Another point is that the major conferences can usually* assume that any team good enough to win the regular-season title will, in the process of doing so, have compiled a record good enough to qualify them for an at-large bid, so they can best maximize their conference's participation by giving their autobid to the tourney champ.

*CC in the 12-team days (1994, I think) is an example of when this didn't happen.  The paucity of examples, however supports the point that, on average, a conference's best strategy is to give the bid to the tournament champ.

-Pam

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Dr. Bob Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Mar 18, 2007 3:07 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Starting the Bitching Early
>
>Thanks for the information.  Seems you are saying that the Ivy League really
>has no choice since it does not have a tournament.  And, if a conference has
>only one autobid and also has a tournament that it would be beneficial from
>a monetary standpoint to give the tournament more value, so the choice is
>not very free. Guess we know the results by now.  Bob Hamilton