Have major college conference basketball tournies outlived usefulness?

With preseason tournaments and 65 teams making The Dance, have post season league tornaments outlived their usefulness other than as revenue makers for the confrences?

I think they have. Yes, last night's game was a classic. Yes it was nice to Kansas lose.

Is this worth wearing teams down and extending the season worth it?

I can see it for the small conferences that only get one invitation but not for major conferences.

 

No.

 

Yes, but only if the Pac-10 is awarded with 7 automatic bids every year, with the possibility of earning more.

 

Yes. If you haven't proven that you are NCAA worthy after 28 regular season games - why in the world should you get one or two more to play against teams you have more than likely already played?

I mean, I love the fact that Minnesota is now a "lock" because they beat a mediocre Northwestern team on a neutral court in a game that means nothing............

 

The regular-season champion should get the automatic bid. In the mid- and low-major conferences, the tournament champ (if it's another team) gets an automatic bid to the NIT if they're not NCAA worthy.

 

Unfortunately, you answered your own question right there.

They'll be around as long as they're still moneymakers.

 

As far as determining who the "champion" is - yes. But giving crappy teams one last shot at an NCAA bid is cool, and I've got to think it's a nice tune-up for tourney-play when you might not really know who your next opponent might be and have to turn around quickly.

 

I don't have a problem with them. They serve as a route for everyone to make the tournament without expanding the field. For those who think the NCAA field should expand, there's no need, you have the conference tournament route already for that.

Plus, a lot of alums plan a trip around them in my conference (a tournament that draws very well, not all do). You're assured of a trip to your conference tourney, not so much the NCAAs.

 

It has become, if nothing else, an indispensable marketing tool for the big show. I used to be as big a college hoops fan as walked the land, but I've gotten to the point where there will be someone whose name I have never heard until I see it on the AP's All-America first team. The overload of games and the dilution of their meaning are just too much for me.

Now here in one four-day stretch, I can catch up on everything I need to know to enjoy myself for three weeks and lose my 20 bucks in the office pool in respectable fashion. And I don't know what exactly Syracuse and UConn were playing for last night, but it sure was something.

 

Perfectly said. Instead of expanding the NCAA Tournament field to include all teams, the conference tournaments make it possible even for the teams who have no shot of obtaining an at-large bid to make the NCAA Tournament by winning their respective conference.

 

Unless you're in the Ivy League.

 

If they're so smart, why don't they have a tournament?