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RunSyc said:
Read an article where Calipari suggests half of the new tournament slots should be reserved for MM/LM, and would rather NCAA clean up the transfer portal.

Not gonna happen, but not a bad thought.
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I'll still stand on my Top 12 conferences should get their regular season and conference champion in. I think that is beyond fair and makes sure you reward complete season success in addition to those that got hot late.
 
No disagreement. Would love for this to happen. Would make the tourney so much more fun.
Jason Svoboda said:
I'll still stand on my Top 12 conferences should get their regular season and conference champion in. I think that is beyond fair and makes sure you reward complete season success in addition to those that got hot late.
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Well, one way to show sympathy for non-P4/2/? programs is pretty simple: 64 team tournament consisting of the top two teams from the 31 D1 conferences and then get two more teams from the top two teams identified in some ranking system.
This approach would to some small extent offset the paucity of NIL resources outside of the P4. I do believe it would do a lot to redistribute talent across the conferences.
A lot of players want to play in the big dance, and that incentive alone might persuade some to take a smaller, but still considerable, NIL package.

I guess it would provide a powerful incentive to break up the super conferences back down to 10 teams or so. Then each would get two teams. In that scenario, just identify the top 31 conferences and top two teams not automatically selected. Same situation except the bottom 1 or 2 conferences lose out that year, but I guess they could still divide up the money among all ELIGIBLE conferences even if not in the tournament.

And it might get the big dogs to leave the NCAA which is what would be best for all concerned.

Just wait until baseball goes to 35 scholarships and see what happens to competitive balance.
 
Expanding to 76 is a disaster for the MVC. We all know a majority off the "Last 12 in" will be P5 schools, which will now be taking half of the 11 spots and all of the 12 spots. Going back to when the tournament was 64 teams, with the "Worst 12 Qualifiers" being relegated to the play in games, that means all of the former 15's have been relegated to 16's, and all of the 14's will now be 15's with some having to play in a the play in games.

If I understand this right it means the MVC will now be on the 13 and 14 line more times than not going forward, because here's the math:
32 conferences (with Pac 12 revival next season)
27 Mid / Low Major Conferences
8- 16 seeds
6- 15 seeds
4- 14 seeds
4- 13 seeds
Total= 22 AQ's on 13-16 lines

That means only the top 5 Mid Major conference qualifiers will be able to be on the 10 or 11 lines (only two 11's available), and the 10 line is honestly awful because you get paired with a 2 in the second round.
 
Sycamorefan96 said:
Expanding to 76 is a disaster for the MVC. We all know a majority off the "Last 12 in" will be P5 schools, which will now be taking half of the 11 spots and all of the 12 spots. Going back to when the tournament was 64 teams, with the "Worst 12 Qualifiers" being relegated to the play in games, that means all of the former 15's have been relegated to 16's, and all of the 14's will now be 15's with some having to play in a the play in games.

If I understand this right it means the MVC will now be on the 13 and 14 line more times than not going forward, because here's the math:
32 conferences (with Pac 12 revival next season)
27 Mid / Low Major Conferences
8- 16 seeds
6- 15 seeds
4- 14 seeds
4- 13 seeds
Total= 22 AQ's on 13-16 lines

That means only the top 5 Mid Major conference qualifiers will be able to be on the 10 or 11 lines (only two 11's available), and the 10 line is honestly awful because you get paired with a 2 in the second round.
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Explain that statement... 64 team tourney (1984-84 - 1999-2000) and there were 6 "play-in games?" What scenario are you describing?
 
4Q_iu said:
Explain that statement... 64 team tourney (1984-84 - 1999-2000) and there were 6 "play-in games?" What scenario are you describing?
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Maybe poor wording on my part, but I'm saying that the 15 seeds of the old model (64 team field) are now 16 seeds playing in play in games, and all of the 14 seeds in the old model are now 15 seeds.

In this 76 team field there will be 12 AQ's in play in games (6 games). Obviously there weren't play in games in the 64 team model.
 

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Sycamorefan96 said:
Expanding to 76 is a disaster for the MVC. We all know a majority off the "Last 12 in" will be P5 schools, which will now be taking half of the 11 spots and all of the 12 spots. Going back to when the tournament was 64 teams, with the "Worst 12 Qualifiers" being relegated to the play in games, that means all of the former 15's have been relegated to 16's, and all of the 14's will now be 15's with some having to play in a the play in games.

If I understand this right it means the MVC will now be on the 13 and 14 line more times than not going forward, because here's the math:
32 conferences (with Pac 12 revival next season)
27 Mid / Low Major Conferences
8- 16 seeds
6- 15 seeds
4- 14 seeds
4- 13 seeds
Total= 22 AQ's on 13-16 lines

That means only the top 5 Mid Major conference qualifiers will be able to be on the 10 or 11 lines (only two 11's available), and the 10 line is honestly awful because you get paired with a 2 in the second round.
Click to expand...

You essentially have a similar thought to what I tweeted out above. From that tweet:

"If you don't think they are systematically trying to lower the percentages in the 5/12, 6/11 and 7/10 games, you're either burying your head in the sand or beyond help. Those games historically give the lower seeds a 35-40% chance and has seen multiple Elite Eight and Final Four teams. Once you get to the 13th seed, that percentage halves."

Each tournament unit is worth $2-$2.1m over 6 years now, up again from $1.8ish. With 35-40% of the time mid-majors getting upsets as 10-12 seeds, you can guarantee they will plot to push quality MMs down into lower seeds and the ones that do somehow still end up in 10-12 slots will get strongest high major opponents unless they just can't hide it with regionality. Once you get to 13 and beyond, percentages drop in half at nearly each seed step.
 
Just went through out of curiosity to see what the mid major AQ seedings would have been this past tournament with the new setup.

11= VCU, USF
13= McNeese St, Akron, Northern Iowa, High Point
14= Cal Baptist, Hofstra, Troy, Hawaii
15= NDSU, Penn
15 "Last 12"= Wright St, Kennesaw St, Tennessee St, Idaho
16 "Last 12"= Furman, Queens, Siena, LIU, Howard, UMBC, Lehigh, Prairie View

Top 4 (will be 5 next season with PAC) Non-P5 AQ's= Gonzaga, Utah St, VCU, USF
*VCU and USF would have remained on the 11 line. Gonzaga and Utah St would have remained on the 3 and 9 lines respectively.
 
I question if the low major conferences and schools even care anymore at this point. I think most of them have accepted the fact they can't / won't be able to compete and just view the "First 12 play in round" as a 50/50 shot at picking up a second tournament unit they probably wouldn't have received otherwise.
 
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