One bid leagues should give their regular season champ

[rmilia1]

A bye all the way to the conference title game. I think that would make for a much better NCAA tourney as well as the better teams would more frequently get bids. While a 13-19 team making the tourney is a nice story it waters down the product and none of those teams are ever going to pull an upset. If one bid leagues gave their regular season champs a free pass to the league title game you'd still get the drama of the cinderella teams but you would more often get the BEST teams from that league in the tourney.

 

[HammerDown]

This isn't the first time I've heard this idea and it's hard to fault it.

 

[kramer1]

Why would they admit they're a 1 bid league?

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Just pointing out that while using phone I accidentally hit the "cake" award lol. Not sure what the fuck it means. But enjoy your cake!!

Anyways, I agree I think the regular season winner should be awarded better

 

[rmilia1]

1 bid leagues know they are 1 bid leagues. There are probably 20ish of them and they know who they are. I deally think that the way the Ivy league does it is best but I know the allure of a conference tourney is strong so I get wanting to have one. That doesnt mean you shouldnt want to put your best foot forward and send your best representative.

 

[jontaejones]

A bye all the way to the conference title game. I think that would make for a much better NCAA tourney as well as the better teams would more frequently get bids. While a 13-19 team making the tourney is a nice story it waters down the product and none of those teams are ever going to pull an upset. If one bid leagues gave their regular season champs a free pass to the league title game you'd still get the drama of the cinderella teams but you would more often get the BEST teams from that league in the tourney.

I think all leagues should do this. Starting with the Big East next week.

 

[uncfan103]

Why would they admit they're a 1 bid league?

Well, for most one bid leagues not admitting it would be embarrassing. It shows a complete lack of awareness for those conferences to think they're not a one bid league. That's worse than acknowledging their conference champ is the only team getting in.

 

[jeffro151]

I think a team should have to have a minimum amount of wins to get in the NCAAT. A team that wins very few games during the season should not be able to get hot at just the right time, win their conference tourney and steal a bid from a team that played well all season, but was on the bubble.

 

[H2S]

I'm not a fan of post-season conference tournaments.
They prove nothing that everybody didn't know already.
As a Conference, it seems you'd want your best teams to Dance well and long (and in the process, cop national ink for your programs). Why, then, would you risk those teams by throwing them into a post-season commercial extravaganza conference cage match marathon on the eve of the Dance?

 

[ericd7633]

I disagree. Honestly, the tournament wouldn't be all that much better. There are for the most part 5 leagues that are destined to be on the 16 line come selection Sunday. Those 5 would be the SWAC, MEAC, Big South, NEC and America East. Obviously there are exceptions, but those particular conferences and their representation are on the 16 line most of the time.

With that in mind, I calculated the last 5 years(2010-2014). There were 19 conferences, I deemed "1 bid". So in total that is 95 conference champions. Over the last 5 years the #1 or #2 seed has won 67% of those conference championships or 64 of the 95 have been #1 or #2 seeds. That leaves 31 of the of the remaining conference champs that have been won by a 3 seed or lower. Out of those 31 conference champions, those 5 leagues mentioned above it's happened NINE times with a 3 seed or lower winning that tournament.

More times than not, when their is a fluke winner of a conference championship, it's coming from a league already placing a team on the 16 line.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that the last 3 times a 15 has beaten a 2 seed(FGCU in 2013, Lehigh in 2012, and Norfolk St in 2012) they were all #2 seeds in their conference tournament. My point is in most of these 1 bid leagues there isn't much separation between the 1 seed and the 3 or 4 seed.

The one thing I think should happen is the #1 team should get home field. I think this should be the case for leagues on the 15 line or lower. For example, tournaments like the MAC should be on a neutral.

On a interesting note the only league not to have their #1 seed win their respective tournament the last 5 years is the Sun-Belt.

 

[pumpkinhead33793]

In 2010, Ohio was a 500 team and upset Kent State who was basically a bubble team although they didn't get in. Ohio ended up as a 14 seed and upset Georgetown in the 1st round. Anyone remember that?

 

[ericd7633]

In 2010, Ohio was a 500 team and upset Kent State who was basically a bubble team although they didn't get in. Ohio ended up as a 14 seed and upset Georgetown in the 1st round. Anyone remember that?

Yeah I remember that quite fondly. I would say the MAC generally has teams 1-5/6 in their conference that if they get in as a 12-14 seed can win a game in the tournament.

 

[tducey]

Yeah. those 13 win teams getting in the tournament over a 20 or 21 win team should be changed.

 

[uncfan103]

I disagree. Honestly, the tournament wouldn't be all that much better. There are for the most part 5 leagues that are destined to be on the 16 line come selection Sunday. Those 5 would be the SWAC, MEAC, Big South, NEC and America East. Obviously there are exceptions, but those particular conferences and their representation are on the 16 line most of the time.

With that in mind, I calculated the last 5 years(2010-2014). There were 19 conferences, I deemed "1 bid". So in total that is 95 conference champions. Over the last 5 years the #1 or #2 seed has won 67% of those conference championships or 64 of the 95 have been #1 or #2 seeds. That leaves 31 of the of the remaining conference champs that have been won by a 3 seed or lower. Out of those 31 conference champions, those 5 leagues mentioned above it's happened NINE times with a 3 seed or lower winning that tournament.

More times than not, when their is a fluke winner of a conference championship, it's coming from a league already placing a team on the 16 line.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that the last 3 times a 15 has beaten a 2 seed(FGCU in 2013, Lehigh in 2012, and Norfolk St in 2012) they were all #2 seeds in their conference tournament. My point is in most of these 1 bid leagues there isn't much separation between the 1 seed and the 3 or 4 seed.

The one thing I think should happen is the #1 team should get home field. I think this should be the case for leagues on the 15 line or lower. For example, tournaments like the MAC should be on a neutral.

On a interesting note the only league not to have their #1 seed win their respective tournament the last 5 years is the Sun-Belt.

The bold is completely true. That's because if you're not a one bid league you're going to have your regular season conference champion get in the tournament 99% of the time. As far as the one bid leagues not having much of a separation between the 1 seed and the 3 and 4 seeds, that's also true. But, that's why there should be some kind of advantage given to the regular season champions when it comes to the tournament. It's the best way to reward teams for their success in the regular season, unlike power 5 conference tournaments their regular season conference champions have accomplished nothing. You could give them home court advantage as a benefit, but these tournaments have a host location set out well in advance as a way to cut down on travel issues and things like that. And idk the feasibility of small conference teams hosting an entire conference tournament on such short notice and you can't really have teams traveling to different schools throughout the tournament.


Also, it's not about making the tournament better, it's about making the regular season better.

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Nah... It's the only way certain teams will EVER be able to make the NCAA tournament. You know a lot of these one- and two-bid leagues are often dominated for years at a clip by one or two schools. Take the Ivy, who has been mentioned as not having a tourney: for years, it was only Princeton or Penn that won the regular season.

Give the poorest of the poor that slim chance of going on an insane hot streak and dipping their toes in. We all know the eventual champ is going to come from one of four to six power leagues, anyway.

 

[podsox]

I agree but the top teams fans are the ones traveling to the tourny's

 

[wingsauce7]

I remember when "The Valley" was a 1 bid league.