Looking ahead…
I was curious about the structure of the tournament given that we have 2 additional teams in the conference (well, for the next two years), making a total of 11.
https://wccsports.com/tournaments/?id=122
The Thursday game is 10 seed vs. 11 seed. What’s the point? I’d rather see the Thursday games as 10 seed vs 7 seed and 8 seed vs. 9 seed (like it was when BYU was in the conference). Does anyone really think the last place team has any shot at winning the tourney?
I’d prefer to have the final game on Monday night rather Tuesday night, which would be possible if 10 vs 11 game didn’t happen.
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If they don’t want to rent the venue out for an extra day, I’d rather the league just not invite the last place team to the tournament……there’s nothing saying every team has to participate in the conference tournament.
There’s also no rest day between the quarters and semis anymore like previous years. Which means we probably would need to win 3 games in 3 days to make the tournament. Of course, if this team plays the way it’s capable of before the tournament…then that wouldn’t be necessary
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You’re both right. There’s nothing requiring a conference to include all teams in their conference tourney.
It’s up to each conference to determine their own league tourney format and how they select their NCAA tourney autobid. They could play a tourney of Ro Sham Bo to determine their autobid if they wanted.
I believe the Ivy League’s tourney only includes their top 4 teams and for years they had no tourney at all w/ their regular season champ getting their autobid. And not so long ago, when the Big Sky had 9 teams, the 9th place team didn’t quality for their tourney. I’m sure there are other examples.
And reminder that GCU and Seattle join for 2025/26 so the WCC will have 13 teams next season and thus yet another new/different tourney format. And then down to 10 teams again for 2026/27 with GU, WSU and OSU departing and assuming no other changes to the league make-up in that timeframe (certainly not a guarantee). Lots of speculation and rumors of GCU heading to the PAC-12…which would be perfectly fine with me, in fact preferred.
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