MWC Tournament Field chopped

[Shldr2Shldr]

Not all that important to CU, but interesting none the less.

http://bsndenver.com/report-mw-blin...excluding-three-teams-from-annual-tournament/

In 2017 the MWC tournament will feature only 8 of the 11 teams. That is insane. They can't afford to bring all 11 teams to the tournament. Just another casualty in the battle of the haves and have nots.

 

[sackman]

Nearly the definition of bush league. This is a very bad precedent.

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

If that was this season, WYO AFA and SJSU would miss out. CSU is #7 .

 

[sackman]

It's a death knell for the conference. No conference worth a damn would pull a stunt like this. How do you recruit players to play for a school that might not even have the chance to play in their conference tournament?
Really, really horrible idea, this.

 

[J.R. Ewing]

It's a death knell for the conference. No conference worth a damn would pull a stunt like this. How do you recruit players to play for a school that might not even have the chance to play in their conference tournament?
Really, really horrible idea, this.

It's a sign of things to come for a lot of the lower conferences.

 

[slider]

Poors

 

[Jayne Cobb]

It's a sign of things to come for a lot of the lower conferences.

To wit: The Sunbelt kicking out NM State and Idaho as football-only members. Although, to be fair, they are pretty much an Eastern/Central league now, so I wonder how much this has to do with eliminating what must be the most expensive travel destinations for most of their schools, plus the fact that these two schools did not participate in non-football sports. NM State is really screwed, as they were when the WAC imploded as a football conference and left them hanging. I guess they will go back to being independent. Idaho--they might be regretting the jump to FBS. Obviously this might have happened in years past, as no conference membership has ever been set in stone (okay, maybe the Ivy League is), but, well, it sucks.

 

[aik]

Didn't the Pac-10 used to have an 8-team tournament that left out the bottom finishers? I don't have a problem with it. Reward those who did something in the regular season and don't let cellar dwellers in to play spoiler. It's not like they cut the field in half.

 

[MtnBuff]

It's a death knell for the conference. No conference worth a damn would pull a stunt like this. How do you recruit players to play for a school that might not even have the chance to play in their conference tournament?
Really, really horrible idea, this.

Agree with your point, likely to be some very unhappy schools as soon as it goes into effect. Hard to recruit players, bigger factor might be that a lot of schools use the tourney weekend to wine and dine some significant donors. Those people aren't going to be very interested in going to a tourney where their team isn't included.

Might be that this slightly reduces the chances of a lower conference losing their best team to an upset.

MWC has been trying to act like a big time conference for years but they simply don't have the revenues to support it. Their fans don't want to hear this but in time I think most of their programs are going to eventually end up moving down a level.

Most likely what we will see in the future is a division that includes the top end of the FCS schools and the lower end of the BCS schools including most of the G5 schools. There is no way that schools like Wyoming, Utah State, San Jose, along with the Sun Belt and others can even pretend to keep up in the arms race that is going on now.

Those conferences aren't getting significant TV revenue, the MWC is something like $3 million per school per year. Some P5 schools make that off their local TV affiliations alone. Now that the P5 conferences are moving towards reducing or even eliminating games against these schools another significant source of revenues is being chopped.

There will probably be some schools who manage to compete at a higher level in basketball but football drives the money trucks for most schools. Other than UNLV and New Mexico which MWC schools make significant money on basketball.

 

[Buffnik]

MWC revenue looks like it will be going down, too. Haven't been getting as many teams into the NCAAT the past couple years. They really need BYU back.

 

[hokiehead]

Here's a counter-take:

The last three place teams in any league are struggling for fan attention and only the most faithful are still watching over the last few weeks of the regular season. This gives the hardcore hoops fans of those teams something to cheer for: making the conference tourney (which in turn keeps hope alive of running the table and making the NCAA). It also helps protect RPI of the higher ranked teams in the conference (although potentially takes a win away from bubble teams).

When Virginia Tech was in the Big East, there were a few years when we had this system. I'll be the first to admit that playing to get into the conference tourney is a fairly pathetic goal, but it gave fans some reason to watch the games (being a VT basketball fan has historically been really fvcking tough).

 

[CarolinaBuff]

Here's a counter-take:

The last three place teams in any league are struggling for fan attention and only the most faithful are still watching over the last few weeks of the regular season. This gives the hardcore hoops fans of those teams something to cheer for: making the conference tourney (which in turn keeps hope alive of running the table and making the NCAA). It also helps protect RPI of the higher ranked teams in the conference (although potentially takes a win away from bubble teams).

When Virginia Tech was in the Big East, there were a few years when we had this system. I'll be the first to admit that playing to get into the conference tourney is a fairly pathetic goal, but it gave fans some reason to watch the games (being a VT basketball fan has historically been really fvcking tough).

Right, when the Big East first went to 16 teams only the top 12 competed in the conference tournament for the first few years before they eventually had all 16 teams play in the tournament. But I've always thought that a conference tournament should include all teams in the conference.

 

[sackman]

Did the Big East do that because they couldn't afford to have those extra four teams?

 

[CarolinaBuff]

Did the Big East do that because they couldn't afford to have those extra four teams?

I'm not sure but I seriously doubt it was due to money. Most likely it was simply due to the logistics of a 16-team tournament and needing to secure MSG for an extra day.

 

[PAHIBuff]

To wit: The Sunbelt kicking out NM State and Idaho as football-only members. Although, to be fair, they are pretty much an Eastern/Central league now, so I wonder how much this has to do with eliminating what must be the most expensive travel destinations for most of their schools, plus the fact that these two schools did not participate in non-football sports. NM State is really screwed, as they were when the WAC imploded as a football conference and left them hanging. I guess they will go back to being independent. Idaho--they might be regretting the jump to FBS. Obviously this might have happened in years past, as no conference membership has ever been set in stone (okay, maybe the Ivy League is), but, well, it sucks.

Idaho is the poster child for an ill-conceived jump from FCS to FBS. I wonder if UMass will fare better?

 

[InTheBuff]

Didn't the Pac-10 used to have an 8-team tournament that left out the bottom finishers? I don't have a problem with it. Reward those who did something in the regular season and don't let cellar dwellers in to play spoiler. It's not like they cut the field in half.

I disagree. March Madness is all about upsets and Cinderella attending the ball.

 

[MtnBuff]

Right, when the Big East first went to 16 teams only the top 12 competed in the conference tournament for the first few years before they eventually had all 16 teams play in the tournament. But I've always thought that a conference tournament should include all teams in the conference.

Agree completely,

If you call it a conference tournament then the whole conference should participate. If some hotel rooms and renting an arena for an extra night are to much then your conference shouldn't be considered viable for the big time anyways.

Give the kids at least a shot at playing in the tourney each year. Even at the bad programs the kids work pretty much year around, they deserve to have at least a dream.