Yeah, I can certainly see...

[griz71]

In a one bid conference the league champion should get rewarded with the auto bid, period. I would think that the commissioner would want his best team representing our lowly conference on the big stage. That being said, if you're going to have a tournament, it's asinine to play it at a neutral site. At the very least, the team that comes out on top after the rigors of the regular season should be rewarded with the right to host. In a bigger conference where the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th ++ are already assured of at-large berths, & with fan bases that travel en masse it makes more sense. Here? Completely idiotic.

Spot on/nailed Gold! :clap: :thumb:

 

[griz71]

Of course they are. I stated the same thing above. Fullerton's job is to sell them on why it's a terrible idea for the conference in the short run, and find a way to extricate those schools from the conference who can't pay their simple costs of doing business in the long term. In other words, his job is to do what's best for his league.

But in the BSC, the have not's out number the have's and there is no way to extricate them. You are suggesting he do what is best for the few have's and that is just not gonna happen. The predetermined site may not happen, but currently it is looking like it will.

Ahh! And there we have the reason UM has no business being in this conference. As I said, the league does it backward: they cater to the have nots. You know why the basketball in the WCC got so good so fast? Because the WCC did everything in its power to give Gonzaga every conceivable advantage. And they told the rest of the league that if they wanted a piece of that action, there was only one way to get it: get better.

Why doesn't the BSC do that?

WEll summarized...are you listening BSC Commissioner/School Presidents/AD's?

 

[bearister]

I was mostly being ironical. For all the PR about student-athletes, conferences could not care less what the athletes want.

 

[CDAGRIZ]

If:

1. everyone makes the conference tournament;
2. the conference tournament is at a neutral site; and
3. nobody gets a bye in the conference tournament,

then I will forfeit every regular season conference game and scrimmage an out of season Euro league team twice per week so I can roll into the conference tournament at 0-18 in conference and win every game by 20+. Dancin'.

 

[EverettGriz]

If:

1. everyone makes the conference tournament;
2. the conference tournament is at a neutral site; and
3. nobody gets a bye in the conference tournament,

then I will forfeit every regular season conference game and scrimmage an out of season Euro league team twice per week so I can roll into the conference tournament at 0-18 in conference and win every game by 20+. Dancin'.

This.

I promise you that under this format teams are going to tank games late in the year. Why wouldn't ya? I bet there's games where the gangly video coordinator is the leading scorer and the 11 year old ball boy is jumping center.

 

[sacstateman]

If:

1. everyone makes the conference tournament;
2. the conference tournament is at a neutral site; and
3. nobody gets a bye in the conference tournament,

then I will forfeit every regular season conference game and scrimmage an out of season Euro league team twice per week so I can roll into the conference tournament at 0-18 in conference and win every game by 20+. Dancin'.

Point #3: The top 4 finishers in the regular season get first round bye

 

[George Ferguson]

I agree that the WCC reference is apples and oranges. Not to mention, Gonzaga isn't the first program to have sustained excellence in basketball. Long before the Zags dominated the league like they do now, Loyola Marymount, St. Mary's and Pepperdine had very good runs as excellent mid-major programs. Gonzaga has been an incredible program over the last decade, but they by NO MEANS invented or elevated the WCC. The WCC has ALWAYS had a strong presence in college basketball.

 

[wbtfg]

I agree that the WCC reference is apples and oranges. Not to mention, Gonzaga isn't the first program to have sustained excellence in basketball. Long before the Zags dominated the league like they do now, Loyola Marymount, St. Mary's and Pepperdine had very good runs as excellent mid-major programs. Gonzaga has been an incredible program over the last decade, but they by NO MEANS invented or elevated the WCC. The WCC has ALWAYS had a strong presence in college basketball.

Don't forget USF. They had at least one national championship when Bill Russell was there.

Also, Santa Clara made some noise with Steve Nash.

 

[CDAGRIZ]

If:

1. everyone makes the conference tournament;
2. the conference tournament is at a neutral site; and
3. nobody gets a bye in the conference tournament,

then I will forfeit every regular season conference game and scrimmage an out of season Euro league team twice per week so I can roll into the conference tournament at 0-18 in conference and win every game by 20+. Dancin'.

Point #3: The top 4 finishers in the regular season get first round bye

There it is. Thanks. I wouldn't put it past them, but I'm glad to see there is some incentive in the regular season.

 

[CDAGRIZ]

I agree that the WCC reference is apples and oranges. Not to mention, Gonzaga isn't the first program to have sustained excellence in basketball. Long before the Zags dominated the league like they do now, Loyola Marymount, St. Mary's and Pepperdine had very good runs as excellent mid-major programs. Gonzaga has been an incredible program over the last decade, but they by NO MEANS invented or elevated the WCC. The WCC has ALWAYS had a strong presence in college basketball.

I grew up following WCC basketball . . . on the radio. I'm not disagreeing with you, and I understand that more TV options are available nowadays, but I can't remember a single GU or regular season WCC game on non-local TV until several years into GU's run.

 

[EverettGriz]

Certainly the WCC has had some great individual basketball teams. But it has rarely been a good basketball conference. I stand by my point: The WCC is a good basketball conference top to bottom now because when Gonzaga became successful, they didn't hold the hands of the lower teams. They MADE them get better by giving all the Zags all the advantages they could and if anyone else wanted some of those, they'd better find a way to win some games.

That's the way real conferences do things. The bsc would rather try to appease 5-27 teams with minuscule and razor thin athletic budgets. Where most conferences believe that a rising tide lifts all boats, the bsc's philosophy is to drown it's few successful programs while dragging them down to the ocean floor with the bottom feeders.

 

[Buttegrizzle]

Agree with GoldstandardGriz and 71. If money and convenience for the lowly members is all that matters, just eliminate the tourney altogether. Give the regular season champs the auto bid and the runner up the NIT. In the event of some wacky tie, just play one more game between the contenders. The regular season needs to mean more.

 

[NorthwestFresh]

: The WCC is a good basketball conference top to bottom now because when Gonzaga became successful, they didn't hold the hands of the lower teams.

Huh? The WCC has one more team than the BSC in the tournament, and it's a traditional program that they poached from the MWC. BYU is relegated to the fake first-round game tonight, aren't they? The WCC doesn't have football, which makes them unique, anyhow, in the NCAA landscape.

Exactly how does the WCC "cater" to Gonzaga, other than Zag fans descend on Vegas each March at the Orleans to party and watch their team win their 123rd conference title in a row. St. Mary's is decent at times, but again, they don't have a football program, and put as much money into their basketball program as they can to put a decent team on the floor.

The BSC is a football conference. Acting like EWU, Weber, or UM are at all comparable to Gonzaga is delusional.

 

[NorthwestFresh]

Agree with GoldstandardGriz and 71. If money and convenience for the lowly members is all that matters, just eliminate the tourney altogether. Give the regular season champs the auto bid and the runner up the NIT. In the event of some wacky tie, just play one more game between the contenders. The regular season needs to mean more.

That's a good idea in theory, but with 12 teams, not every conference team plays the same conference schedule, so giving the regular season champion the autobid isn't optimal, either.

The Griz played a good enough OOC schedule this year to merit consideration as an at-large bid, which is the Gonzaga model.

Has UM beat Cal/Davidson/Boise/CSU/San Francisco/South Dakota/Milawaukee, and then throw in the nice OOC win against NDSU, then they would be considered in Gonzaga's league.

The WCC didn't make Gonzaga; Gonzaga made the WCC. Even with that, it's still a 2-bid conference, and a 1-bid conference at times.

 

[EverettGriz]

: The WCC is a good basketball conference top to bottom now because when Gonzaga became successful, they didn't hold the hands of the lower teams.

Huh? The WCC has one more team than the BSC in the tournament, and it's a traditional program that they poached from the MWC. BYU is relegated to the fake first-round game tonight, aren't they? The WCC doesn't have football, which makes them unique, anyhow, in the NCAA landscape.

Exactly how does the WCC "cater" to Gonzaga, other than Zag fans descend on Vegas each March at the Orleans to party and watch their team win their 123rd conference title in a row. St. Mary's is decent at times, but again, they don't have a football program, and put as much money into their basketball program as they can to put a decent team on the floor.

The BSC is a football conference. Acting like EWU, Weber, or UM are at all comparable to Gonzaga is delusional.

You're missing the point. No one is comparing ANYONE in the BSC to the Zags. That would be as laughable as picking the cats to best the Griz.

But if you're suggesting the BSC is in anyway comparable to the WCC, you spend too much time doing meth in Cheney. The bottom of three teams in the WCC would regularly WAX all but the top 3 or 4teams in the BSC.