or do you think tournament champions deserve to get automatic bids to the NCAA? This may have been debated several times on here. Winning the season is a completely different and far more of anaccomplishment, I think, compared to Tournament champions. Plus, there are some really good teams on the bubble that are left out of the NCAA Tournament every year. Should the Tournament Champions get an automatic bid to the tournament, or some kind of other consolation prize? What do you think?
Discussion: Is too much emphasis placed on Conference Tournament Champions?
- Thread starter drt7891
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typically the regular season champ will receive an at-large bid. So this gives the conference a chance to get a team in that might not get in otherwise. I may be wrong, but I haven't seen the SEC tourney winner take a spot from an SEC team that was going to get an at-large bid.
It may not be the most fair setup, but it is, in my opinion, good for the SEC.
It may not be the most fair setup, but it is, in my opinion, good for the SEC.
But is winning 3 or 4 games in as many days a good way to justify giving a team an automatic bid, I guess is more my point. Both us in '09 and UGA in '08 were not going unless we won the conference tournament. Is that justification for bumping out a VT or Alabama (this year) out of the field to let a team like... say... the '08 UGA team get into the field just because they won 4 games in 4 days?
I don't know if it's justified or not, but it does attract more viewers to these tournaments.</p>
It gives off-the-bubble teams one last chance to make it, can help bubble teams cement a resume, and can make the projected last team in have to worry about their bid. If you get left out because an unexpected team won their tourney, then you mainly have your (somewhat) poor regular season performance to blame.
This is such a popular time of year to watch basketball and when something is on the line (when it comes to playing in a tournament) teams generally tend to play harder, better ball, so I think you hit the nail on the head. By the way, I am in favor of tournament champions receiving an auto-bid to the NCAA. I think when it comes to the 3 or 4 games in as many days, and as deep as some conferences are (ACC, Big 10, Big East especially), winning the tournament is a BIG DEAL because you are going through the gauntlet to win the thing. Any team that can run the table on some of the best teams in conferences, especially like those, deserves to play in the NCAA. I was just playing devil's advocate to see what people thought.
a tournament that had every regular season champ, every tournament champ, and the rest of the field would be winners of the first 2 rounds of the National Championship tournament. This would include every team in the NCAA. 320 becomes real small real fast if you eliminate half the teams after each game. It can be figured out just takes some math nerds to show everyone else how to draw up a tournament that includes everyone. Your conference regular season and post season champs get the first two rounds as a bye and you extend the tournament by one week. Everyone has a chance to win and nobody gets left out!!!
Georgia a few years ago is the obvious example. They didn't deserve to be in the NIT. Teams shouldn't get into the NCAA tournament because they can play good for one weekend. I'll concede that it benefits the sec and makes watching the tournaments more entertaining, but I would prefer all the conferences to adopt the Ivy League policy and let the regular season champion in.
Until the rules are changed on the NCAA's end, conference tourney champs carry more weight than any other team. In fact, I'd like to see the 30 teams that follow the rules and earn their way into the tournament be seeded 1-8. Then start with regular season conference champs, should they not win their conference tournament. Then let the rest of the teams state their case for seeds 9-16. To use a current example, Pitt is looking at one of the two remaining 8 seeds.
AA - aaaaaaand, go
AA - aaaaaaand, go
It doesn't hurt anything.
Let's say MSU won the SEC tourney this year, and in the process you bumped Alabama from the field as an at large. Would you deserve a bid over a team that beat you twice and finished 3 games ahead of you in the conference standings? Not really, but I wouldn't feel bad for Alabama.
If you're on the bubble, the blame for missing the tourney first and foremost falls on yourself for not doing more, and in reality you aren't going to have a shot to win more than 1 or 2 games in the tourney.
The conference tourney thing adds another week or two of good basketball that means something to every team, so I'm willing to trade a little bit of unfair treatment to a few bubble teams for what we get in return.
Let's say MSU won the SEC tourney this year, and in the process you bumped Alabama from the field as an at large. Would you deserve a bid over a team that beat you twice and finished 3 games ahead of you in the conference standings? Not really, but I wouldn't feel bad for Alabama.
If you're on the bubble, the blame for missing the tourney first and foremost falls on yourself for not doing more, and in reality you aren't going to have a shot to win more than 1 or 2 games in the tourney.
The conference tourney thing adds another week or two of good basketball that means something to every team, so I'm willing to trade a little bit of unfair treatment to a few bubble teams for what we get in return.
then you're taking away the objectivity in the process. Most conferences don't play balanced schedules (home-and-home), so the regular season champ could easily benefit from scheduling, like having UK @ home vs. UK on the road. Anything other than a neutral court head-to-head would have the same problems.
I think taking them away would be a mistake, and would push us toward a basketball version of the BCS, where you have to be ranked high enough to be noticed/respected preseason and have enough media exposure to get poll votes. No thanks.
I think taking them away would be a mistake, and would push us toward a basketball version of the BCS, where you have to be ranked high enough to be noticed/respected preseason and have enough media exposure to get poll votes. No thanks.