At 11:45 AM 2/28/96, Bill Fenwick wrote:
>This is correct -- prior to last year, the NC$$ handed out only one
>automatic tournament bid per conference, and each conference awarded that
>bid to their own tournament winner.  Last year, the NC$$ gave each
>conference two automatic bids, and all the conferences elected to give
>those bids to the regular-season champ and the conference tournament
>winner.  Note that the NC$$ hands out auto bids, but does *not* say who
>they have to go to -- as far as I know, there isn't any reason a conference
>couldn't decide to give their two bids to the tourney winner and runner-up
>(or the fifth-place team and consolation-game winner, for that matter).
>But that decision has to be made in advance, and in fact, I think the
>conferences have to decide what to do with their auto bids before the
>season starts.
 
As far as I know, there is still technically only one "automatic bid" given
to each conference.  As Bill says, the NCAA elects to give certain
conferences in various (all?) sports automatic qualifying bids into the
NCAA tournament, and the conference then must decide what to do with that
bid (sometime before the season starts).  Some conferences in other sports
give their bid to the regular season champ, such as in basketball, the Big
Ten and the Ivy League.  All four DivI hockey conferences have chosen to
give their bids to the tournament champ, and this is renewed each year.
 
The issue of the regular season champ getting a bid is separate.  The
selection committee stated last year that they would begin a new philosophy
designed to insure that all regular season champs also get bids.  They said
that in the event that the regular season champ and the tourney champ were
not the same team, then they would also give a bid to the regular season
champ.
 
Another regulation upon tourney selection is that at least two teams from
each conference must receive bids.  But this is separate from both of the
above.  It is really only correct to say that each conference has one
automatic bid and is guaranteed to get at least two teams into the NCAA
tourney.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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