Tournament Reform

[Bdub777]

Maybe it is watching multiple crappy conference finals involving powerful leagues like tha MAAC, MEC, Colonial and Summit that hack me off. Anyway, the real injustice of the NCAA selection process Is not the at -large bids per se, but the number of at large bids that are blocked by these horribly mediocre and obscure mostly east coast conferences. LIU-Brooklyn ain't more deserving than ISU. While I like the Cinderella idea, you eliminate all automatic bids or limiit it to the top x number of SOS conference winners and make the rest of the bids at large, it would be much more fair. We all know the top teams aren't getting a chance to play for the Championship. That's wrong.

BTW! I know this is a pipe dream, but it is right.

 

[ThisIsTheLineup]

The ACC thinks of us as we think of the NEC. Getting rid of the automatic bid for the low majors will start a slippery slope that no one in the Valley wants to climb.

 

[Bdub777]

The ACC thinks of us as we think of the NEC. Getting rid of the automatic bid for the low majors will start a slippery slope that no one in the Valley wants to climb.

More at larges would favor higher RPI or whatever SOS metric you want to use versus Automatic bid teams we lose out to every year. Those teams don't belong in the Dance just because they belong to a crap conference. Otherwise, we should join a crap conference to enhance our chance of an automatic bid.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Before the "regular" tournament begins on Thursday the tournament officially begins on Tuesday and Wednesday for the first four games. An extra two days is already incorporated into the tournament. Why not just move the tournament 5 days earlier to the previous Thursday and get rid of the first four for an addition round. The round of 128 (64x2). This would pretty much alleviate all the bubble talk because if you are 130 you really don't have an argument. This would allow the committee to include more mid major teams. They could literally include all the P6 teams (even the 9-23 majors if so inclined) and have 50+ spots for mid/low majors (25 auto bids/25 at-larges). That's the fix. Move the tournament up (or back) 5 days. Simple as hell. Plus, they get and extra round of revenue. Win/win.

In last year's tournament ISU would have received a 13 seed and played 19 seed in the first round. After winning that game they would have faced the winner of the 4/29 game.

 

[Sladerunningbear]

Every team is in the NCAA Tournament. The first 3-4 games are called Conference Tournament.

If we can’t beat out 9 teams how are we supposed to beat out 127 teams?

 

[DWRedbird]

The ACC thinks of us as we think of the NEC. Getting rid of the automatic bid for the low majors will start a slippery slope that no one in the Valley wants to climb.

More at larges would favor higher RPI or whatever SOS metric you want to use versus Automatic bid teams we lose out to every year. Those teams don't belong in the Dance just because they belong to a crap conference. Otherwise, we should join a crap conference to enhance our chance of an automatic bid.

More at larges won't result in anything more than additional P6 crappy teams getting in. Remove the auto bids and the only ones dancing will be mediocre teams that really don't deserve it. You think LIU getting in is bad, take the auto bids and you put U of I on the bubble not ISU.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Be careful what you ask for. The MVC is closer to the MAAC, MEC, Colonial and Summit, than to the P5s IMO.

And Selection Sunday's seem to be confirming that opinion.

 

[chuckie1980]

I have stated the same feeling before....(as sladerunningbare(!!)...!

Scrap the conference tournaments.
All Div1 schools compete in the dance. I would be much happier being allowed to watch 2 teams to play each other 2 times in one season.

This is about the only true fair solution to treating Div1 players equally.

 

[Adunk33]

One thing I think that should be done to reform the tournament selection is to have the regular season conference champion and the tournament champion both get automatic bids. Otherwise, why should non-P6 play the regular season at all? Why not just go straight to the conference tournaments?

My thought is that in all conferences the regular season champion gets an auto bid, as well as the tournament champion. If the regular season champion and the conference tournament champion happen to be the same team (usually in Non-p5) then that vacant spot from that conference goes into the "at-large" pool. We would start seeing more conference representation in the big dance.

For example, last year's MVC Tournament Championship between No.1 ILST and No.2 WSU, Since ILST lost but won the regular season title, they would be in the tournament with a worse seed than WSU. If ISU would have one, their seed would have improved and the conferences other spot goes into the "at-large pool." That is not to say Wichita wouldn't or couldn't still get an at-large, but that is when the committee has their precious opportunity to put a P6 school in.

So this year by my rule, the follow conferences would have 2 auto bids: (Regular Season, Tournament Champ)
A-Sun (Florida Gulf Coast, Lipscomb)
Big-South (UNC Asheville, Radford)
Big 10 (Michigan State, Michigan)
Horizon (Northern Kent, Wright State)
MAAC (Rider, Iona)
NEC (Wagner, LIU Brooklyn)


One Auto Bid leagues by this rule:
MVC (Loyola)
Summit (SDSU)
OVC (Murray State)
WCC (Gonzaga)
SoCon (UNC-G)
CAA (Charleston)

So these conferences extra "auto bid" would be put into the at-large pool. In a near impossible situation where every single regular season conference champ and tournament champ are different, then that is 64 spots taken and only 4 teams will get at-large berths. In another near impossible situation where every conference and tournament champ are the same there will be what there is now, 36 at-large spots up for grabs.

 

[JHBird]

The ACC thinks of us as we think of the NEC. Getting rid of the automatic bid for the low majors will start a slippery slope that no one in the Valley wants to climb.

More at larges would favor higher RPI or whatever SOS metric you want to use versus Automatic bid teams we lose out to every year. Those teams don't belong in the Dance just because they belong to a crap conference. Otherwise, we should join a crap conference to enhance our chance of an automatic bid.

That's a good point. If we moved down a conference we would be making the NCAA's regularly.

 

[rdt99]

Add a week to the tournament. Set up 64 districts around the country. All eligible teams are in the tourney. Some districts will have 4 teams who play games on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Some districts would have a playing game during the week at advance to the final four on the weekend. The 64 sites would be around the country. Say Redbird Arena would host a district, but we can't play there. 4 teams would come in and play from the area.Try to spread out the top teams so they don't play in the same district. It would be a great tournment.

 

[isuquinndog]

Every team is in the NCAA Tournament. The first 3-4 games are called Conference Tournament.

If we can’t beat out 9 teams how are we supposed to beat out 127 teams?

:text-+1: This. It didn't used to be, but the MVC has become those other leagues. For our conference, the NCAA tournament is 9 games long, not 6. It may not be called the NCAA tournament until game 4, but it is. Lose in the MVC tournament and your season is over.

 

[Topoly28]

The ACC thinks of us as we think of the NEC. Getting rid of the automatic bid for the low majors will start a slippery slope that no one in the Valley wants to climb.

More at larges would favor higher RPI or whatever SOS metric you want to use versus Automatic bid teams we lose out to every year. Those teams don't belong in the Dance just because they belong to a crap conference. Otherwise, we should join a crap conference to enhance our chance of an automatic bid.

That's a good point. If we moved down a conference we would be making the NCAA's regularly.

If we moved down in conference we wouldn't be getting the types of players we are getting now. We'd never even sniff a 3 star recruit.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

I have stated the same feeling before....(as sladerunningbare(!!)...!

Scrap the conference tournaments.
All Div1 schools compete in the dance. I would be much happier being allowed to watch 2 teams to play each other 2 times in one season.

This is about the only true fair solution to treating Div1 players equally.

Our Big Dance started last Friday, and we were eliminated Sunday. We failed to play our way into the real Big Dance, but we were in control of our own destiny, and came up short again. Life isn't fair or equal, and I see no point in pulling these conference tourney's into the Big Dance to give all the mid majors participation ribbons. Would prefer if getting into the field actually meant something.

 

[MadBird]

I watched the last 5 minutes + OT of the Northeastern-Charleston game for Colonial Athletic Association crown, and my thought after watching those 10 minutes was that either team would have been a handful for us or Loyola. It's a mistake to underrate some of these conferences. Maybe not year in and year out, but any given year you could have some very tough teams.

That said, I do agree with the sentiment that we already have "playoffs" with the conference tournaments - everyone has a chance to advance through them. But I'd be fine with the idea of just letting everyone in. It would only add a couple games.