I found this useful article Saturday.  Miles Klotz clearly identifies the problem:

This all exposes a flaw in the system. Why should a team that dominated its conference throughout the rigors of the regular season – which Murray State did, by going a perfect 16–0 – be subject to a do-or-die series of games in a conference tournament?

But he seems to be in a fog as to the answer:

If eliminating conference tournaments doesn’t work, then how are the best teams from each conference going to make the NCAA tournament? The short answer is that they won’t. The selection process is flawed – and at the moment, there is no clear fix.

I think the solution is simple.  Admit every conference champion and every tournament champion in the NCAAs.  I know the answer involves expanding the tournament by at least several teams.  But it can be done and the pot can be sweetened with more money for the first play-in games (still official NCAA games for all record and other purposes) and build excitement – as if excitement needed to be built for the NCAA basketball tourney.  The sportswriters need to call for it and keep calling for it until it happens.

I also liked this snub and seeding article and hope to have tomorrow my thoughts on it.

About Elwood Sanders

Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)

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