Ty — Get rid of conference tournaments
I am as much a fan of tournaments as the next guy, but having conference tournaments a week before the largest tournament in all sports is pointless. I understand that the spirit of March lives and dies with improbable upsets, but why are we worrying about that before the actual tournament begins?
If your goal is to get the true best 64 teams competing for the national championship, excluding some of the best mid-majors in the country because they lost in their conference tournament is not the way to go, it essentially makes regular season play pointless.
I know the simple argument against this is to “just win your games” but they did. In fact, most of the teams who sit atop their conference won 15 plus games in their conference during regular season play, so why do these teams have to prove themselves by beating the same teams again after already doing so in the regular season?
We might as well take the preseason standings and throw them all into the tournament at the end of the year because clearly there is no reward for winning your games early in the year.
Look at Miami (OH) University who joined an exclusive club this year, becoming the 21st team in the history of college basketball to go undefeated in the regular season.
This should have won them the Mid-American Conference, but instead they are only rewarded with a bye in their conference tournament and eventually lost their first game because they were forced to play the University of Massachusetts for the third time.
This loss almost led to them being bounced from the NCAA tournament entirely. Even though they ended up being one of the last four teams in, it’s a shame they even had to sweat it out in the first place because they should have gotten the auto-bid for winning their conference.
We saw this happen with mid-majors all over the country; teams like Liberty University, Belmont University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Yale University, Navy and Stephen F. Austin State University all missed the tournament after losing less than five conference games in the regular season.
I am not saying that a tournament at the end of the year for the entire NCAA is not the best way to crown a national champion, but the goal behind playing a big tournament at the end of the year is to have the best 64 teams competing against one another.
If we got rid of the conference tournaments and instead gave auto bids to all of the regular season conference winners, we would achieve that. I would much rather see a 25-plus win team compete against the best teams in the nation than a 15-win team who went on a miracle run at the end of the year.
Tanner — Keep conference tournaments
This is a ridiculous take from someone who clearly hates fun. March Madness is synonymous with the NCAA tournament, but much of the madness starts in the conference tournaments. Close games, upsets and crazy buzzer beaters all start in the conference tournaments.
Not only are they fun, but they’re also incredibly practical. Ty used Miami (OH) as an example for dismembering conference tournaments, but I think it’s a great example of why we need them.
If Miami was really that good, why did they not run the table in the MAC tournament? I mean if they were truly head and shoulders above the rest of the league, they should have coasted to the title, right?
Wrong. Conference tournaments ensure teams justify the resume they’ve spent all year building, and in Miami’s case, the doubts about their resume were proven to be true in the conference tournament. You can see it as a bad thing, but I want the best 64 teams in the field.
Another thing to consider is the consequences of removing conference tournaments. Sure, it benefits each regular season champion, but what would teams play once they’re eliminated from said No. 1 seed?
Look around the country. University of Northern Iowa, University of Hawaii, Kennesaw State University, University of Akron, Furman University, McNeese State University and Virginia Commonwealth University all made the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournaments as underdogs. None of those teams would have anything to play for, but their conference tournament gave them a chance.
What about teams who suffer significant injuries? Let’s make up a scenario and say senior center Robbie Avila went down for Saint Louis University earlier this year. Their tournament hopes would go straight down the drain despite being one of the best mid-majors in the country all because they didn’t earn the No. 1 seed.
This whole argument seems more emotional than it is logical, all because one of your sleeper picks was in danger of not making the NCAA tournament.
Conference tournaments are good for basketball, and I can’t see a good reason why they should go.
Photo by Kylie Osullivan on Unsplash.