If you're going to have a tournament to decide the NCAA representative, you should eliminate any team which doesn't have a record better than .500 in conference play as well as season play.You're not better than .500 in both categories, you don't belong, and you don't qualify for the possible honor of representing our conference.

As it now stands, the teams who would qualify would be La Monroe, Ga Southern, Ga State, UT Arlington and ULL. That's it as of now.
You only have a playoff if more than one team qualifies. If only one team meets that requirement, then that team automatically represents the conference. Of course with six or seven games remaining, things could change drastically, but I think that might be a good system. Oh, and all games played on #1's home court with #1 receiving a bye until the final game, so it would keep the interest up and you'd have a good crowd for TV in the final game.

Back 30 years ago I was certainly all for the conference champion going to the NCAA tournament. That was when Kestenbaum won the league 2 years in a row and didn't even go to the NIT. Since that time, we have gone to the NCAA tournament 4 times, but only one of those times did we win the regular season title (1985-86). So I guess I have become a bigger fan of conference tournaments. At least, we still have something to play for at this point. If not for the league tournament, we'd have had little to play for after the first 5 games of the conference season.

I didn't realize we won the league twice under Kestenbaum.. And we couldn't even go to the NIT? What a shame.

Move to the soccer system of relegation.

Divide the colleges into groups of twenty and play a double round robin.

That would give you about 13 league / divisions. League one would be the top and 13 the bottom.

Top 3 in each league move up a level for finishing in the top 3 bottom 3 move down.

Every game counts no matter where you are in the standings.

Take the 13 regular season winners and play a champions cup at the end problem solved.

Best idea is just to do away with conference tournaments and let every qualified D1 team into the tournament like Indiana used to do in high school. (In my opinion, however humble that may be.)

(02-09-2015 08:51 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Best idea is just to do away with conference tournaments and let every qualified D1 team into the tournament like Indiana used to do in high school. (In my opinion, however humble that may be.)

I really like Michaelspappy's idea of everybody playing in the tournament for the National title, but of course it will never happen. But like MJS, I like the conference tournament winner going because it is in effect a qualifying round for the National title tourney, and it gives teams something to play for late in the season. Can you imagine what things would be like on the men's team right now if they had no shot at anything at all?

Yes. They'd be losing most of their games. And that's different how? Just kidding. I think competitors play to win. If a player is playing college basketball, I believe they play as well as they can to win when they're on the court. Obviously a chance to go to the big dance would be incentive, but I'm not sure kids would give up if they weren't going to win the championship. But I have no way of proving my opinion because eight teams, regardless of how bad they are, will have a chance to represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully the best team throughout the year will win, but that seldom happens.

(02-09-2015 10:23 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  Yes. They'd be losing most of their games. And that's different how? Just kidding. I think competitors play to win. If a player is playing college basketball, I believe they play as well as they can to win when they're on the court. Obviously a chance to go to the big dance would be incentive, but I'm not sure kids would give up if they weren't going to win the championship. But I have no way of proving my opinion because eight teams, regardless of how bad they are, will have a chance to represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully the best team throughout the year will win, but that seldom happens.

Like you, I would be at every game regardless. But, with just a few games left in the season, we have a legitimate goal to shoot for- making it New Orleans. That makes following the games a lot more fun and meaningful for me. I do like that only 8 teams go. That does make the regular season meaningful. Winning the regular season championship gets you an NIT bid and a double bye so that is very meaningful as well. At this point, unless there is a MAJOR upset in the tournament it doesn't make any difference who represents the league. I see no real difference between the top 5 teams in the league. None would win an NCAA game going in as a 15 seed or so anyway. May be better for a low seed to win the tourney and go to the play-in game, where they would actually have a chance of winning a game and getting extra NCAA money for the league. And the league champ could actually win an NIT game or 2 with the right match-up. Certainly a GaState or GaSou vs. Georgia game would be fun, as would ULM vs. LSU or LaTech.

There is a fun element to conference tournaments, I have to admit. And it's o.k. the way it is. I just think it might be better for the league to have our champion an automatic lock on the NCAA tournament. It makes the regular season more meaningful. I know there are some Eastern Leagues who either have no tournament, or a playoff between #1 and #2 to determine the NCAA rep. I believe that scenario would give us our best chance to win a game, but no doubt the conference tournaments lends fun to the year. I can see both side of the argument.

(02-09-2015 08:51 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Best idea is just to do away with conference tournaments and let every qualified D1 team into the tournament like Indiana used to do in high school. (In my opinion, however humble that may be.)

+3

(02-09-2015 08:51 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Best idea is just to do away with conference tournaments and let every qualified D1 team into the tournament like Indiana used to do in high school. (In my opinion, however humble that may be.)

That would be great but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Or ever!

(02-09-2015 08:34 PM)outsideualr Wrote:  

(02-09-2015 08:51 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Best idea is just to do away with conference tournaments and let every qualified D1 team into the tournament like Indiana used to do in high school. (In my opinion, however humble that may be.)

That would be great but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Or ever!

I actually like our current set-up, where only the top 8 go to tournament. If we don't make it this year, that's just the way it goes sometimes. Still not sure I like the double-bye set-up. With 8 teams there is no need to have byes. The higher seeded team is put in a position where they have to play a team coming off a win, that has gotten the tournament jitters out of the way, and gotten used to playing on the court. Really think it gives the team who has played a distinct advantage- although I understand that using pure statistics it is easier to win 2 games than 3. Didn't help the top 2 seeds last year and I wouldn't be surprised to see someone lower than a 2 seed win it again this year.