Earlier this week, the Presidents of the Big East Conference voted to change the men’s and women’s conference basketball tournaments beginning in 2009. All 16 teams will make the tournament at the end of the season, instead of the top twelve that do now.
Thank God we have one more season before this absurd change takes place. The new system attempts to keep the current tournament format intact, while adding four more teams to the schedule. The nine through sixteen seeds will meet on the first day of the post-season competition. The four winners from these games will then match up with the five through eight seeds the following day. Like the current format, the top four seeds won’t play until the quarterfinals.
Whatever reason there was for regular season play, it is gone. It won’t plummet to the horrific depths of boredom found in the NBA, but you can foresee negative effects. The competition at the bottom of the conference for those final tournament spots will be no more. Don’t worry, University of South Florida, you no longer have to improve in order to make the tournament. The Presidents have handed you an automatic bid.
What are we fans going to do for the first two days? We get antsy waiting for the first round to play out so the big boys can do their thing. The new system will just mean more meaningless games.
Did the universities seeded nine through 12 vote for this change? They now have more hoops to jump through to win the tournament. While the five through eight seeds still need to win one more game than the one through four seeds, nine through twelve will be demoted and will face an extra round of tournament play.
Once teams hit the end of the regular season, the level of play will diminish as well. With a guarenteed post-season slot, players will focus on preventing injuries, not on playing amazing basketball.
The change will put the Big East’s tournament on par with other conferences. The ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Conference USA, Pac-10 and SEC all have conference tournaments that feature all 10, 11 or 12 teams in the conferences. What does the Big East see in this all-inclusive format that warrants change? Apparently they want to give everyone a chance.
“Our residents performed a very thorough review of the tournament format,” Big East Commissioner Michael Tranghese said. “After extensive deliberation, it was decided that inviting all teams to participate would provide a special opportunity to every men’s and women’s basketball student-athlete.”
Are you serious, Michael? These are grown men and women, not seven-year-olds playing in their city recreation league. Why don’t we just give them all participation certificates and a Tootsie Pop?
