Interesting A-10 Tourney Suggestion

[Muskie]

Read this post from A10Nick over at the A-10 Boards.


It's an interesting concept, that I kinda like and understand. What's everyone think? It probably would make bad attendance numbers worse though.


Interesting post, njlsufan! I frequent 3 boards (2 of XU's and this one) and post occasionally on all three. I don't recall on which of the three I made the suggestion, but a recent one suggested that it might be a good idea for Conferences to award their auto bid to their regular season Champion and, in the case of the A-10, invite the 13th place finisher to the League Tourney. Although the winner of the Tourney wouldn't be assured of a bid to the NCAA, such a plan would showcase the other members of the Conference and prevent the League Champ from "doubling-up." Had XU won this year's A-10 Tourney, is there any doubt that our League would not have gotten three bids? My suggestion actually increased participation of league members in the Conference Tourney and insured that all of the semi-finalists (assuming their seasons have been successful to date) would qualify for at-large bids to the NCAA or, at least, be more likely to be invited to one of the other 2 post-season Tourneys. (At least one of those four teams would have been excluded from the semis this year.)

To keep the regular season winners somewhat sharp and to further showcase the top leagues in college basketball without adversely affecting Conference Tourneys, I further suggested that the A-10 and one or more of the other highly-rated (RPI) Conferences stage challenge games involving their regular season champions on the Tuesday night of the week of Conference Tourneys beginning on Wednesday. It would provide great regional and/or national TV viewing on an otherwise "dead" TV night, give each of the participating programs another opportunity to impress the selection committee as far as seeding is concerned, and provide some good extra exposure to the Leagues that decide to participate.

[xubrew]

the only problem with that is that there is no reason to think temple would have gotten in without the automatic bid even though they won the tournament. that wouldn't really help get an extra team in because there is no guarantee that the committee would select the conference tournament winner.

also, the conference tournament is technically an exempt tournament. teams are actually allowed to schedule thirty games, not 29, but the conference tourney counts as one of the thirty. ivy league teams play thirty regular season games. if a league opts to not award an automatic bid to the conference tournament winner, it would lose its exempt status and count as three or four games instead of just one.

[Muskie]

hmmm interesting. I didn't realize that Brew. So in order to be exempt it has to have an auto-bid? Or is it possible to have the tourney still be exempt without autobid?

[xubrew]

hmmm interesting. I didn't realize that Brew. So in order to be exempt it has to have an auto-bid? Or is it possible to have the tourney still be exempt without autobid?

to be honest, i really don't know. it's hard to say because no conference has ever tried that before.

[Statman]

If your conference holds a post season tournament, then the NCAA has said that this is your automatic qualifier for their tournament, no exceptions. Trust me, the Big 6 would have already implemented this idea a while ago, as they know that their top seed doesn't need a post-season conference tourney to get in, and in most cases, they hurt their seed when they lose before the finals of their tourney.

[xubrew]

If your conference holds a post season tournament, then the NCAA has said that this is your automatic qualifier for their tournament, no exceptions. Trust me, the Big 6 would have already implemented this idea a while ago, as they know that their top seed doesn't need a post-season conference tourney to get in, and in most cases, they hurt their seed when they lose before the finals of their tourney.


that doesn't really answer the question. if the conference tournament winner is automatically the automatic bid, then what happens if they simply don't include the first place team?? hell, if that's the case, the acc shouldn't let the top three or four teams participate.

i know that the mountain west and c-usa did have tournaments before they were eligible for automatic bids.

hell, there are all sorts of things we can try. why not open conference play with the conference tournament?? that way we'll know who the automatic qualifier is in january, and the pressure will be off of them for the rest of the regular season. is that legal??

lets bracket it so the top two teams play each other in the opening round. that will increase the chances of a poorer team who probably needs the automatic bid to make the tournamnent will win the conference tournament.

lets go further than that. lets have the fourth place team bye all the way into the championship game. the fourth place team is probably going to be a bubble team or below. if the top three can play their way into getting an at-large bid, this would increase our chances of getting an extra team in.


i'm not sure it's illegal to do any of those things. i've just never really thought about it before. is it in writing that you have to play your conference tournament at the end?? or invite all the teams?? or bracket it so the top team has the best advantage??

[muethibp]

If your conference holds a post season tournament, then the NCAA has said that this is your automatic qualifier for their tournament, no exceptions. Trust me, the Big 6 would have already implemented this idea a while ago, as they know that their top seed doesn't need a post-season conference tourney to get in, and in most cases, they hurt their seed when they lose before the finals of their tourney.

Interesting. When have they said that? I remember this year when the SEC was talking of canceling or making the regular season champ it's auto bid; the response was that the conference had to tell the NCAA before the season how it would award it's automatic bid, I never heard anyone say that the auto bid had to go to the tournament champion.

[Muskie]

Interesting. When have they said that? I remember this year when the SEC was talking of canceling or making the regular season champ it's auto bid; the response was that the conference had to tell the NCAA before the season how it would award it's automatic bid, I never heard anyone say that the auto bid had to go to the tournament champion.


I believe that's correct.

[muskiefan82]

To be eligible for automatic qualification in a Division Championship, a member conference must meet the following requirements: (Revised: 1/9/06 effective 8/1/06)

(a) Conference competition must be conducted in the applicable sport and the conference champion in that sport must be determined not later than the date on which participants are selected for the NCAA championship, either by regular in-season conference competition or a conference meet or tournament, as indicated at the time of application. If a conference's competition to determine its automatic qualifier is unexpectedly terminated (e.g., due to inclement weather), the conference may designate its qualifier, provided it has established objective criteria for making that designation and has communicated that information to the appropriate sports committee by a specified deadline. (Revised: 8/13/93)

[muskienick]

It is certain that all teams do not have to be invited to a Conference Tournament. Neither the A-10 nor the Big East qualify all teams for their Tourneys. The bottom dwellers are left out.

The NCAA doesn't give a rat's patoot which team a Conference sends with its auto bid. My guess, however, is that there would be some serious ramifications in the Selection Committee's "decision room" that would adversely affect any conference that would rig their tourney in an attempt to get their conference more total bids. I'd bet that somebody like a Syracuse or Missouri State would be left out or the top team in the "offending" conference would receive a lower-than-normal seed (or both!).

On the A-10 Board as a10nick, my extended suggestion on this matter is to be up-front with the NCAA, keep the League Tournament, and allow the top 14 Conferences to each have two auto bids: one to the regular season Champ and one to the Tourney Champ. Furthermore, eliminate the regular season champ from the Conference Tourney but petition the NCAA to allow the traditional top 14 conferences to have their regular season champions play one game during the week their Conference plays its tournament and rotate the game on the home floors of the league champs. The league still gets its Tourney money, excitement, and exposure. Furthermore, the "Champions Games" income (minus expenses) could be split 5 ways (the 2 participants of each game, the two Conferences, and the NCAA Office). It could be worked out that all TV revenues be divided (after NCAA Office expenses) among the 14 Leagues and the NCAA Office (with the NCAA Office working out the TV package with the Networks and assigning the game officials).

I would also think it would be a good idea for the NCAA to do a review of the 14 conferences to be included in that mix every 4 years or so in order that an "up-start" conference that pops onto the scene and stays there for a while can be suitably rewarded.

I believe my suggestion was that the 14 Conferences Champs be paired as follows to take geography and traditional ranking into consideration:
Big 12 vs PAC 10
Big 10 vs Big East
SEC vs ACC
A-10 vs MVC
Mountain West vs West Coast
Mid-American vs Horizon
CAA vs C-USA

Gee! More excitement during March Madness!