Ah ha!!! The following is for all of those who said they doubted my statement that conferences don't necessarily have a lifetime lock on automatic postseason championship participation, at least in Division I basketball. ;-) Thus spake the keyboard of Mike Machnik (quoting the NCAA manual): >* 18.5.1 says that a conference can receive an automatic qualification >into a DivI championship if it has at least 6 members classified in >DivI in that sport, as long as it meets criteria in 31.3.4 which is ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >long and convoluted. :-) Other divisions must also have conferences >meet the criteria in 31.3.4. An example is 31.3.4.1-(e), which says >that competition in the sport "must be of sufficient quality to >warrant automatic qualification...won-lost record and strength of >schedule of both the conference as a whole and its individual member >institutions...". > Ah, justification . . . :-) ********************************************************************** * Steve Christopher, NMU [log in to unmask] GO 'CATS!!! * **********************************************************************