I hate that the winner is the AQ to the NCAA. They are nothing more than money grabs. I agree with Jay Williams when he says they value 3 wins in 3 days more than 3 months of play. I also like his idea that the regular season winner should be the NCAA AQ and the tourney winner the NIT AQ.

I know this means SFA would not stand a shot at the NCAA but they don't deserve it. I also remember a few years ago, before BU, when SFA was clearly the best team in the conference but they stumbled in the SLC tournament and someone else went to the NCAA.

These conference tournaments mean the regular season doesn't matter and there is no reason to watch the games.

I hope UNO wins. They deserve to go to the NCAA.

It is incredibly hurtful against the 1-bid leagues.

Look at several leagues around the country, they had their #1 seed knocked out early in their tourneys and now have no hope of getting to NCAA as an at-large.

It comes to a question of, what does the conference want?

Ideally, the conference should want the team in the NCAA that has the best chance for your conference to win a game, thus giving maximum exposure to your conference.

You do not want the #6 conference seed with a 17-16 record pulling an upset, only to get blasted as the 16 seed in the NCAA. That does no one any good.

Certain leagues like the Horizon (Valpo & Oakland) and the MAAC (Monmouth) had their top seeds & regular season champs eliminated in upsets.

Those teams had a REAL shot at winning an NCAA game, instead, those conferences get a team that is no better than a 15 seed to be fed to the wolves.

The past few years, the Southland has been incredibly lucky. SFA was clearly the best regular season team and clearly the best chance to win a game(s) in the NCAA. Could you imagine if we had lost a fluke in the SLC tourney? Then the conference goes from having the VCU moment or the WV game gone from history.

To me, the best way to reward the regular season champ is to let the better seeds play the tournament games on their home court, like the SLC used to. That gives a clear advantage to the team to earned it.

I agree with you here. I'm all for fixing the problem. In our one bid league, the season should count for more than the conference tournament. I think though (and I could be totally mistaken) that the NCAA has pushed for the automatic bid to go to the conference tournament winner. I think it's their well intentioned push for all teams having hope. Talking to people who are friends with past conference employees, no one wants the better team to go through more than them.

Of course, wait till next year to fix it. I say let's screw someone else over this year.

Slc has it good compared to some other mid major conference tournaments. Some conferences don't give double bies. Also #1 seed Monmouth lost to #4 siena in tourney , the game was played on Sienna's home court. That is ridiculous.

The reason why sienna hosts the tourney every year is bc they r the only school that can sell a lot of ticket. MAAC just screwed Monmouth

My understanding is that each conference makes the decision of which team gets the AQ bid. So, the SLC could vote next year to change it if they wanted to but they won't. There is too much ESPN money involved. The mid majors would rather roll the dice that the best team does not advance and keep the money. It is tradeoff the school presidents are willing to make.

I don't think the NFL analogy is a good one. The NCAA tournament is the playoffs. A more accurate analogy would be if 13-3 Dallas won the NFC East but they had another NFC East tournament at the end of the year and 7-9 Philly won and went to the playoffs and Dallas went home. Fans wouldn't stand for it.

SFA88 said:

---

I hate that the winner is the AQ to the NCAA. They are nothing more than money grabs. I agree with Jay Williams when he says they value 3 wins in 3 days more than 3 months of play. I also like his idea that the regular season winner should be the NCAA AQ and the tourney winner the NIT AQ.

I know this means SFA would not stand a shot at the NCAA but they don't deserve it. I also remember a few years ago, before BU, when SFA was clearly the best team in the conference but they stumbled in the SLC tournament and someone else went to the NCAA.

These conference tournaments mean the regular season doesn't matter and there is no reason to watch the games.

I hope UNO wins. They deserve to go to the NCAA.

---

I was with you all the way until your last sentence. That one hurts.

The Ivy League had it right and even this year they set up a four team tourney.

I hate the tourney being in katy. I miss it being on campus sites. It bothers me that we play in a ****ing high school gym

TheRevSFA said:

---

The Ivy League had it right and even this year they set up a four team tourney.

I hate the tourney being in katy. I miss it being on campus sites. It bothers me that we play in a ****ing high school gym

---

Apparently, you have not been inside that "high school gym".

I agree with most that the regular season should mean more.

However, it does have the benefits. Double bye in the tourney is huge. Guaranteed NIT bid, HUGE. Especially for a conference like us, who wants as much exposure as possible.

It seems contradictory to say "regular season matters!" then basically boil down your post season possibility to a single weekend.

I'm not sure what the exact answer is. I Love the idea of on campus tournament play. That gives the better seeds a clear advantage and benefit from being better in the regular season.

I'm not entirely sold on either way being the "best," I know some conferences this year are suffering from having their #1 and #2 seeds get upset in the tourneys. A conference (secretly) should want a team in the NCAA that has a legitimate change to win a tourney game and many times that conference is not represented by that team.

If you are going to do regular season champ to NCAA, then the schedule has to be balanced.

It's never gonna fly that a team could win the regular season and get to play the bottom feeders, like McNeese, SELA, ACU, NWsT multiple times), while avoiding the annually top tier teams in a conference and playing them just once.

Don't know what the answer is, at this point it does not matter. Win three games and we're in!

Good post, MasterAxe.

There are definitely trade offs however you work it. I actually like the Katy atmosphere. SFA fans have been the most represented group there for the last ten years. It seems much more like a home court advantage than many neutral sites. While I would like to see playoff games in Nac, I don't want to have to go to CC or Abeline to play.

I would prefer a 6 team field with a single bye for the top two. You should place in the top half of the conference to get in. Scheduling disparity is always going to be a concern and UNO definitely was helped by a full Louisiana slate of games. The NIT bid helps a lot. I think ultimately someone needs to develop a more evolved seeding where it's not just top 11 seeds for Majors and all one bids 12 and under. It's always going to be hard for small conferences to get respect, but 7/8 win teams in majors don't deserve it. You've got to win half your games.

Until then, I'm going to be ridiculously optimistic until tip off - then I'll be pessimistic until halftime - then optimistic until we pull it off.

INiedrauer said:

---

nacluth said:

---

Until then, I'm going to be ridiculously optimistic until tip off - then I'll be pessimistic until halftime - then optimistic until we pull it off.

---

This.

---

A pretty good summary of our emotions during most games this year...

I like the 6 team idea with a single bye to the top 2 seeds. Seems like a better approach than the current system.

edstile said:

---

TheRevSFA said:

---

The Ivy League had it right and even this year they set up a four team tourney.

I hate the tourney being in katy. I miss it being on campus sites. It bothers me that we play in a ****ing high school gym

---

Apparently, you have not been inside that "high school gym".

---

I have probably more times than you. It's a nice center but it's a high school gym. There's no way around that. Makes our conference look minuscule (which it is)

The true problem is attendance. If it's not a SFA vs Sam game, no one is there and it's just a sea of seats on TV. That's not a good look