Wednesday, 3/5/97
Conference tournaments: to be or not to be
Conference tourneys disregard true champs, regular season
How would you feel if UCLA lost Saturday’s contest against
Washington State and was suddenly stripped of its Pac-10
championship?
Upset? Probably. Cheated? Most likely. Perplexed? Without a
doubt.
Would it be right for UCLA, who won the title due to a
season-long endurance test, to surrender the conference
championship to a mediocre team, simply because the Bruins didn’t
win the last game of the season?
Of course not.
At UCLA, it’s hard to imagine simply because the Pac-10 doesn’t
have a postseason conference tournament.
However, most of the 30 leagues ignore the regular season
champion and declare the winner of a three-day, money-grubbing,
sponsor-inducing tournament as its champion.
To make matters worse, for the 21 so-called minor conferences,
the champion will be its sole representative in the NCAA
Tournament.
As a result, for 200 or so teams in these minor conferences,
their entire seasons rest solely on three days in early March. Who
cares about the first 30 games of the season? Hell, why not just
rest the starters until tourney time? No sense in getting them hurt
before the real season starts.
For instance, take tiny Fairfield University of Connecticut.
They were deplorable in the regular season, winning only eight
games, and finishing 2-12 in the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference
(MAAC). 2-12! And we’re not talking the Atlantic Coast Conference
(ACC) here.
They are currently ranked No. 252 in the RPI computer
rankings.
As a reward for its tremendous season, the Stags "earned" a spot
in the MAAC tourney, and were fortunate enough to upset regular
season champ Iona, win its next two games and emerge from that
three-day roll as … conference champions? Yep.
But, you say, "Everybody loves a Cinderella."
Of course. But first a team needs to earn the right to be called
Cinderella. Until then, they are just the ugly stepsister crashing
the party.
For instance, the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars were everybody’s
darlings in last year’s playoffs. They were a mediocre team at
best, but found themselves only one game removed from the Super
Bowl.
But, there’s two main differences between the Jaguars and
Fairfield. First of all, to even qualify for the playoffs,
Jacksonville had to finish in the upper half of the conference. And
once the playoffs were reached, Jacksonville still had to win in
Denver and Buffalo to advance. Meanwhile, the only requirements for
the Stags to reach the postseason was to keep five players eligible
and make sure the bus didn’t get lost on its way to the gym.
Anybody with half a brain would realize there’s one reason, and
one reason only that conferences support tourneys – the
championship games get nationally telecast on ESPN – bringing in
money and exposure.
But, what "minor" conference received the most recognition last
year? That’s right, the Ivy League. And what’s different from the
Ivy League and conferences like the MAAC ?
No postseason tournament.
I know we all hate to admit it, but the one enduring image from
the entire 1996 college basketball season was Princeton’s backdoor
cut that defeated UCLA. It has been replayed enough times to make
any Bruin fan vomit at the mere thought. That one play has done
more for Ivy League basketball than any two-hour cameo on ESPN will
ever do.
The moral of the story is if a league wants to get notoriety,
they need to do it in the Big Show. And getting notoriety in the
Big Show means an upset of a top-ranked team. And an upset of a
top-ranked team means the conference needs to send its best
team.
Do you really think the Ivy League’s sixth-place team, like
Brown or Cornell, could have beaten UCLA? Neither do I.
If leagues sent their best teams, we wouldn’t have match-ups
like San Jose State vs. Kentucky last year, or Fairfield vs.
whatever top-seeded thug that punches them in the face this
year.
Rather, the first-round matchups would be filled with teams that
earned the right to be there. It wouldn’t be considered any more of
an upset if Iona defeated Kansas than if Fairfield did the same
thing, but the chances are much greater for the former to
happen.
Iona proved throughout the entire season that it is a good team.
Fairfield did it for three days.
For teams in the minor conferences, they have only one goal in
mind at the start of each season – to earn a berth in the NCAA
tournament. They work hard the entire year in anonymity – no TV, no
crowds, no scouts – just to get their one moment in the
spotlight.
Then suddenly, after six months of blood, sweat and
determination, their dreams are shattered simply because they play
one bad game, or their opponent plays the game of its life.
But, at least the smaller schools have something to play for.
Like their seasons. The schools from major conferences, on the
other hand, are only playing for seed position in the NCAA
Tournament.
The top four or five teams in conferences such as the Big East
and ACC know they’ll be playing next week, leaving only the lower
echelon teams fighting for their lives.
One word comes to mind when thinking about these major
conference tourneys … BORING!
Add to the fact that much of the enjoyment of watching college
basketball comes from the reaction of the packed home gyms, these
games that are generally played on neutral courts are bland and
have no attraction whatsoever.
College basketball’s regular season is exciting and March
Madness is the greatest event of the sports year, so we shouldn’t
let that deluxe sandwich get ruined by the spoiled meat of the
conference tournaments.
Especially stag meat.
Boyd is Daily Bruin Senior Staff and thinks Mark Dittmer needs
to watch less TV.One word comes to mind … about these major
conference tourneys … BORING!
Brent Boyd