The Holy Land of Hoops

Legit concerns. If P5 college administrators, alone, make the decisions then we should be concerned. They have shown that they only care about their institution's self interest and they are money whores. If the P5 does break off from the NCAA then they may have in effect created their own subdivision. If BB people are involved in the decision I can't see how anyone would work against the current March Madness format as is. The tourney is as much about Duke as it is Lehigh. Duke getting knocked off by Washington State just ins't the same. Guys like Coach K who are more purists and would hopefully have some pull or input to try keep the magic of March Madness unchanged.

GumbyDamnit! wrote:Legit concerns. If P5 college administrators, alone, make the decisions then we should be concerned. They have shown that they only care about their institution's self interest and they are money whores. If the P5 does break off from the NCAA then they may have in effect created their own subdivision. If BB people are involved in the decision I can't see how anyone would work against the current March Madness format as is. The tourney is as much about Duke as it is Lehigh. Duke getting knocked off by Washington State just ins't the same. Guys like Coach K who are more purists and would hopefully have some pull or input to try keep the magic of March Madness unchanged.

One problem in that is that by the time the current NCAA tourney contract is over- guys like Coach K, Boehim, Pitino, Williams- will be long gone. Even a guy like an Izzo would likely be gone as well.

Does anyone else think that it should be the mid major regular season champ instead of the tournament champ? I hate seeing teams like UAB barely above .500 in over ODU or LA Tech that were outstanding all year. Or Hampton .500 over NCC who went undefeated in their conference slate.

MUBoxer wrote:Does anyone else think that it should be the mid major regular season champ instead of the tournament champ? I hate seeing teams like UAB barely above .500 in over ODU or LA Tech that were outstanding all year. Or Hampton .500 over NCC who went undefeated in their conference slate.

Abso-freaking-lutely. If you want the best teams in the tournament. However, the ncaa tournament is about TV ratings and not inviting the most deserving teams.

Considering that March Madness, the NCAA and CBS/Turner are in the beginning of a 14-year, $10.8 Billion contract, anyone that thinks there will be widespread changes during that time are just flat-out wrong. Nothing (major) is changing to the tournament until that deal runs out in the mid-2020s. That deal that was signed also included language to bump the tournament to 68 teams (from 64), so 68 is staying for awhile too.

Everyone needs to remember that the NCAA moves at a snail's pace. It took them nearly 10 years to create the College Football Playoff. It took them even longer to come up with the Bowl Championship Series. Even if non-Power 5 schools should worry (which they shouldn't be), they would take solace in the fact that nothing major will change for the foreseeable future.

The Big East will be included in the P5 discussions, if a breakaway is to ever occur.

And if the NCAA were to remove the automatic bid in conference tournaments, the tournaments would be rendered pointless. March Madness is madness due to the NCAA Tournament and conference tournaments. That won't be changing anytime soon.

If a LA Tech and/or ODU are deserving of a spot in the NCAA Tournament, their record (or conference tournament championship) will reflect that.

These conferences have the power to make their regular season champion their representative in the NCAA tournament. As far as I know the NCAA has made no rules regarding how a conference chooses its auto-bid. If some conference wanted to send the team that won an end of the season chess tournament the NCAA would probably shrug and say "whatever."

As to fear of the P5 leaving, they'd have a tough time running their basketball tournament without at least a few more conferences. They want the football money, so a split probably leaves the G5 out in the cold. What I could envision is each conference bringing a "travel partner" of sorts along in the event of a split. B1G/Big East, ACC/A10, SEC/MVC, PAC12/WCC. This gives them conferences that are committed to basketball, won't steal their football money, and allow them to continue to play a large March tournament without having half the field below .500.

GoldenWarrior11 wrote:And if the NCAA were to remove the automatic bid in conference tournaments, the tournaments would be rendered pointless. March Madness is madness due to the NCAA Tournament and conference tournaments. That won't be changing anytime soon.

If a LA Tech and/or ODU are deserving of a spot in the NCAA Tournament, their record (or conference tournament championship) will reflect that.

RPI 45 with a 24-7 record tournament team or no?
RPI 130 with 18-15 record tournament team or no?
RPI 56 with 24-8 record tournament team or no?

These records were before conference tournaments but the point remains that no it's not their record. We're so used to it we assume that but if it was us with RPI 45 and went 24-7 we'd be livid about being left out

I just cannot see see anything changing when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. We all know that any change would be predicated on a tournament structure having the ability to deliver the cash package presently delivered by CBS, et al. I tend to believe such a structure requires the first weekend dynamic of David/Goliaths and inclusiveness.

With all the crap we throw at ESPN about bias and freezing out coverage of the Big East, I found this quote interesting:

There are schools like Kentucky, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina, Creighton, Villanova and Xavier at which garnering interest in regular-season games is never an issue -- even against their football-focused counterparts.