NCAA Tournament 2012: Drexel and 5 Other Victims of Conference Tournament Crime

Despite a better-than-average 11 at-large selections, the non-power conferences will not all be represented by their strongest members in the 2012 NCAA tournament. Among the 19 conferences that received only their automatic bid, 10 did not send the regular-season champion as their sole delegate.

The reason? All 10 were upset in their conference tournament, and it is the conference tournament winner, not the regular-season champ, who earns the guaranteed berth. This system puts all the marbles into a one-week playoff with little regard for the three-month regular season that makes up the majority of a team's body of work.

The only conference to buck the trend is the Ivy League, which uses regular-season standings and head-to-head play to determine its representative, using a one-game playoff at a neutral site if necessary.  

As a fan, conference tournaments deliver more basketball, potential rubber matches among rivals and important data for selection and seeding in the field of 68. That said, they have a track record of rewarding the wrong teams from mid-major conferences while penalizing those most deserving of a spot in the NCAA tournament bracket.

Here are the details of six schools among the fallen 10 that deserved to dance and would have benefited greatly from the Ivy League system.

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Nevada Wolf Pack

The Wolf Pack dominated the Western Athletic Conference, closing with a 13-1 conference mark and three games ahead of second-place New Mexico State. Nevada finished 26-6 overall with nonconference victories over Washington and Montana and with tight road losses at UNLV and Iona.

However, when it mattered, the Wolf Pack fell to hot-shooting Louisiana Tech in the semifinals of the WAC tournament, paving the way for New Mexico State to earn the automatic entry. The bubble burst for Nevada when the East Coast Wolfpack from NC State received the committee's nod in its place.

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Oral Roberts was the heavy favorite to represent the Summit League in the Big Dance after racing out to a 17-1 record in conference play. The Golden Eagles finished two games ahead of South Dakota State, which handed ORU its only defeat in league play.

The Eagles posted a 27-6 overall mark that saw victories against Xavier and Akron and narrow road losses to West Virginia and Gonzaga.

Unfortunately for ORU, it shot a miserable 2-for-13 from behind the arc and suffered a one-point loss to Western Illinois in the conference tournament. Oddly, Oral Roberts will square off against Nevada in the first round of the NIT, while South Dakota State plays on the big stage later this week.

Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders

Middle Tennessee dominated the Sun Belt Conference during the 2011-12 campaign with a league-best 14-2 record. In nonconference play, the Blue Raiders posted double-digit wins against UCLA, Mississippi and Akron on their way to a 25-6 record in total.

When it counted, though, the Raiders made just 11 of 22 free throws in a three-point loss to Arkansas State in the conference tournament. In their place, Western Kentucky, with its 15-18 overall record, will be the lone Sun Belt delegate in the NCAA tournament.

Texas-Arlington Mavericks

Texas-Arlington ran away with the regular-season title in the Southland, finishing 15-1 and three games ahead of its nearest rival. The Mavericks ended the year at 24-8 overall, 11th in the nation in rebounding and 21st in points per game.

The conference tournament, however, was not favorable to No. 1 seed. The Mavericks fell to a hot-shooting McNeese State team that crushed UTA's hopes of reaching the field of 68. Its ouster enabled Pat Knight's Lamar Cardinals to punch their ticket for the Dance.

Valparaiso Crusaders

Valparaiso was positioned to take the Horizon League crown away from in-state rival Butler, which had been the class of the conference for several years on its way to consecutive national title appearances. The Crusaders battled to a league-best 14-4 conference mark and beat Butler three times over the course of the season.

Valpo cruised to the Horizon final, where it met a Detroit squad it swept during the regular season. The Crusaders were unable to win a third time, committing 18 turnovers and sinking just of two of 18 3-point attempts in their worst Horizon loss of the year.

Drexel Dragons

Perhaps one of the worst snubs in the 2012 tournament is Drexel. The Dragons won the regular-season title of the Colonial Athletic Association, a league that sent three schools to the 2011 tournament and has two Final Four appearances in the last six years.

Drexel recorded a 16-2 mark in CAA play and had won 19 straight games heading into the conference final against Virginia Commonwealth. In the final game, playing at a "neutral" site just two miles from the VCU campus, the Dragons nearly erased a large first-half deficit but ultimately lost by three points to the hometown Rams.

So until the rest of College Basketball adopts the Ivy system and abolishes conference tournaments, the bracket will fail to be optimized with the very best teams across the college basketball landscape. In the meantime, we can all enjoy some high-quality matchups in the NIT on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Follow Mason @masoninmendon on Twitter.