(10-02-2019 03:45 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(10-01-2019 07:08 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Because of the barriers the NCAA put up to discourage new D-I conferences from forming and demanding March Madness autobids, every existing conference that holds an autobid is a valuable commodity.

Even if a conference blew up, the schools that didn't have a better option right away would keep it going somehow, to make sure they are in a conference with an autobid. The WAC is an obvious example of that.

Those barriers present interesting anti-trust issues but not sure who would dare risking that challenge, could be strung out through much of the waiting period in court. You'd have to have someone show they were harmed by the rule.

Seems to me that challenging those NCAA autobid rules in court would be opening Pandora's Box, because there's a much more questionable NCAA rule underpinning March Madness: The rule that any team who is invited to play in the NCAA tournament and declines the invitation is barred from participating in any other postseason tournament.

That rule is the largest issue (IMO) but not the only one. If the NCAA shouldn't be able to make a new conference wait several years to get autobids to NCAA tournaments, then they also shouldn't be able to require:
-- that a conference have a certain number of members to qualify for autobids
-- that a conference be an "all sports conference" to qualify for autobids
-- that a school transitioning into Division I has to wait 4 years before its athletes are eligible to compete for Division I NCAA championships

... etc., etc.