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NEC Tournament unique situation

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Sean Miller Fan

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Oct 30, 2001
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#1 seed Merrimack hosts Sacred Heart Saturday at 6. If Merrimack wins, the winner of the 8PM St. Francis (PA) @ Fairleigh Dickinson semifinal gets the autobid since Merrimack, as a new D1 team is ineligible. It would be interesting if Pitt, PSU, WVU, and SFPA all wound up in Dayton. Perhaps they could move the games to Breezewood or Wheeling.

Speaking of the NEC, former member RMU blew a 12 point 2nd Half lead in the Horizon quarterfinals at Cleveland State and lost in OT. Nice bounce back season for them.
 
Why do they have rules in place to prevent teams from making the tournament after they move up a level? I’ve heard that before for other teams and I don’t understand it.
 
CaptainMurphy said:
Why do they have rules in place to prevent teams from making the tournament after they move up a level? I’ve heard that before for other teams and I don’t understand it.
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Not sure exactly. This happened to Bellarmine last year. I think its probably to ensure the teams are committed to D1 and to disincent too many teams from making the jump.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
#1 seed Merrimack hosts Sacred Heart Saturday at 6. If Merrimack wins, the winner of the 8PM St. Francis (PA) @ Fairleigh Dickinson semifinal gets the autobid since Merrimack, as a new D1 team is ineligible. It would be interesting if Pitt, PSU, WVU, and SFPA all wound up in Dayton. Perhaps they could move the games to Breezewood or Wheeling.

Speaking of the NEC, former member RMU blew a 12 point 2nd Half lead in the Horizon quarterfinals at Cleveland State and lost in OT. Nice bounce back season for them.
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What kind of venue in Breezewood could host the first 4? The Flying J parking lot? Should I book my room at the Days Inn before it fills up?
 
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It’s a transition period. Which is funny because it would allow them to fully fund their D1 scholarships

I guess it prevents D2 teams from stacking and moving up to be eligible right away.

Short memory here but recently Merrimack, Stone Hill, Bryant, Bellarmine have done well in their first few years of D1 after the transition
 
Pittnerski said:
It’s a transition period. Which is funny because it would allow them to fully fund their D1 scholarships

I guess it prevents D2 teams from stacking and moving up to be eligible right away.

Short memory here but recently Merrimack, Stone Hill, Bryant, Bellarmine have done well in their first few years of D1 after the transition
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Odd that you’d be able to stack at the D2 level as opposed to D1. I’m probably missing something.

I say give them a 4 or 5 year wait before they can join and then eliminate the restriction. Sucks for these teams to win a conference championship and watch a lesser team make the tourney.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
#1 seed Merrimack hosts Sacred Heart Saturday at 6. If Merrimack wins, the winner of the 8PM St. Francis (PA) @ Fairleigh Dickinson semifinal gets the autobid since Merrimack, as a new D1 team is ineligible. It would be interesting if Pitt, PSU, WVU, and SFPA all wound up in Dayton. Perhaps they could move the games to Breezewood or Wheeling.

Speaking of the NEC, former member RMU blew a 12 point 2nd Half lead in the Horizon quarterfinals at Cleveland State and lost in OT. Nice bounce back season for them.
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Since the point of the tournament is to choose the autobid, why not just make that team ineligible for the tournament?
 
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Franb said:
Since the point of the tournament is to choose the autobid, why not just make that team ineligible for the tournament?
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Obviously the auto-bid is awesome but hanging a championship banner from the rafters is cool too.
 
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Franb said:
Since the point of the tournament is to choose the autobid, why not just make that team ineligible for the tournament?
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I would agree. I think these leagues having conference tournaments is dumb anyway. In the old days, it was a nice way to get a game on TV but everything is at least streamed now anydays and being on ESPN2 isnt anywhere near as big of a deal as it used to be. A lot of these leagues would have a few more NCAAT wins/shares if their regular season champ didnt get upset early in their conference tournament. If you need to have a conference tournament, I have always thought that if the regular season champ doesn't win it, then the regular season champ should play the tournament champ a few days later for the auto bid
 
Pitt2009 said:
Obviously the auto-bid is awesome but hanging a championship banner from the rafters is cool too.
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Sure it is, but they were regular season champions, which should get them a banner. The whole point of these conference tournaments is to win the auto-bid.
 
Franb said:
Sure it is, but they were regular season champions, which should get them a banner. The whole point of these conference tournaments is to win the auto-bid.
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Not if you aren’t eligible to win it. I see your point, just don’t think we’ll agree on this one.
 
Pitt2009 said:
Not if you aren’t eligible to win it. I see your point, just don’t think we’ll agree on this one.
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I am making a distinction between regular season and conference tournament. They can win regular season, since it has nothing to do with the NCAA tournament.
 
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