Bracket Matrix

[stever20]

Question: There are 36 at large bids. Does the American Conference have an automatic entry this year, or are they totally in the At Large category? Or do they have an Automatic and there are only 35 At Larges? They are a new conference. No conferences were dropped, so how are the numbers reconciled?

This might be nitpicking, and it even may not be accurate, but my understanding is the AAC is the legal successor of the old Big East, and thus is not a "new" conference, it is merely renamed. The extra "new" conference is us, the new Big East. I assume and believe from what I had read last summer we will be getting an auto bid for the winner of the BET... Can anyone else chime in?

I don't think this is true - although I may be wrong.

The old Big East had an agreement that if either the football or basketball schools left as a group, the conference would split. The basketball schools exercised that option when they left. As I see it, a split is different than forming a new conference. The two halves are forming separate but equal entities, each obtaining an aboutor bid since each met the requirements for a bid.

The fact that the football side didn't put up a fight when the basketball schools wanted to keep the name - except to get money - suggests to me that if anyone had the upper hand to the right to be considered the successor conference, it would be the basketball schools. They had 7 continuing members while the football schools had only 5 with 2 of those having already announced their intentions to leave in a year.

No the AAC is the official sucessor to the old Big East conference.

[marquette]

I don't think this is true - although I may be wrong.

The old Big East had an agreement that if either the football or basketball schools left as a group, the conference would split. The basketball schools exercised that option when they left. As I see it, a split is different than forming a new conference. The two halves are forming separate but equal entities, each obtaining an aboutor bid since each met the requirements for a bid.

The fact that the football side didn't put up a fight when the basketball schools wanted to keep the name - except to get money - suggests to me that if anyone had the upper hand to the right to be considered the successor conference, it would be the basketball schools. They had 7 continuing members while the football schools had only 5 with 2 of those having already announced their intentions to leave in a year.

No the AAC is the official sucessor to the old Big East conference.

Stever is correct. The C7 bargained away a large portion of the exit fees they were owed, due to other teams leaving the conference, in order to obtain the name. We exercised a clause in the conference charter that allowed a group of 7 schools to leave together as a unit with no exit fee. We also exercised the right under the NCAA rules that a group of 7 schools who had played together for a certain number of years could form a new conference and receive an autobid. We still had to apply for the autobid, but it was granted without any hiccups. The AAC maintained the autobid they already had.