(01-30-2016 02:41 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(01-30-2016 11:35 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(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.

If any seven grouping has been together eight years, wants to form another conference, and would meet the definition of a conference with the needed sports for an autobid, the court would find in their favor. The NCAA would have to pay big time damages if it didnt, unless the NCAA again change the rules before hand.

You're pretending that the rules that the NCAA members voted for will magically go away as soon as someone calls Saul Goodman's 1-800 number and files a lawsuit.

This is all about protecting the number of at-large bids in NCAA tournaments. The NCAA changed the rules specifically to make the NCAA board a gatekeeper for autobids. The NCAA members don't want to give two autobids to perennial one-bid conferences who want to split in two, because that effectively pushes at-large teams out of the NCAA tournament. One of the amended rules (4.01.2.3.1) even guarantees the current ratio of autobids to the size of an NCAA tournament field won't increase above what it was in 2014-15. That means they have agreed to either keep a lid on the number of autobids or, if they do increase autobids, then the size of NCAA tournaments in every sport has to be increased to add more at-large teams.

There is no "8 year" rule for new conferences. What is in the rules now is only a mechanism for existing conferences to keep existing autobids if the conference has a mass exodus like the WAC did. And that was put in specifically to protect the WAC as the WAC was falling apart.