Steve G. wrote:
>As I understand it, each conference was given two automatic bids by the NCAA
>(so there will be at lest 2 teams from each conference in the Final 12)
>
>I assume (I know, dangerous thing to do) that each conference had to declare
>how it would disperse its automatic bids before the season began.  And, each
>conference chose to give the automatics to the regular season and tournament
>winners.
>
>If each conference had to declare its intentions early on, then what are
>they (by conference) in the event the regular season and tournament winners
>are the same team?
 
Here's how I understand it:  (That's meant to be a disclaimer!)
 
Each conference is guaranteed two bids.  It USED to be that ONE was an
automatic bid which the conference could assign (pre-season) to either its
regular-season or playoff champ.  However, all the conferences chose to
award it to their playoff champ, I imagine because this lent meaning to the
conference tourney and, *presumably* (we know all about the exceptions...)
the regular-season winner should have a good enough record to earn an
at-large bid anyway.  The second guaranteed-but-not-automatic bid for each
conference would be assigned by the committee on the basis of the selection
criteria chosen for at-large bids.  The final four slots were filled
without restriction using only the selection criteria.
 
But then some regular-season winners didn't get at-large bids.  There was
much squawking.  (Not at the conferences for not awarding their automatic
bids to their regular-season champs, but at the NC$$ committee.)  So the
NC$$ decided that the regular-season AND playoff winners would both receive
automatic bids.  If those are one and the same, then the conference's
second team would be chosen by the committee as before, using the process
for the at-large bids.  After that, the other four bids are completely
unrestricted (as before).
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!
Ski-U-Mah!!!
 
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