The Bobcat Nation

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

MinnesotaBobcat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:06 am

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

Should the top two be automatically seeded in the semifinals? Essentially having two byes. I don’t think that is equitable.

Common Cat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:15 am

MinnesotaBobcat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:06 am

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

Should the top two be automatically seeded in the semifinals? Essentially having two byes. I don’t think that is equitable.

I think the argument for this holds more water if we felt that one or both of the top two had a legitimate chance for an upset win in the tournament. I think the conference gets compensated for each game a member school participates in, so two games played vs. one game would be a net benefit to the conference (I think around 2 million dollars for men)

https://www.axios.com/2023/03/29/ncaa-b ... ce-payouts

I don't know that I feel that confident that EWU or NoCo could have beaten anyone, especially if they couldn't beat Sac or Idaho State, this holds more water for the West Coast Conference with Gonzaga/St. Mary's.

Common Cat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:15 am

MinnesotaBobcat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:06 am

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

Should the top two be automatically seeded in the semifinals? Essentially having two byes. I don’t think that is equitable.

Lots of conferences give multiple byes for the regular season champs. It does seem to minimize the regular season some to not do something like this. That said EWU has been suspect conference champs the last couple years in my opinion. This year especially. UNCU losing was more of a surprise in my mind.

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<url>https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-me ... basketball </url>

Beating a dead horse but with NIL and Portal it will be harder than ever for a Big Sky team to win a game in the NCCA's. Just not going to be able to build veteran, mature teams to do it. Stars are going to move up. They need a 2nd division, otherwise Big Sky and the other bottom 10-15 conferences are basically irrelevant in a National Championship scenario. They can play to win the conference and the conference tourney but not much else. I do agree that the conference season you have should be rewarded with at least 1 bye in the tourney. Build a FCS for BASKETBALL!!
Go Cats!

The Hornets figured out where the mismatches were and they did a nice job of exploiting them.

Eastern returns a ton of firepower - Price, Jones, Coward, Watts, and Erikstrup are all back next year as long as none of them jump into the portal.

Cats and Dogs wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:54 am

Beating a dead horse but with NIL and Portal it will be harder than ever for a Big Sky team to win a game in the NCCA's. Just not going to be able to build veteran, mature teams to do it. Stars are going to move up. They need a 2nd division, otherwise Big Sky and the other bottom 10-15 conferences are basically irrelevant in a National Championship scenario. They can play to win the conference and the conference tourney but not much else. I do agree that the conference season you have should be rewarded with at least 1 bye in the tourney. Build a FCS for BASKETBALL!!
Go Cats!

What you are talking about would end the current format of March Madness in which teams like Farleigh-Dickinson and St. Peters these past few seasons captured the imagination of the bball world when they upset highly ranked teams.

lv2hoop wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:57 am

Cats and Dogs wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:54 am

Beating a dead horse but with NIL and Portal it will be harder than ever for a Big Sky team to win a game in the NCCA's. Just not going to be able to build veteran, mature teams to do it. Stars are going to move up. They need a 2nd division, otherwise Big Sky and the other bottom 10-15 conferences are basically irrelevant in a National Championship scenario. They can play to win the conference and the conference tourney but not much else. I do agree that the conference season you have should be rewarded with at least 1 bye in the tourney. Build a FCS for BASKETBALL!!
Go Cats!

What you are talking about would end the current format of March Madness in which teams like Farleigh-Dickinson and St. Peters these past few seasons captured the imagination of the bball world when they upset highly ranked teams.

Agreed, but it would give the other 100+ teams something to play for every year other than losing their best guys! Madness is unique but NIL and Portal have changed the format!

The West Coast Conference tournament bracket is sweet. That being said, they built it like that so that Gonzaga would never get a bad draw and play a San Francisco or Santa Clara early on and lose and potentially miss out on the tournament if they didn't get an at-large bid. It just so happens now that it also helps St. Mary's improve their chances. The further along those 2 schools get in their conference tournament, the more likely the WCC is a 2-bid league.
I would argue the ONLY team that has a shot to advance to the round of 32 this year is Weber. Maybe Griz if they got the perfect draw. Eastern have shown to be frauds and UNC is a year or two ahead of schedule. Weber beat #23 St. Mary's this year and has played a handful of very competitive out-of-conference games against tournament-quality teams.
However, If the BigSky adopted the WCC bracket, Weber would be in the same spot they are now, playing in the quarterfinals. I think the BigSky bracket is still very advantageous for the top 2 seeds. You just need to handle your business and win the game in front of you, not the one with confetti at the end.

Prodigal Cat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:46 am

Common Cat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:15 am

MinnesotaBobcat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:06 am

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

Should the top two be automatically seeded in the semifinals? Essentially having two byes. I don’t think that is equitable.

Lots of conferences give multiple byes for the regular season champs. It does seem to minimize the regular season some to not do something like this. That said EWU has been suspect conference champs the last couple years in my opinion. This year especially. UNCU losing was more of a surprise in my mind.

<url>

<url>https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-me ... basketball </url>

This is the first time ever that the top two seeds got eliminated in their first games. It's also the first time since 2005 that the championship game won't have a 1 or 2 seed participating. So whatever system the Big Sky has had, the top seeds have historically done fine. This season is an outlier. No need to change up everything for one weird tournament.

In other leagues it maybe makes more sense to protect your No. 1 and 2. The WCC's 1 and 2 get high seeds and win games in the tournament. The Big Sky's team, no matter who it is, usually gets blown out. It doesn't matter who we send. For our league having a competitive, truly fun knockout tournament is better than having something like the WCC-which is so boring with the same 2 teams in the final every year. Also, falling into the first four gives the Big Sky team a chance for an NCAA win and a first four win pays out the same as a win in the final 64 as I understand it. In my opinion we collectively worry too much about it. If your top teams can't beat a 10 or an 8 they're not going to win the tournament as 14 or 13 seed either. Upsets make it fun.

MinnesotaBobcat wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 11, 2024 10:06 am

Interesting how the Big Sky has changed tournament formats several times in an effort to make it more likely for a top two seed to advance to the big dance. Even with that advantage, both top seeds go out in the first round this year, and Eastern blew the number one-seed last year as well. I wonder if the conference try to tweak this again, or just roll with the same format next year. I think some of the other one-bid conferences give the top two seeds double-byes.

Upsets sure make it fun for the fans…..but pretty sure the conference doesn’t want to send their 10 seed dancing.

I think the format is fine, this year is definitely a bit of an anomaly and will be the first year since the tournament moved to the neutral site in 2016 that it won't be won by either the #1 or #2 seed. Only two teams seeded below #3 have even made it to the championship game in that span, MSU in 2021 and NAU in 2023.

2016: #1 Weber beat #2 UM
2017: #1 UND beat #3 Weber
2018: #1 UM beat #3 EWU
2019: #1 UM beat #3 EWU
2020: No Tournament
2021: #2 EWU beat #5 MSU
2022: #1 MSU beat #3 UNC
2023: #2 MSU beat #9 NAU

Is the Big Sky Conference sleeping in this morning? Their brackets still haven't been updated with yesterday's results

Can we score a basket???

We are standing around way too much, also can't make a 3.