Originally posted by MrAugustana
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On top of that, look what that CSP loss did to Moorhead. They dropped below Augie AND Concordia did absolutely nothing after their win. It's great to say, "Well, the current format gives every team in the conference a chance to make the Regional if they put together a little conference tourney Cinderella run."
Here's my question: Who decided that Concordia-St. Paul or Minnesota Duluth deserves a chance to make a Cinderella run to reach the NCAA Tournament? I know that's easy to say as a fan of a team that hasn't been in that bottom-of-the-standings position since 2004-2005, but seriously. All that CSP/Moorhead game accomplished was that it gave CSP one "big win" over Moorhead before they lost their next game and their season was over. And even if they made a run and miraculously won the whole NSIC Tourney, why should they be rewarded with one of the EIGHT spots available to the 42 or 43 (is it 43?) teams in our entire region? Do we really want 7 deserving teams and then a 9-24 (which would've been their record if they'd won it all) NSIC representative getting the 8-seed?
As Billeter mentioned in that interview, if you want to get an at-large bid to the tournament, you have to be one of the 5 best teams in a 43-team region, depending on how the conference tourneys all shake out. But you at least have to be one of the 5 best teams if you want to be guaranteed a spot.
If you're the 6th or 7th or 8th best team in the region, why should you have to sit and watch a 9-24 Concordia-St. Paul squad sneak into the spot you've worked all season to earn just because they got hot during one important 4-game stretch? To me that's ridiculous.
I believe up until the loss to SMSU this past weekend, Augie was on an 8-game winning streak. So you have Augie putting together not one, but two 4-game winning streaks in the last two months alone, yet there could've been a situation (possibly) where the Vikes got bumped out of the Regional because CSP...or Crookston...or Duluth had a single 4-game winning streak (with slightly different circumstances in terms of frequency of games, etc., but still...) at a more convenient time?
I know I'm starting to ramble like a drunk old man, but this is something that's bugged me for awhile now. It also drives me crazy that the Summit League works that way. If I'm a USD fan and I've watched the (mangy) Coyotes win an outright conference championship by winning games all season, I'd be livid if SDSU or IUPUI or some other average team just happened to win 4 games in a row and snag an NCAA Tourney spot while my (mangy) Coyotes get demoted to the NIT. There should be some better reward for being the best team all season long than, "Oh well, you don't get to go to the Big Dance, have fun at the NIT losers."
Am I even making sense? Do I just sound like a crazy person? Are there horse socks? Is anybody listening to me?
Here's my question: Who decided that Concordia-St. Paul or Minnesota Duluth deserves a chance to make a Cinderella run to reach the NCAA Tournament? I know that's easy to say as a fan of a team that hasn't been in that bottom-of-the-standings position since 2004-2005, but seriously. All that CSP/Moorhead game accomplished was that it gave CSP one "big win" over Moorhead before they lost their next game and their season was over. And even if they made a run and miraculously won the whole NSIC Tourney, why should they be rewarded with one of the EIGHT spots available to the 42 or 43 (is it 43?) teams in our entire region? Do we really want 7 deserving teams and then a 9-24 (which would've been their record if they'd won it all) NSIC representative getting the 8-seed?
As Billeter mentioned in that interview, if you want to get an at-large bid to the tournament, you have to be one of the 5 best teams in a 43-team region, depending on how the conference tourneys all shake out. But you at least have to be one of the 5 best teams if you want to be guaranteed a spot.
If you're the 6th or 7th or 8th best team in the region, why should you have to sit and watch a 9-24 Concordia-St. Paul squad sneak into the spot you've worked all season to earn just because they got hot during one important 4-game stretch? To me that's ridiculous.
I believe up until the loss to SMSU this past weekend, Augie was on an 8-game winning streak. So you have Augie putting together not one, but two 4-game winning streaks in the last two months alone, yet there could've been a situation (possibly) where the Vikes got bumped out of the Regional because CSP...or Crookston...or Duluth had a single 4-game winning streak (with slightly different circumstances in terms of frequency of games, etc., but still...) at a more convenient time?
I know I'm starting to ramble like a drunk old man, but this is something that's bugged me for awhile now. It also drives me crazy that the Summit League works that way. If I'm a USD fan and I've watched the (mangy) Coyotes win an outright conference championship by winning games all season, I'd be livid if SDSU or IUPUI or some other average team just happened to win 4 games in a row and snag an NCAA Tourney spot while my (mangy) Coyotes get demoted to the NIT. There should be some better reward for being the best team all season long than, "Oh well, you don't get to go to the Big Dance, have fun at the NIT losers."
Am I even making sense? Do I just sound like a crazy person? Are there horse socks? Is anybody listening to me?
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