Why NCAA Conference Tournaments Are Stupid

I like to complain about things I think are dumb, and I have recently heard perhaps the dumbest argument in a while when it comes to college basketball, conference tournaments, and the NCAA Tournament. It has to do with not getting a first round bye in your conference tournament and instead getting an extra win against a weaker, lower seeded opponent.

The sad thing is people really think that playing an extra game is a good idea or that it is going to be what gets them into the big dance. Or is the sad thing that we let four or five days have more of a pull in getting teams into the big dance than roughly four or five months?

The Big Ten starts its conference tournament next week in Indianapolis, with its middle tier teams battling out who gets the byes and who has to play an actual first round game next Thursday.

The sad thing is, watching the media coverage from ESPN and The Big Ten Network, they talk about the likes of Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State all having the good fortune of having a potential extra game to win, and that this extra win is what would likely get them into the dance.

I hate that the NCAA would even consider giving much credit to any team that benefits from an extra win, because there is a reason that the respective team had to play in the first round or play-in round of its tournament. The reason is that those teams just aren’t very good.

Plain and simple, if you play in an 11-team conference and five teams get first round byes in your conference, you feel you should be given more respect for beating a bad 10 or 11 seed when the teams you are competing for a selection against earned the right to sit out a round? Illogical.

The way it shapes up right now is that Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Penn State, and Minnesota all have a first round bye in the Big Ten tournament, with that slated to change depending how the remaining conference games go the rest of this week.

Ohio State sits very much on the bubble as of this morning and would have the No. 6 overall seed in the Big Ten Tournament. That No. 6 seed would be good for a date with 1-16 Indiana, while another bubble team in conference, Minnesota, would get a first round bye and play against Penn State in the 4/5 matchup.

If Ohio State were to win against Indiana and lose the following round to No. 1 Michigan State, while Minnesota fell in their matchup to Penn State, would Ohio State then jump the Gophers in terms of tournament résumés because they beat an awful Indiana team?

Tuesday Hamp and Holmes talked about what they would change in sports if they were given an opportunity, and callers gave ideas of changing baseball’s regular season so you have more division games down the stretch and other examples along those lines. My idea would be to get rid of conference tournaments in college basketball, or at least not let them have any pull when it comes to selecting teams for the big dance.

There are cases where teams can steal spots from just as deserving of teams, and there are multiple cases a year where a team with no business being in the NCAA Tournament goes on a magical run, wins their conference crown because they play well for a few days in a row against teams that aren’t playing for much, and steal a spot in the national tournament.

I would like to see conference tournaments go by the wayside. If you aren’t good enough to make the dance in your 18 or so conference games, why do you deserve a chance to play a few more and better your case?

If you are 13-16 overall entering your conference tournament, then go 4-0 in four days and “earn” a trip to the dance, does that really make up for the fact your team was 4-12 in regular season conference games that year (see Georgia, 2007-08)?

It is no wonder the smartest students in the United States go to Ivy League schools and continue to get it right after all these years, being the only conference not to hold a tournament at the end of the season to determine its postseason fate.

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