Us basketball fans spend a lot of time debating bubble position. It's an important concept to discuss, because the other half of the equation is set in stone: each conference tournament champion (with one exception) will receive a ticket to the NCAA tournament stamped "guaranteed". In the money conferences, this is only marginally meaningful, because one or more teams other than the champ will also get in.
But for roughly 60% of the field, winning the conference tourney is the absolute most important thing they can do. A 27-win season in the MEAC turns to dust if your team can't seal the deal. That's why I love conference tourneys - the emotion is distilled into a very potent brew. They're an excellent appetizer for the big dance.
So here are the five types of conference tourneys we commonly see in college hoops. Within the description of each tournament type, you will find a listing in chronological order, reflecting the date that each conference will crown a champion, and where.
Neutral Site, All-in
By far the most popular format for a conference tournament. All members of the conference are seeded based on their in-season conference records. Often the top four seeds are awarded a bye on the first day of the tournament, leaving weaker siblings to fight for the right to take on a team that is provably superior and well-rested to boot. And yet... upsets happen every year.
Atlantic Sun: Allen Arena (Nashville, TN), March 8
Missouri Valley: Scottrade Center (St. Louis), March 9
CAA: Richmond Coliseum, March 10
WCC: Jenny Craig Pavilion (San Diego), March 10
MAAC: Times Union Center (Albany, NY), March 10
SoCon: North Charleston Coliseum (Charleston, S.C.), March 10
Summit League: John Q. Hammons Arena (Tulsa, OK), March 11
Pac 10: Staples Center (L.A.), March 15
C-USA: FedEx Forum (Memphis), March 15
Mountain West: Thomas & Mack Center (Las Vegas), March 15 (nine teams)
MAC: Quicken Loans Arena (Cleveland), March 15
Big West: Anaheim Convention Center Arena, March 15
WAC: Pan American Center (Las Cruces, NM), March 15
MEAC: RBC Center (Raleigh, NC), March 15
SWAC: Birmingham, AL, March 15
ACC: Charlotte Bobcats Arena, March 16
Big 12: Sprint Center (Kansas City), March 16
SEC: Georgia Dome (Atlanta), March 16
Big Ten: Conseco Fieldhouse (Indianapolis), March 16 (eleven teams… awwwkward!)
Southland: Merrell Center (Katy, TX), March 16
Neutral Site, Selective
A format that came into being strictly to accommodate the bloated mega-conferences created during the wild days of aggressive expansion. Leaving a couple of sub-par teams at home every year begs the question - "Why did you add them in the first place?" Aside from that slight change, this plays out very much like the standard All-in tourney.
Big East: MSG (N.Y.), March 15 (top twelve teams only)
A-10: Boardwalk Hall (N.J.), March 15 (top twelve)
Campus Sites
The guiding principle behind this format is likely two-fold. This keeps the revenues from a tournament flowing to member schools instead of a huge venue, and typically, these schools aren't going to fill up a huge venue anyway. The Horizon, however, is probably getting big enough to find a place in one of their central cities, should they want to.
Horizon: Higher seed hosts each game, top two seeds skip first two rounds, March 11
NEC: higher seed hosts, re-seed in the semis, March 12
Patriot: higher seed hosts, March 14 (several days off between rounds)
Hybrid
These tourneys usually start with the campus sites approach, then throw that out in the next round. Sometimes there's re-seeding, sometimes one school is chosen to host the games whether they make the final or not. I guess these leagues like to keep us (and the ESPN production crew) on our toes.
Big South: campus sites, semis at reg. seas. champ, final at high seed, March 8
OVC: first round campus sites, remaining at Nashville Municipal Auditorium, March 8
America East: Events Center (Binghamton, NY) with final at top seed, March 9
Sun Belt: First round on higher-seed campuses, remainder at S. Alabama, March 11
Big Sky: 1st round campus sites, season champ hosts remainder, March 12.
No Tournament
Ivy League: regular season champ gets auto-bid. Traditionally the first bid to be awarded.
Independents: Could get in if they won all their buy games, but it's pretty unlikely.
4 comments:
So wait....San Deigo's arena is seriously called the Jenny Craig Arena?
Yeah, I made the joke on Deadspin that they must have the worst snack bar in college basketball.
And Kyle calls it the "Skinny Gym", which is hilarious.
The Sun Belt one is odd. Last year i watched their final and Team USA and North Texas were playing at the Cajundome (LA-Lafayette's home). So nobody was there. Probably only family of coaches and players, because the home team got bounced.
we in the wcc call it "the slim gym."
also, it's not a neutral court site. it's at the home of university of san diego, who is clearly not the conference's #1 seed. the wcc rotate s the venues around the schools.
kinda sucks for the top seeded schools to have to go to another school's home court.
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