In article <tZ,[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] says: > >Actually, the only "automatic" bid goes to the winners of the conference >tournaments. This year, an "unofficial" rule is in effect giving the four >regular-season winners bids as well, but it hasn't been officially deemed >"automatic". You say "to-may-toe," I say "toe-mah-toe." As I understand it, each league gets to choose its qualifier for the NCAA tournament, and each league chose to send their tournament champion. The NCAA then said that if the tournament champion is different than the regular season champion, the regular season champion gets a berth in the NCAA tournament, too. Therefore, teams that win the their league's regular season championship receive an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament because it doesn't matter if they don't win their league's tournament, they're in anyway. If that's not automatic, then I don't know what automatic is. _____________________________________________________________________ Ryan Robbins "Nothing in fine print is ever good news." University of Maine -- Andy Rooney _____________________________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________