Pam's comments summed it up well...the only change I would make is that
officially, as I understand it, each conference still gets only one
automatic bid, and that bid goes to the tourney champion.  The committee
has, however, also said that they would extend a bid to the regular season
champ if that team does not also win the tourney.  So for all intents and
purposes, the bid for winning the regular season is as good as an automatic
bid (when you win it, you know you are in), but it is not officially an
automatic bid.  The NCAA only gives out one of those per conference.  By
"NCAA", I mean the NCAA itself, not the selection committee.
 
Now, one question I have never had answered is this.  What happens if two
or more teams tie for first place?  Are all guaranteed to be extended bids?
Or only the team that wins the tiebreaker and gets the top seed in the
conference playoffs?  Imagine a situation where two teams tie for first and
one of them is not one of the top 12.  This has not happened yet, but it
could someday.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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