That SBC basketball has hit a point where our champion is having to face off with the champion of the freaking SWAC to reach the field of 64?

not when it is a 15-18 squad that wins it...

It MTSU won, they would not have been a play-in-game... It is what it is.. Until the top teams in the belt can consistently preform in the conference tournament then the Belt will continueto have this problem. I am not sure how you fix it without doing some crazy stuff with ceedings and byes..

(03-11-2012 11:10 PM)laxtonto Wrote:  not when it is a 15-18 squad that wins it...

It MTSU won, they would not have been a play-in-game... It is what it is.. Until the top teams in the belt can consistently preform in the conference tournament then the Belt will continueto have this problem. I am not sure how you fix it without doing some crazy stuff with ceedings and byes..

Ive noticed more and more conferences do this. Murray State got a bye to the semis of the OVC.

I think WKU is playing better than a 16 seed so hopefully we can take care of business.. While I would like to see the regular season champ go to the NCAA tourney, I like more that the team playing the best goes....last year that was UALR, this year it happened to be WKU. The belt must get better as a whole and start getting multiple bids again like a few years back. I think WKU will be a contender for a at large starting next season and there after. Opening line has WKU as -6.5 vs mississippi valley state

first off, wku did what they had to do to win the title and get the bid...MT didn't and got what they deserved, a bid to the NIT.

But I have said this for a couple of years now, the Sun Belt does not need to have every freaking program participating in the tournament. Cut it down to 4 or 6 at the most. I hate the damn sbc tournament format, and as long as it stays like it is now, the sun belt will likely continue to see our representative in the play-in game.

It is practically unmanageable for any other location now, and if the conference adds more programs it will only get worse.

The 9 seed was playing well and had a chance to win the whole thing . . . and didn't deserve to sit home without a chance.

But - I understand your point. And if it helped the conference . . . maybe it should be that way.

It's not a slap at the Sun-Belt, just the record of the team that won your tournament. If somehow ECU had won the C-USA tournament (I know a stretch but humor me) we would have been 17-15 with a weak RPI and likely would have been in the play in game, even with C-USA likely being a 3 bid league in that scenario. WKU has great basketball history and I hope you guys have found the guy who's going to restore you back to where you have been in years past.

(03-12-2012 03:52 AM)SpaceRaider Wrote:  first off, wku did what they had to do to win the title and get the bid...MT didn't and got what they deserved, a bid to the NIT.

But I have said this for a couple of years now, the Sun Belt does not need to have every freaking program participating in the tournament. Cut it down to 4 or 6 at the most. I hate the damn sbc tournament format, and as long as it stays like it is now, the sun belt will likely continue to see our representative in the play-in game.

It is practically unmanageable for any other location now, and if the conference adds more programs it will only get worse.

Good post and I agree.

(03-12-2012 09:17 AM)Green Menace Wrote:  

(03-12-2012 03:52 AM)SpaceRaider Wrote:  first off, wku did what they had to do to win the title and get the bid...MT didn't and got what they deserved, a bid to the NIT.

But I have said this for a couple of years now, the Sun Belt does not need to have every freaking program participating in the tournament. Cut it down to 4 or 6 at the most. I hate the damn sbc tournament format, and as long as it stays like it is now, the sun belt will likely continue to see our representative in the play-in game.

It is practically unmanageable for any other location now, and if the conference adds more programs it will only get worse.

Good post and I agree.

I agree too, it makes the season worthless, you can go 0-20 as long as you win the last 4 games in the tourney. It was the same for FAU last year, if we could of finished the SBC tourney we would of been like a 14 seed... so it does suck, but it's the way it is. So to put our best team for that one bid we get, we should cut our tourney to 4-6 teams, its better for the belt.

There have been plenty of years where WKU was the best team and got knocked off by somebody. So...

At any rate... I think the solution is to count non-conference games in conference standings.

The portion of RPI that affects your conference mates is 2/3 win % and 1/3 your opponents' win %. So that is the formula that should determine conference standings and seeding.

I also agree that only the top 6-8 teams should be in the tournament.

I like the idea of a conference tournament
to decide who is going to the big dance. Makes
For great TV (when someone gives a crap). Why
Are we as fans complaining that the sun belt auto qualifier
is a 16 seed but are not complaining about the crap
Non conference schedules teams are playing and losing
to. This is the reason we almost always end up a 13
or higher seed.

I still think we should take a look at the format that a lot of conference's are going to and give the 1 and 2 seeds a bye to the Semifinals. Give them an actual decent reward for winning, not just a game against a lower seeded team who knows the rims at the tourney site better then you do.

That is not a bad idea. Also, we need to get out of hot springs. Great tourist locatio, not so great sports town. How about instead of leaving teams out, have the winner of the regular season host the sun belt tourney. That would give an extra incentive to the regular season conference winner. The host administration could be guaranteed to make some money by having the conference cover the bill for hosting and the home school keeps the concession sales. Would boost actual cities if conference members

(03-12-2012 09:15 PM)WKUTopFlight Wrote:  That is not a bad idea. Also, we need to get out of hot springs. Great tourist locatio, not so great sports town. How about instead of leaving teams out, have the winner of the regular season host the sun belt tourney. That would give an extra incentive to the regular season conference winner. The host administration could be guaranteed to make some money by having the conference cover the bill for hosting and the home school keeps the concession sales. Would boost actual cities if conference members

You might run into issues with availability of arena's if you do that.

(03-12-2012 09:37 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(03-12-2012 09:15 PM)WKUTopFlight Wrote:  That is not a bad idea. Also, we need to get out of hot springs. Great tourist locatio, not so great sports town. How about instead of leaving teams out, have the winner of the regular season host the sun belt tourney. That would give an extra incentive to the regular season conference winner. The host administration could be guaranteed to make some money by having the conference cover the bill for hosting and the home school keeps the concession sales. Would boost actual cities if conference members

You might run into issues with availability of arena's if you do that.

Could just have every member hold off on making arrangements till they are mathmatically out of the running for the regular season champion