Pardon? Since when?
Even though the Women’s Final Four has gone back to Friday/Sunday (which means Sports Illustrated no longer has an excuse not to cover the game in the print version of its magazine - with Tuesday finals, they always claimed, “Well, er, uh, we had to go to press before the game was played.” and then the next week, they pretty much pretended the game never happened), they still release the bracket the Monday night after the men’s bracket is released.
Yup—and those are the kind of teams that belong there, “bubble” teams. I should expand on “punishment”----I think if you just won the Midlands Conference tourney, its a punishment to be put in the First 4. Kinda takes the edge off the celebration.
I like the idea of bumping First 4 Losers down to the NIT. Losing the First 4 is the worst because you don’t even make the 64 or the NIT. Its No Mans Land,
Where are these games played? Are they at one of the tournament venues, or are they just at one of the teams’ home arenas, or some venue used only for that game? That is to say, if a spectator goes to the tournament, will they see that game? If they’re at a tournament venue, then they’re tournament games, and if they’re not, they’re not.
The problem the NCAA has is that the bubble teams are usually better than some of the conference champions. If you had bubble teams playing for the 16 seed it would be really unfair to the 1 seed. I’d much rather have my team play South Dakota St instead of Syracuse.
The “First Four” play-in games are all played in Dayton, OH, on the Tuesday the week the tourney starts.
Here are the First Four games:
New Orleans vs. Mt. St. Mary’s March 14 Dayton, Ohio
Wake Forest vs. Kansas State March 14 Dayton, Ohio
N.C. Central vs. UC Davis March 15 Dayton, Ohio
Providence vs. USC March 15 Dayton, Ohio
And normally these games will determine the 11 seed or the 16 seed of one of the brackets.
Only New Orleans, Mt. St. Mary’s and NC Central were automatic bids for winning their conference tournaments.
Winning the regular season conference championship is not an auto bid.
Another point for not really counting it is that the NCAA revenue share only goes to the 64 in the bracket, not the losers in the First Four. Yes, the First Four are technically part of the tournament, but for all practical purposes, it’s a play-in game to me.
This is what I don’t get. Hey, 12 seed! You get to go into the final 64 automatically. Hey 11 seeds! You get to fight it out in Dayton for the right to get in. How does that make sense?
The games have always (2011-now) been played in Dayton, and from 2001-2010 the single play-in game was also in Dayton. I’m not sure how UD manages to pull that off, but I guess by now it’s tradition.
Ok, call them all “play-out” games, because that’s what they are.
Where’s the like button on this thing? I can never decide whether I am more indifferent to basketball or hockey, and football is only marginally better.
Waiting now for all the True Males’ heads to asplode.
Obviously you’re not THAT indifferent, or you wouldn’t have bothered to comment. (Do I follow particularly teams? You’re damned right I do.)