Why I Hate College Basketball, Part II: Conference Tournaments

While sure I did not write Part I, I feel there's another aspect of college basketball that sucks that wasn't mentioned before, conference tournaments.

In every other sport, how a team does in the regular season determines the playoffs seeding. Not in college basketball. In the college game, it's not only the regular season but also "a pre playoffs" or the conference tourny that determines March Madness seeding (and speaking of March Madness, can we please change the title of that considering most of the tournament now takes place in April). See, after your regular season, all the teams in your conference play each other. The winner of this tournament gets an automatic bid to the Big Dance. So, if your team sucks and even has a losing record, you still have the opportunity to go Dancing (let's see how many "Cinderella" references I can make in this post, so far I'm at 2. Does anyone remember Illinois last year? They SUCKED with a capital "S" yet they still had the opportunity to be a low seed Cinderella (3) team because they made it to the Big Ten finals. Now luckily (well not for me being a fan but luckily from an objective position) Illinois lost to Wisconsin (who was #1 in the Big Ten), but Illinois never should have had the opportunity to go in the first place.

Now I understand the nature of playoffs is reduced to luck, and especially in college basketball where the Big Dance (4) is single elimination and where anything can happen, but teams for the most part earned the right to be given a chance. If you play hard and play well throughout an entire season, you should have the opportunity to make the playoffs. But if you get lucky and just so happens to win three or four games, what makes you so good to go Dancing (5)?

Look at teams like Cleveland St who beat 17th overall ranked Butler. Does winning one lucky game against a ranked opponent means who DESERVE to be a part of the 64(5) teams. No. Butler, who beat opponents all year long deserved to and should have been the winner of Horizon conference, but instead it's Cleveland St. Now Butler is going to be in the tourny, but now Horizon conference will have two teams going instead of one. This means that teams on "the bubble" is now eliminated. There are a handful of teams that played pretty well to deserve to go Dancing (6) but now can't because of sheer luck by teams like Cleveland St. The winner of these conference games weakens the overall quality of the bracket tournament because they force more deserving teams out.

Now, I'm not advocated against automatic bids, to the contrary. I like automatic bids, just not from conference tournament play. I think the automatic bid though should come from regular season play and not tournament play. That way, Butler would automatically go and teams like Cleveland St., who had the opportunity all season long to win the Horizon conference, don't get to go.

Now one argument I heard against this was that people love Cinderella (7) teams. Fans love teams like George Mason, a low seed that everyone counted out yet plays well, and these conference games not only allow fans to watch Cinderella's (8)to emerge like Cleveland St but also allows more of these types of team to play in the Big Dance (9). Here's the thing, 1) how many people truly watched all these minor conferences like the Horizon tournament? I can't imagine very many except for fans of the particular schools and 2) Do people honestly think upsets won't occur if there isn't conference tournaments? I would argue that upsets would occur more frequently because more quality teams (teams that have proven themselves over the course of an entire season) would play over teams that just got lucky within 3-4 games. I guarantee you major upsets will occur and teams like George Mason will happen without conference tournaments.

Now I understand why this happens. The same reason college football doesn't implement a playoff- money. Conferences make a lot of money of these tournaments. And if I was the commissioner of a conference like the Horizon league, I would be happy that two if my teams were guaranteed to Go Dancing (9) instead of just one. However, I, as a below average fan, would love to do away with the conference tournaments. Plus, now March Madness could actually be played in the month of March!

Also, total Cinderella references: 9. How many can you spot while watching ESPN? Make a drinking game out of it!

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Just an update. the Big Ten finals will be Purdue versus Ohio State. What if Ohio State wins? Are they the best team in the Big Ten? No. Do they automatically deserve to go to the Tournament? NO. Now Purdue, a team guaranteed to make the tourny, could end up winning and then this won't be a problem. But seriously, examples like this happen all time and this just helps strengthen my point.