on a winning streak. I like the tournament champ getting the auto bid. Sure it would suck to win the regular season title and then lose in the tournament but that's the fun of basketball. Besides the regular season title can be skewed in one schools favor in a given year. For example having to play Middle Tennessee and Marshall twice in a season vs someone else who may play them only once but then UNT and UTSA twice.

Agreed - and I hope I don't regret that soon :)

Conference champs are guaranteed to dance. It might be the little dance, but they are guaranteed a post season.

I think the tourney champ should get the auto bid but I wish CUSA would change the format to only allow the top 8 in the tourney with the top 2 teams getting byes until the semifinals. This format gives all of the better teams in the league a chance to go to the dance, it makes the regular season more meaningful IMO, and it gives the teams with the best chance to go on an NCAA run a leg up in getting to the dance. The OVC uses this format.

Regular season champs in decent conferences do get to go to the NCAA tournament.

(02-23-2016 10:28 PM)BlazintheATL Wrote:  I think the tourney champ should get the auto bid but I wish CUSA would change the format to only allow the top 8 in the tourney with the top 2 teams getting byes until the semifinals. This format gives all of the better teams in the league a chance to go to the dance, it makes the regular season more meaningful IMO, and it gives the teams with the best chance to go on an NCAA run a leg up in getting to the dance. The OVC uses this format.

The ACC used to have a similar format. BITD

& if CUSA had a high enough RPI as a league the regular season champ would also get a bid.

I agree with adolescent UAB BOT on this one. The regular season champ should get the autobid to the Dance. You can still have the conference tourney. It's a chance to hand out a nice trophy for winning four games in four days and possibly enhance another team chances for an at-large. I guess the tourney is a revenue generator for the city hosting it.

But a team should be rewarded for the long haul, not winning three or four games in three or four days.

Lol, how opinions change in just under a year.

We have benefited quite a bit by winning the tournament.

Last year, for instance.

(02-23-2016 10:30 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  Regular season champs in decent conferences do get to go to the NCAA tournament.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

(02-23-2016 11:02 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  We have benefited quite a bit by winning the tournament.

Last year, for instance.

Depends on your definition of benefitted quite a bit. In UAB 15 appearances in the Dance, five of those appearances has been via courtesy of automatic bids, the other 10 appearances have been via at-large bids. So UAB hasn't depended quite a bit on winning the tournament.

Regardless of how it ends up, I much prefer the tournament determining the automatic bid over the regular season. It makes more sense to me that the hottest team is the one that should get in over the arguably more consistent team. Becoming the regular season champion is definitely an achievement that deserves recognition, but having the automatic bid on the line makes the tournament that much more interesting to me. Without that, the season would practically be over for most teams way before it's actually done.

It's crappy right now since winning C-USA doesn't account for much, but, hopefully, in the future, the regular season champion will be able to secure a bid on account of the conference getting stronger.

(02-24-2016 01:47 AM)Hopeful Wrote:  Regardless of how it ends up, I much prefer the tournament determining the automatic bid over the regular season. It makes more sense to me that the hottest team is the one that should get in over the arguably more consistent team. Becoming the regular season champion is definitely an achievement that deserves recognition, but having the automatic bid on the line makes the tournament that much more interesting to me. Without that, the season would practically be over for most teams way before it's actually done.

There is absolutely no reason to have a tournament when you already determine a champion in the regular season. The Ivy League get it right, the other 31 conferences don't. And it makes the regular season more meaningful. In your argument, you're basically saying a team like North Texas would be more deserving of a automatic bid than a UAB, MTSU, or Marshall because they got hot in a tournament even though they have sucked most of the regular season.

And so what if the season would be over for most teams way before it was actually done, you don't reward mediocrity. Why even have a regular season?

(02-23-2016 10:08 PM)UAB BOT Wrote:  What's the point of playing regular season conference games, if they count for nothing? It's a shame that FAU or FIU could potentially be dancing and we are playing at Bartow in the NIT. The conference should select the best team (UAB)to represent CUSA in the NCAA tournament. I'm pretty sure that the conference commissioner can select which team they want to represent them in the NCAA.

The C-USA regular season champ had never been left out of the NCAA before last year. In 2004, 5 teams tied for the C-USA crown, and they ALL got in!

This C-USA is not the old one nor the old old one either.

Lock up the regular season then slack off in the tournament.

Like Mike Davis showed, winning in the regular season is a bit different than winning in a tournament. I'd rather send the best tournament team to the big tournament.

The top C-USA team in the NIT needs to start dominating that regularly if CUSA wants to build back to a multi-bid league.

(02-23-2016 10:08 PM)UAB BOT Wrote:  What's the point of playing regular season conference games, if they count for nothing? It's a shame that FAU or FIU could potentially be dancing and we are playing at Bartow in the NIT. The conference should select the best team (UAB)to represent CUSA in the NCAA tournament. I'm pretty sure that the conference commissioner can select which team they want to represent them in the NCAA.

You would not have enjoyed our time in the old C-USA with this attitude.

(02-24-2016 02:36 PM)sadolakced Wrote:  The top C-USA team in the NIT needs to start dominating that regularly if CUSA wants to build back to a multi-bid league.

That's not how it works.