(02-17-2021 09:40 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(02-17-2021 09:35 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(02-17-2021 09:26 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  I've been an Indiana Hoosier fan for many years and recall the days that Coach R. M. Knight contended the winners of Big Ten tournament should not be the automatic rep of the league in the NCAA tourney. He argued such an arrangement cheapened the regular season and minimized the achievement of the Big Ten regular season champion — and I agree. I would be OK with seeing the end of post-season league tourneys but realize that's not going to happen.

My problem with this is twofold. Unless you're in a conference that does a double round robin with each playing all the others H&H then someone will have a scheduling advantage for regular season play. And second, I loathe the idea of an NCAA bid being awarded based on some tiebreaker rule.

Regular season championship should get you a #1 seed in the conference tournament and an NIT autobid. In March, you win and move on.

Both your points are valid. There is no perfect system. But the question is simple: Which of the two options is "the lesser evil"? R. Montgomery Knight and Bill Dazzle agree that sending the regular-season champ to the Big Dance is "less bad" than having the league tourney winner be the rep.

I like the idea that starting in March, every NCAA team still has a shot to win the title.

But Coach Knight had a good point. But there is a way to reward the regular season champ while still giving everyone a shot at the conference tourney: give the regular season champ a double-bye (or even a triple-bye) in the conference tournament.

I also really like how the NIT now takes all regular season conference champs. That's a huge incentive for over half of D1 conferences. That's been the best change to postseason play since the expansion to 64 teams in the 80s.