college regular season = meaningless

jpfalcon09 · Post by **jpfalcon09** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:51 pm

ESPN asked that question yesterday and the response was pretty favorable for having the regular season conference winners receive the automatic bids. The conference tourneys are largely a money maker for the larger conferences, and are pretty useless for the mid-major schools. Just look at the Men's slate this year, and how many teams won their conference tourney that snubbed legit teams who deserved to make it. The ranked teams mail in the conf. tournaments to get the added rest, it's a joke.

Class of 61 · Post by **Class of 61** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:05 pm

I've got to agree with the general tenor of this thread...it's more logical to me that the REGULAR SEASON CHAMPION gets the automatic bid...I love to watch the tournament, and Ball State deserved to win on Sunday...but I couldn't help but think that, while watching UB knock of Kent, that they COULD have gotten hot and beaten BSU and BG... Not likely, I admit...but we'd be sending a sub-.500 team to represent us, simply because they got hot (or the other teams went a bit cold, like we did on Sunday). The regular season for traditional "one bid" conferences should mean more. Of course, those "power conference teams who finished .500 in their leagues and a 19-13 record overall are OBviously better than the top two teams in theMAC right?

OSUFALCON · Post by **OSUFALCON** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:19 pm

I have a real problem with Mississippi State and Georgia getting in over BG.
Both have higher RPI's than BG.

HoustonFalcon · Post by **HoustonFalcon** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:06 pm

HoopsFan, comparing BG and Texas can't be done. Texas might have lost 6 of their last 8, but all but one of those teams are tournament teams. They also have wins over Tennessee, Baylor and Arizona St. They deserve to be in. I look at Georgia, and while they have a mediocre record, they do have wins over Vanderbilt, Florida, and Auburn. Those three wins got them in. I just can't agree with Rutgers and Villanova. Those two really get me. What I think will help this conference is the infusion of good coaches that seem to be looking at the MAC. As long as Curt is at BG, Tricia Cullop is at UT, Kelly Packard is at Ball State, Semeka Randall is at Ohio, and I still believe that Jodi will get Akron on the right track, things will get better. There are some very good coaches in the league, and with that will bring better players and competition. With this set of coaches, I think that the MAC could be like the Mountain West. They are a three bid conference this year, and I could see us getting to at least a two bid conference.

BgWaRrIoR · Post by **BgWaRrIoR** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:46 am

All I can say is the WNIT (as horrible as it is) is better than being done with basketball for the season. I'm happy to be able to see BG play at least one more time. Sure, its not fair but I'm not going to say the whole season was meaningless. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this season, and can't wait to see some more.

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:34 pm

That's life for BG and the MAC....until we actually see things improve, the bigger conf will always get the spoils. It sux that a team can win the conf over a 16 game sked and not get into the Dance cuz they didn't win a 3-4 game tourney.

The regular season means much more than the tourney for a champion and IMO, BGSU is still the MAC CHAMPION FIVE YEARS RUNNING. But for the NCAA tourney, the regular season really doesn't mean much.

It has been another spectacular season for our Falcons...now let's win the WNIT.

BGSUfalcons · Post by **BGSUfalcons** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:48 am

I'm not sure why people are complaining about Rutgers. The team has a top 5 SOS and a top 20 RPI. Rutgers won at Temple, at Villanova, and at Notre Dame and Rutgers beat Georgia and a number of other top 100 RPI teams at home. Unlike Georgia, Rutgers has no bad losses and more than one good road win.

transfer2BGSU · Post by **transfer2BGSU** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:00 pm

I'd like to see the following:

There are 32 Division I basketball conferences.

Each Conference Regular Season Champion receives an automatic bid to the tourney.

Each conference that hosts a Conference Tournament would then have the opportunity to put an additional team into the NCAA tourney with the winner of the conference tourney (provided they are not the regular season champ) getting the bid.

IF there are any spots available after the conference tourneys, then those spots would be awarded AT-LARGE to the best teams (and they probably would go to the big boy schools).

So the seventh place Big Ten team is NOT going to get into the tourney unless they win the conference tourney.

On the men's side - Yes, that would have been detrimental to the Big East and their three #1 seeds, but que sera sera.

If this scenario would have been active this year, I am sure there would be some people that would argue that BGSU should not try to win the tourney so that 2 MAC schools could be in the dance. But that is going against why you play the game - TO WIN. I would expect the regular season champion to work just as hard in the tourney. Make the second team EARN their spot, don't just give it away.

What would I do right now?

I'd change the format of the play-in game. Who were the last two "bubble teams" that got in? There are your participants in the "play-in" game. You do not make two conference champions with automatic bids "play-in". Nothing says that you have to play-in for the #16 seed. If you want to seed them #12, or #10 who cares. Make the play-in game a REAL play-in game.

NWLB · Post by **NWLB** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:52 pm

Post season tournaments and events are the downfall of all college sports.

thecat · Post by **thecat** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:41 pm

I started a topic a few weeks ago stating my disdain for all conference tournaments and asking other posters to give any good competitive reason they should exist. I think the posters on this topic now understand my way of thinking. BTW, shouldn't conferences want their best team to represent their league in the big dance? A 3 day conference tourney doesn't do that. Also, I like the idea of taking just the top 4 teams in the league for the conference tourney( If we have must have one at all) with the top seeds getting homecourt, that way the regular season could mean something. One more thing, if hear any more announcers say "Ball State, MAC champions" I'll be sick

San Fran Falcon · Post by **San Fran Falcon** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:45 am

It sucks. But, we're the MAC...and I came to realize a looong time ago that we don't get a second look. It is what it is. But, the fact is, conferences that could be considered below us 5-10 years ago are surpassing us. That needs to be addressed. We're getting left in the dust, and that disturbs me.

NWLB · Post by **NWLB** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:25 am

With all the post-season options now, and the fact that mid-majors are being choked out of the NCAA, I say drop the MAC tourney. It serves no point at this stage.

HoopsFan · Post by **HoopsFan** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:50 pm

HoustonFalcon wrote:HoopsFan, comparing BG and Texas can't be done. Texas might have lost 6 of their last 8, but all but one of those teams are tournament teams. They also have wins over Tennessee, Baylor and Arizona St. They deserve to be in. I look at Georgia, and while they have a mediocre record, they do have wins over Vanderbilt, Florida, and Auburn. Those three wins got them in. I just can't agree with Rutgers and Villanova. Those two really get me. What I think will help this conference is the infusion of good coaches that seem to be looking at the MAC. As long as Curt is at BG, Tricia Cullop is at UT, Kelly Packard is at Ball State, Semeka Randall is at Ohio, and I still believe that Jodi will get Akron on the right track, things will get better. There are some very good coaches in the league, and with that will bring better players and competition. With this set of coaches, I think that the MAC could be like the Mountain West. They are a three bid conference this year, and I could see us getting to at least a two bid conference.

Whatever. Make that 2-7 Mississipi State bounced them in the first round

college regular season = meaningless

Idea for BOTH Men's and Women's Tournament