imho, the nc$$ tournament selection committee for wo/men's hoops does a
very credible job (moreso in the last few years after apparently devising
a most fair system of selection criteria for the present). was the ice
hockey tournament selection committee doing such a poor job that power
ratings had to become the first say and (practically) the final say for
gaining an at-large bid?
the game is played by humans, the teams are coached by humans, the games
are reffed by (sometimes blind?) humans, and the games are attended by
humans. if the selection committee can do a credible job selecting the
8 (or 12?) at-large entrants, i -for one- would prefer that the tourney
field be filled out by humans rather than a bunch of chips spitting out
numbers based on a 'secret' formula.
 
i am truly sorry i keep banging the drum for regular season conference
champions, but please bear with me one last time. how about this for an
idea the nc$$ would never give a second thought...
if conferences are given the 2nd auto-bid, how about giving the reg season
champ one bid - and then play a conference tournament w/o the reg season
champ for the 2nd bid (the reg season champ would claim the conf champ
title). to avoid giving the reg season champ too much down-time, the
conference tournament would be played in one week (wed-sun?). unfortunately
such a tourney probably would not be as profitable (for a few obvious
reasons) for the money-grubbers.
another thought... how about restricting postseason play for conference
championships to only teams with winning conference records? this idea
came to me BEFORE dickey v proposed a similar idea for nc$$ hoops. imho,
only teams that finish their reg season's with winning conference records
have really EARNED a shot at winning their conference crown (and a
subsequent shot at the national championship).
 
dave
bu 91 and 94, mich TBA