March madness
Back to blogging after a hiatus that's primarily quizbowl-related (i.e. writing questions). It's getting back to that time of year where I really care about college basketball (as does much of the sports world, really). One issue that lingers in my mind while watching all of these conference tournaments is if they're even relevant at all. Don't get me wrong, this is the type of stuff that gets me in the mood for the NCAA tournament, and a number of major-conference teams can use a good run to get off that good old "bubble." However, a number of top teams may just as well lose early (see Texas, Arizona, Marquette) and get themselves somewhat rested for the tournament rather than run through the gauntlet of 3-4 games to win a conference tournament. Conversely, winning a bunch of games in a short period of time could reflect how a team does in the tournament -- although you only play two games over three days, not three in three days.

I suppose it's a better situation now with all of the at-large bids, in that the major-conference teams get in even without winning conference tournaments. The same can't be said for the smaller conferences. I'll get geeked up for the MAAC, Patriot, Horizon, etc. conference tournament finals. However, you've got to wonder about the fairness of that in determining NCAA bids, especially if a team that so thoroughly dominates a conference falls short in the tournament. You don't always get the top seed from that tournament (or even one of the top few teams), and that could mean the difference between a team that could pull off an upset and a team that's cannon fodder. It's such a catch-22: smaller conferences want some exposure (which they wouldn't get if they went straight-up round robin to determine a champion), but you want to show some fairness in getting teams in.

One way to do that among the smaller conferences is to stick to a completely neutral-site tournament or hold the tournament final on the home court of the higher-seeded team (the Patriot, among many conferences, does that). Both Gonzaga and Butler, recent NCAA tournament darlings, both got the shaft this year on that end. Both were the higher seed in their conference finals, but were played on the home court of the opposing team. I suppose it's tough for some of the smaller conferences to find a neutral site for a conference -- and travel budgets are too tight to travel for a tournament site to a school court in one day. (Some of the tournaments that do home court for the finals only have a long lag time between games as they accommodate ESPN.)