Game 4: GMU (2-1) vs Maryland (3-0) Canceled due to Covid.

[sleeperpick]

A, kowtowing to the P6 and their greed is why college sports is the way it is right now; B, no reason to kowtow to a minority voting bloc just because they have a ton of money.

LOL I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. You think University of Maine upsetting and winning the America East and being in the tournament is better than a good North Carolina team getting upset in the ACC tournament and not making May Madness? Nobody is going to watch 20 cream puff teams out of 32 in a tournament. thats crazy talk

 

[GMUgemini]

LOL I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. You think University of Maine upsetting and winning the America East and being in the tournament is better than a good North Carolina team getting upset in the ACC tournament and not making May Madness? Nobody is going to watch 20 cream puff teams out of 32 in a tournament. thats crazy talk

There is going to be no metric that makes any kind of sense to select at-large bids this season as teams are going to have vastly different numbers of games played (as an example Memphis in the AAC has played 4 games, Temple has played 0 so far). What is going to happen even more this year is mediocre P6 teams are going to fill out the bracket, because there will be zero ability to really compare, say, an ETSU with a Penn State (and let's be real, ETSU would have gotten shafted last year had they been upset by Furman or UNCG in their conference tournament, despite doing 27-4 and having an NET in the 30s). 32 teams in a year like this year with auto-bids only is really the only equitable way split the pie.

There also wouldn't be 20 cream puffs because there are good teams in those lesser conferences. What are we talking about...top 12 conferences. Last year that would have been the P6+A10, AAC, WCC, MWC, MVC, and MAC. That wouldn't have included teams like Liberty, ETSU (there were actually three Southern schools in the top 100 last year -- ETSU, Furman, UNCG), Stephen F. Austin, Louisiana Tech , Vermont, Winthrop, Yale, or Belmont. So assuming most likely these would have been your reps from outside the top 12 conferences...that's actually 20 teams that would be playing quality basketball out of 32 (so the opposite of what you said). I would assume any REAL cream puffs could be gone outside of the first round, and most of these teams would probably be gone after the round of 16 (pretty much like any year).

I get it, people want to see brands and what is equitable isn't necessarily popular. I'd also say the P6 will be just fine if this were the format for one year.

Of course, this whole conversation is moot in the sense that the Ivy League and Patriot League cancelled their entire seasons anyway, which would leave you with 30 teams.

 

[sleeperpick]

There is going to be no metric that makes any kind of sense to select at-large bids this season as teams are going to have vastly different numbers of games played (as an example Memphis in the AAC has played 4 games, Temple has played 0 so far). What is going to happen even more this year is mediocre P6 teams are going to fill out the bracket, because there will be zero ability to really compare, say, an ETSU with a Penn State (and let's be real, ETSU would have gotten shafted last year had they been upset by Furman or UNCG in their conference tournament, despite doing 27-4 and having an NET in the 30s). 32 teams in a year like this year with auto-bids only is really the only equitable way split the pie.

There also wouldn't be 20 cream puffs because there are good teams in those lesser conferences. What are we talking about...top 12 conferences. Last year that would have been the P6+A10, AAC, WCC, MWC, MVC, and MAC. That wouldn't have included teams like Liberty, ETSU (there were actually three Southern schools in the top 100 last year -- ETSU, Furman, UNCG), Stephen F. Austin, Louisiana Tech , Vermont, Winthrop, Yale, or Belmont. So assuming most likely these would have been your reps from outside the top 12 conferences...that's actually 20 teams that would be playing quality basketball out of 32 (so the opposite of what you said). I would assume any REAL cream puffs could be gone outside of the first round, and most of these teams would probably be gone after the round of 16 (pretty much like any year).

I get it, people want to see brands and what is equitable isn't necessarily popular. I'd also say the P6 will be just fine if this were the format for one year.

Of course, this whole conversation is moot in the sense that the Ivy League and Patriot League cancelled their entire seasons anyway, which would leave you with 30 teams.

if you want it your way to ensure only good teams then you need to scrap the conference tourney. Upsets happen 16-20 teams make it to the tournament quite a bit because they get hot in conference tourney or beat the Furman or Liberty in their conference. If an AEAST team that was dominant like Vermont loses the tournament the replacement no matter who would be glaringly bad. A lot of these conferences only have 1 good team in them and those good teams lose.

Nobody is watching a tournament with ETSU, Liberty, UNCG, SFA, New Hampshire getting bids when Duke, Kentucky, UNC and Stanford don't get allowed in. What happens if Gonzaga goes undefeated and loses to USF or St Mary's in WCC final? They don't get in because you want it fair to the MEAC and AEAST? give me a break

 

[Petey Buckets]

The whole point of having a tourney this year is that the NCAA badly needs to recoup money they lost from not having one last year. If it's 32 teams it might be *only* P6s plus a handful of good mids. Much likelier that low majors get shut out entirely since the NCAA needs schools that will, you know, actually draw an audience.

 

[GMUgemini]

if you want it your way to ensure only good teams then you need to scrap the conference tourney. Upsets happen 16-20 teams make it to the tournament quite a bit because they get hot in conference tourney or beat the Furman or Liberty in their conference. If an AEAST team that was dominant like Vermont loses the tournament the replacement no matter who would be glaringly bad. A lot of these conferences only have 1 good team in them and those good teams lose.

Nobody is watching a tournament with ETSU, Liberty, UNCG, SFA, New Hampshire getting bids when Duke, Kentucky, UNC and Stanford don't get allowed in. What happens if Gonzaga goes undefeated and loses to USF or St Mary's in WCC final? They don't get in because you want it fair to the MEAC and AEAST? give me a break

Yes. As a once in a lifetime solution, it would be the "right" thing to do for those conferences.

 

[Five Two]

Of course, this whole conversation is moot in the sense that the Ivy League and Patriot League cancelled their entire seasons anyway, which would leave you with 30 teams.

just a clarification, the Patriot League cancelled their non conference schedule. As of right now, they do plan on playing conference games only starting Jan 2. They allowed Army and Navy to play non conference games and we've seen Navy already beat GW and Georgetown.

 

[ephoops]

/l

T

Of course, this whole conversation is moot in the sense that the Ivy League and Patriot League cancelled their entire seasons anyway, which would leave you with 30 teams.

Actually, only the Ivy League cancelled its season.

The Patriot League cancelled its non-conference schedule. It will play a 16-game unbalanced conference schedule starting Jan 2nd with games played back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday each weekend in a home-and-home format (eg, Bucknell plays at Navy on Jan 2nd and at home against Navy on Jan 3rd).

 

[Quentin Daniels]

LOL I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. You think University of Maine upsetting and winning the America East and being in the tournament is better than a good North Carolina team getting upset in the ACC tournament and not making May Madness? Nobody is going to watch 20 cream puff teams out of 32 in a tournament. thats crazy talk

Right???

Under the "Gemini Plan" and assuming the higher ranked teams ended up winning their conference, 16 of the current AP Top 25 teams and 5 of the Top 10 would be left out of the tournament. Instead, 24 of the 32 spots would go to teams from conferences beneath the A10 like Big Sky, WAC, IVY, Mid-American, Summit, Sun Belt & MEAC.

I mean, who wants to watch Kansas vs. Michigan State or Virginia vs. Kentucky when you could instead see Sacred Heart take on Texas Southern.

 

[GMUgemini]

Right???

Under the "Gemini Plan" and assuming the higher ranked teams ended up winning their conference, 16 of the current AP Top 25 teams and 5 of the Top 10 would be left out of the tournament. Instead, 24 of the 32 spots would go to teams from conferences beneath the A10 like Big Sky, WAC, IVY, Mid-American, Summit, Sun Belt & MEAC.

I mean, who wants to watch Kansas vs. Michigan State or Virginia vs. Kentucky when you could instead see Sacred Heart take on Texas Southern.

See you are looking at it as a consumer product, which of course it is, but it is also a collegiate amateur competition during a public health emergency. And what we have right now is chaos. We have chaos in collegiate football too.

My way largely preserves some kind of season, equitably, and probably would allow more fans at games as the vaccine is more widely distributed in the first half of the year while also not forcing the season into the summer.

I mean, who is to say some of these P6 teams will even be able to accept a bid to the NCAA because they’re going to be quarantined to start it?

As a once-in-a-lifetime solution it’s not ideal, but what we’ve got going on right now is also not.

 

[Five Two]

Maryland replaced us with Saint Peter's of the MAAC today at 3pm.

 

[Patriotsince81]

Maryland replaced us with Saint Peter's of the MAAC today at 3pm.

They will probably give the Terps a better game.