Sunday, January 27, 2008

The real reason the Big East went to 16 teams in the conference tourney

What is the real reason the Big East went to a 16-team conference tourney? Sure, a big reason was the bottom four colleges and coaches feeling "left out", but the real reason they did it was NCAA bids. Despite its size, the Big East did not get as many teams percentage-wise as they thought they would, especially when comparing to the Pac-10 or the ACC.

So how does an extra day of games help? It likely adds another bid for the Big East. Why? Because when you play extra games, you will have more wins - four to be precise. And since most of the teams involved with these games will be bubble-related teams, they will have a chance for more wins. Sure, it could also lead to bad losses for seeds #5 and #6, but it also gives them a chance for another Big East win, thus fudging the numbers even more in Big East's favor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very smart analysis here. In addition to more teams, it also gives the conference more television visibility (more games). My sister played basketball in the Big East when there were only 12, and for the women, it made sense because there was a HUGE difference between No. 1 and No. 16. With the men, on any given day, No. 16 could knock off No. 1, which makes things exciting.

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