I am curious what other people think about this. Usually I'd be against something like this, but this year? I'm have rather mixed feelings myself, however with the possibility of no conference play, this might be the only way that schools like UNI and Loyola get a fair shot to play in the NCAA Tournament. Both schools, and maybe some other MVC schools, could do rather well.
I'm sure that the NCAA will somehow still swing this to heavily favor the P-5 schools through seeding, but the idea is rather interesting.
I'm mixed feelings. What about everybody else?
Interesting
that 1 vs 80 In the first round could be a thriller 😁
I have been advocating this idea for a long time. To include all D-I basketball programs in the NCAAs involves only one more weekend of play. It also gets away from the all the big-name conferences getting an inordinate amount of bids at the expense of other conferences. Invariably, a large majority of the lesser teams in power conferences go home early.
I have been advocating this idea for a long time. To include all D-I basketball programs in the NCAAs involves only one more weekend of play. It also gets away from the all the big-name conferences getting an inordinate amount of bids at the expense of other conferences. Invariably, a large majority of the lesser teams in power conferences go home early.
Anyone who’s been following Salukitalk and Salukiinsider knows I also have been pushing this for years.
“The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.”
-- Al McGuire
I actually wrote to the NCAA Tournament Committee one year to complain. We had won (I think) 25 games that season as did the Leathernecks of Wisconsin-Green Bay. I got a very pedantic letter from Wayne Duke, tournament chairman, explaining the selection process "blah, blah, blah...thanks for your interest" I think the Big 10 had 7 teams in the tourney and, if I remember correctly, Mr. Duke was the Commissioner of the conference. Since then, I have been an advocate for having all the D-i schools play in the NCAAs.
I actually wrote to the NCAA Tournament Committee one year to complain. We had won (I think) 25 games that season as did the Leathernecks of Wisconsin-Green Bay. I got a very pedantic letter from Wayne Duke, tournament chairman, explaining the selection process "blah, blah, blah...thanks for your interest" I think the Big 10 had 7 teams in the tourney and, if I remember correctly, Mr. Duke was the Commissioner of the conference. Since then, I have been an advocate for having all the D-i schools play in the NCAAs.
I had to look up “pedantic”, thanks a lot ! 😊
I have been advocating this idea for a long time. To include all D-I basketball programs in the NCAAs involves only one more weekend of play. It also gets away from the all the big-name conferences getting an inordinate amount of bids at the expense of other conferences. Invariably, a large majority of the lesser teams in power conferences go home early.
One major problem I see with including every team every year...I feel like it would completely devalue the conference tournaments. While I do hate the way they select, allowing 7-10 teams from major conferences, I'd hate for Arch Madness to not count for anything.
I agree 100%!!!
Did some quick research of the 2019-2020 season and found that 155 NCAA D1 teams finished with an above .500 conference record.
Why not end the whole selection process and admit every team with a winning conference record. This would still get every team to shoot for something other than the guaranteed participation trophy that an all inclusive event would revert to. It would also make the non conference season easier to schedule as every team would be looking to prepare for the conference season and stop P5 teams from scheduling a majority of cupcake games. The NET or whatever they are using can determine tournament seeding. The ability of a team to qualify for the NCAA Tourney would be directly on each team. Go over .500 in the conference and get an automatic bid. Just my opinion.
Enhancements this would generate in college basketball would be even number teams for each conference, true round robin conference seasons. This could also lead to more teams looking to change conferences therefore creating more parity.
My research of the 2019-2020 season also found that there were 40 teams that had a .500 conference season. You could use those teams and play a new NIT Average Record Championship! Ha!
The breakdown of over .500 conference teams from each conference was as follows;
American East - 4, American Athletic Conference - 4, Alantic 10 - 7, Atlantic Coast - 4, Atlantic Sun - 4, Big 12 - 3, Big East - 4, Big Sky - 5, Big South - 3, Big Ten - 7, Big West - 4, Colonial Athletic - 5, Conference USA - 5, Horizon - 5, Ivy League - 3, Metro Atlantic Athletic - 4, Mid-American - 5, Mid-Eastern - 6, Missouri Valley - 5, Mountain West - 6, Northeast - 4, Ohio Valley - 4, Pac-12 - 7, Patriot League - 5, Southeastern - 6, Southern - 6, Southland - 5, Southwest Athletic - 6, Summit League - 5, Sun Belt - 6, West Coast - 5, Western Athletic -3
https://www.ncaa.com/standings/basketball-men/d1
I like this idea for the upcoming season, especially if all non-conference play is nixed and the NCAA adopts some form of regional bubbles with a round-robin format.
You could take or leave conference tourneys, but if its implemented well, they could factor heavily into final seeding. For example; if a team wins its conference and conference tournament, it could give that team a very good seed sliding moderately up or down depending on how that team performed in its pod, and to a lesser extent, how the conference fared overall as well.
--Insert something witty here--
I found an error in my research, the American Athletic Conference had 6 teams finish conference play over .500. That would change the total teams from 155 to 157.
One interesting note, the ACC had 5 teams that finished the conference season at 9 - 9 and those teams did not get included in this list.
Ordinarily I’d be one to parse every nuance of a proposal and quibble over the details, but given the state of the country, I’ll take anything we can get this season. I just don’t want to see the program’s momentum totally derailed, as I think the next few years shape up to be the most fun Saluki fans have had since Mullins was ball-hawking opposing PGs. And I want to keep the great kids and coaches who are in the program (and their loved ones) healthy.
