That's why Pitino hated coaching at Iona. It's tough on coaches and players. You can win 25 games and miss it, if don't win conference

Everything about the NCAA is unfair. Just throw this on the pile.

On one hand, auto bids make the regular season kind of pointless. You could basically lose every game in the regular season but then play three or four good games in a row and get in. For mid-major conferences, you could see a 1 seed with a 25-4 record miss because some 4-25 team got lucky. For major conferences, winning a conference tournament is usually only a difference of one seed if you’re already an at-large team. On paper, the tournament only serves to screw good mid-major schools and slightly shift some at-large power schools. But the automatic bids do make the conference tournaments more interesting because it feels like almost every team is trying to give it their best shot. I think Bilas’ compromise is interesting, but I wonder if teams that are locks like Purdue and Houston this year would just rest their starters and throw their first game of the conference tourney since it the games don’t matter to them.

I actually like that idea. A lot. At present the only stakes in a major Conference tournament are bubble teams. Their auto bids rarely mean anything unless a team goes on a surprise deep run. Reveal the at larges ahead of time and the Auto bids become golden tickets and then watch how the snubbed teams fight for them like its The Hunger Games along with those who have had no shot and have nothing to lose. Must. See. TV.

I will always rather see a 28-29 win non conference winning mid-major in the tournament than the 8th place Big 10 (or other major conference) team

It takes away from the season.... In 1 bid leagues the conference champion should be the team to go dancing from that conf.

Automatic bids are absolutely wonderful and the tournament would not be worth watching without them

I think the fact that conference title games can happen upwards of a week apart from each other is more of the problem. If the MVC tournament had the same / similar dates as the ACC tournament, this wouldn’t be a controversation at all. Why doesnt every conference just have their tournaments on the same days?

Automatic bids should go to the regular season conference champions. If an underdog wins a conference tournament, throw them in the pool of at-large teams. If you have teams with less than 20 wins or more than 12 losses after the conference tournaments, regardless of conference tournament championship status, sorry, you're in the NIT. A 25 win team shouldn't miss out on the NCAA Tourney, because some crappy 9-21 team just happens to win 3 games at the end of the year.

So screw over the smaller conferences for the bigger ones?

The purpose of the tournament should be to get the best teams in the tournament with each conference having a representative.Well, why doesn't the regular season champion of each conference not receive an automatic bid that would accomplish this?Ties of top teams should be decided by the tournament or the selection process if no tournament is available.Why should a team that has been the worse in a conference ,blown out by the top teams all season represent a conference in the "big dance" due to injuries,circumstances or a hot streak,yet you are below .500.Is this the only selection process to which the best team in a conference can be left out?

Virginia loses 4 of their last 15 : I know their resume says they should be in but vibes say they should be out. Wisconsin loses 9 of their last 15 : 6 seed.

Watching this again two weeks later. Indiana State got screwed by the selection committee. So far in the NIT tournament, they have beaten SMU of the American Athletic Conference, Minnesota of the Big 10 Conference and Cincinatti of the Big 12 Conference. They had a 26-6 record going into selection Sunday. Number 1 in effective field goal percentage all season. 29 NET ranking. 8th in nation for offensive scoring 84.9 ppg. 31st in assist to turnover ration at 1.53. 11th in assist per game at 17.7. 1st in effective field goal percentage at .600. 3rd in actual field goal percentage at 50.1%. 3rd in free throw percentage at 79.9%. 12th in scoring margin (12 points per game). 11th in three point percentage at 38.12 %. 5th in three pointers made at 10.8 per game. 7th in winning percentage at 83.8#. 7th in winning percentage at 83.3%. Does this sound like a team that should get left out of the final four.

My criticism EVERY year is that really good mid-major and small-conference teams ALWAYS get slighted in favor of mediocre major-conference teams who can’t even win half of their conference games. It still bothers me that a really good Monmouth team (years ago) beat 5 major conference teams, and was left out of the field in favor of mediocre major-conference teams. Like Bilas says, the tourney is foolproof. It’s always great no matter which teams are in. But it would be soooooooooo much better, imho, with a bunch of really good unknown teams that can take down the giants who may or may not truly deserve to be there. I may be in the minority, but I’d much prefer to watch teams JMU, Indiana St, Appalachian St, Grand Canyon, and McNeese, but odds are that some of them won’t get in.

“They always lose to P5 team by double digits” Could come up with 100 examples to rebuff that, it’s a long time ago, but remember it clearly, and one of my favorites. A 3rd place team wins their tournament and goes on the dream showing why maybe the conference tournament does matter. Cal State Fullerton, 1978. 3rd place team in a mid tier league at best. (Ratings below are national rankings, not seedlings) Round One: beat #12 New Mexico -- Michael cooper !!! Round Two: beat #11 San Francisco - Bill Cartwright !!! Elite 8: lost to #6 Arkansas by 3 on last big shot by Ron Brewer They belonged.

I love that idea rank 1-68 before conference playoffs. As teams not in the top 68 win it pushes out the bottom of the list.

There's a simple solution to this problem. The non-P5 conferences could stop giving their automatic bids to their tournament champions.

I’m looking back at this, and I don’t think it is close enough when the SEC gets 8 teams in, and oh by the way their AD chaired the committee. No one with direct conference affiliation who can benefit from the selections should be allowed on the committee. Because looking at it now, that committee chairman straight up cheated for his own benefit.

All conferences have the choice, regular season or tournament for the automatic bid. Over time, all have chosen tournament. Every team has a shot. Never a fairer process.

The top conferences all get 6-10 teams in the tournament while everybody else gets 1 or 2. Yes, the current system is very much unfair. As a Marshall guy, I follow the Sun Belt. On the men’s side, James Madison won the auto bid and I believe App State deserves to get in as well. On the women’s side, Marshall won the auto bid and I believe James Madison deserves to get in as well. The lower conferences deserve more chances at auto bids.

In the end, smaller conferences have the choice to have the conference regular season champ get the automatic bid or the tournament champ. Seeing as the tournaments are never in a 100% neutral environment, it means that the best team, not only has to win 3 or 4 more games in a row, but one of those teams may be playing with a near home court advantage. Those smaller conferences have a better chance of getting a first round win from their 10th seed 28-5 regular season champ than their 15th seed 20-12 conference tourney champ. I do crack up that Jay Bilas made it sound like the top 5 teams in the MWC would all have worse records if they played in the ACC though. The Big 12 is a much stronger conference than the ACC since 2020 and Houston came in from a conference that was similar in strength to the MWC and finished 15-3 on top of the Big 12. It's not even Houston's best team the last 4 years and certainly not it's healthiest (3 players out for the season). Virginia won the national championship in 2019 and hasn't had a tourney win since. Duke and North Carolina have a combined 2 Sweet 16 appearances since 2020. The ACC aint what it use to be. When you do your brackets this year, flip a coin when a MWC team is matched up against an ACC team.

Every Conference champion gets in end of story then pick the next best teams extend the tournament to 100 teams do away with Conference tournaments and have 16 play in games

Want The Tournament Fixed ... 1) Regular Season Champion gets in but cant be ranked higher than a 9 seed 2) Conference Tournaments can only involve teams with a winning record 3) As you advance in your Conference Tournament you get a better seeding 4) If Regular Season and Conference Champ are the same , that opens an at large bid 5) No more than 4 teams from any Conference in the Tournament . There .. fixed it for you 😂

68 before the conf tourneys as Jay said -- then -- if a non-68 team wins a conf tourney - let the conf decide which team from that conf is replaced by the conf tourney champ.

How ironic is it now after Bilas talked about either Wake or Virginia getting into the tournament, and then NC State comes through from the #19 seed to win the whole ACC Tournament.

Imagine the ‘23 Carolina Panthers showing up as the 16 seed in an NFC playoff tournament, just a few wins away from reaching the Super Bowl. These conference tournaments are ridiculous.

As a TSU grad, I love the conference tournaments because we win the SWAC tournament every year no matter how bad we are 😂

y’all do know this rule is gonna change once conference realignment happens right?

Of course it’s unfair. I’ve been saying this for years. The regular season, especially for smaller schools, is virtually meaningless. It’s all about money, like everything else in sports.

All this talk about Indiana State and no one ever gives Drake any credit. They've had a really good season and played a great game. They deserve their bid and wouldn't be too far off from an auto bid if they hadn't won.

If this was ever taken to court, it would be ruled as blatantly anti- trust.

Will Jay Bilas speak out on Flip the trip and Duke fans actions at end of game Until then Jay Bilas needs to make no comments on anything off the court

The NCAA Tourney Selection Committee members probably NEVER played NOR coached on a college level, if they coached on ANY level at ALL. What do THEY know.

I just want to see a mid-major win it all before I die... is that too much to ask?!?

So what would be the point of being conference champions? Jay Bilas would be singing a very different tune if it was anyone but the Wolpack

Acc never gets any love, they have had 3 teams in the last 2 years in the final 4

The haves do not want to share with the have-nots. What's new?

LEAVE IT AS IS!!!! Conference tournaments have a TON of history behind them. Especially in the home of the ACC.....NORTH CAROLINA

I predict the Power 4 (not 5) will eventually decide they don't need the NCAA. Those conferences include the teams (especially in football) that get the largest percentage of fan attention. I think they'll decide they want their own football playoff system and to keep all the money generated by the basketball tournaments. They can do their own TV contracts, and their own streaming networks. (ACC, SEC, and B1G already have their own networks.) The remainder of the schools outside the Power 4 can stay aligned with the NCAA if they want but the Power 4 schools will move out from under NCAA control. Streaming, social media, the Transfer Portal and NIL are changing the shape of college athletics forever.

I think it’s a little bit unfair. You got teams winning conferences with worse records than teams that finish in the top 3 in a power 5 conference that don’t make it

I don’t think it’s unfair. Those schools get no respect for their wins. This systems gives them a chance. If it changes no mid major would make it.

The at-large bids will always be where the real name game begins -- the nebulous formula will alway$ favor the middling major conference program$.

The whole thing is BS. We all know the people who are on the committee have their bias. Issue is the whole net is dumb. Overall win your conference tournament. The whole point of the ncca tournament is to see which conference is better and that is what makes it fun

The conference tournament winners getting automatic bids is "human stupidity".

We know why he’s against it. It takes away bids from his buddies like Izzo

All true (aka didnt win a tournament) conference winners should get an automatic bid

Either way it’s great hearing the acc cry about being left out lol. Play better!!!

No

Nothing wrong with the system.

I wish the regular season champ got the auto bid. Conference tourneys are a money grab.

All jay talks abt is Rupp arena ice cream and duke.

Big 12 sucks

Good luck to duke

I’m tired of Jay Bilas. I can’t get that disastrous PMT interview out of my brain.

Nah

Everyone's talking about eliminating auto bids or expanding the tournament, to me they're missing the problem. Conference tournaments are a great tradition and shouldn't go anywhere, and winning should mean something. The only way for winning to mean something is to have a chance at a national championship. The problem is that D-1 is too big. Way too big. Why are half the conferences filled entirely with teams that have no realistic shot at winning? Split D-1 into D-1A and D-1AA, then we can keep auto bids and keep the tourney the same size.

Let’s go back to 1974 and previous .. conference champ (most leagues sent tourney champ, some sent reg season). Only 25-29 teams made it. Only a few at large, like 3-5 tops. (Maryland was #3 team in country, didn’t get in, lost to #1 NC st in acc tourney) 1971 South Carolina was 16-0 in ACC, lost in their tournament, out. 1971 Marquette turned down ncaa bid to play NIT No league got more than one team… period! Of course I don’t want that, but it was once a lot worse.

What's unfair is that Indiana State is going to be given an at large bid just because "it's what the people want to see." That's all the NCAA does: cater to the public. Indiana State shouldn't even be in consideration with that resume, yet the committee will put them in and give them a favorable first round match-up to justify the decision.

U mean rigged

It sucks

Jay Bias

We just need a 128 team tournament

How about stop changing everything in this dam country

Womp womp

Jay billis is out of touch

Honestly who cares I will only be watching one tourney this year and it’s the GIRLS! Pure talent and excitement