Let'sGoZips94

Citing such simplistic data as the argument is like strictly using W/L for pitchers to determine the Cy Young Award winners. Explain the Sun Belt being a 1v10 in the Championship Game. How could that happen with the top 2-4 seeds being "rewarded" so heavily with their format? Let's not forget 3 of the 6 seasons in the current format have seen Toledo/Kowalchoke as the 1 seed. You could automatically crown them the Champions and they'd find a way to choke it away. 2021: 1 seed Toledo lost in the SF to 5 seed Ohio, who beat 2 seed Buffalo in the Finals and went on to win a game in the NCAAT with Jason Preston. 2022: 1 seed Toledo lost in the SF to Akron, who beat 2 seed PCCC in the Finals and almost beat UCLA in the NCAAT. 2023: 1 seed Toledo lost in the Finals to 2 seed PCCC. 2024: 1 seed Toledo lost in the QF to 8 seed PCCC, who went on to infamously lose the Finals to 2 seed Akron. 2025: 1 seed Akron wins the whole thing, including a thrilling Championship Game over 2 seed Miami OH. 2026: 1 seed Miami OH gets stunned in the QF by 8 seed UMass. 2 seed Akron won the Championship Game over 4 seed Toledo. In the 6 years of the current format, the Champion has been Akron 4x, PCCC 1x, and Ohio 1x. Akron and Ohio have been the Blue Bloods of the MAC for 2 decades, and PCCC has been a Powderpuff Blue Blood over that same time period. The 1 seeds have been Toledo 4x, Miami OH 1x, and Akron 1x. Toledo is fraudulent in March and a lot of people warned against taking Miami OH in their game vs UMass because of the matchup/fraud potential for Miami OH after flirting with many losses all season. The 2 seed has made the Championship Game all 6 seasons, further proving how bad Toledo/Kowalchoke are in March. If anything, the current format has proven that the best team(s) in March will rise to the top. The MAC Tournament has provided thrilling entertainment these last 6 years. Changing it would be silly.

My question is where does the conversation of the "reward" end? Personally, I think 1) having the most rest throughout the tournament and 2) getting to play the weaker teams the first couple rounds is already a pretty darn good reward. I don't believe a BYE is as rewarding as you believe. Letting the opponent get a game under their belt on a neutral court with new sightlines, etc., is a borderline disadvantage. If you want the regular season to matter more, you don't have a tournament. You have a regular season and a conference championship game - at most. Top 2 teams from the regular season play for a shot at making the dance. The tournament is a money grab - that's it. Trying to apply competitive logic to something solely built to line the pockets of the suits is a fool's errand.

Only way this works is if it's an even regular season conference schedule, which it will be going forward. Again, worthless conversation to have because the $$$ from Cleveland is too lucrative for the conference.

Where does the "reward the top 2 seeds" conversation stop? Why not simply let the regular season determine what the Championship Game is? Why have a tournament at all? The tournament is a money grab across the NCAA meaning the suits will always have the tournament. As long as we're having the tournament, the current format is the most fun. 4 games on Thursday starting at 11am is an absolute blast for basketball fans. Quit ruining what's fun in this country to extract every penny out of everything.

Suits are very, VERY good at screwing things up once they climb the ladder high enough. Messing with the current MAC Tournament format would be asinine, especially if it's in response to Akron's dominance/Miami OH's choke job. The Sun Belt has the craziest format in the nation that gives each set of higher seeds an additional bye. The tournament started on Tuesday, March 3rd. The top 2 seeds - Troy (1) and Marshall (2) - didn't play until Sunday, March 8th. The semifinals were 1 seed Troy vs. 8 seed Southern Miss and 2 seed Marshall vs. 10 seed Georgia Southern; this, after the quarterfinals matchups saw 2 blowouts by the lower seeds. Georgia Southern had played 4 games prior to their semifinal matchup and knocked off Marshall to reach the tournament final. Putting top teams on ice for longer periods of time is riskier than 3 games in 3 days. If the double-bye is that intriguing for ADs, why don't they propose a 2-round conference tournament starting Friday night? Why have 8 teams make it to Cleveland instead of 4? Don't. Touch. The. Format.

Players should get to choose what their bios say post college career. Nate's saying Kansas State is BS. He was made at Akron.

Or it's scheduled later in the season with NET-based matchups. Determine a win percentage threshold over X number of years. Randomly draw 8-16 teams from the list. Match those teams up in February based on NET. Call it the "Bracket Booster" instead of Bracket Buster. Voila.

Create an event based on the winningest programs in the last X amount of years. Call it the Mid Major Blue Bloods or something like that. Year to year doesn't matter when it's programs people care about. The issue with the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge is outside of James Madison, Marshall, and MAYBE a couple other programs, fans don't care about the Sun Belt. Same with Sun Belt fans about most MAC programs. I don't know what the exact solution is, but giving the P4s the middle finger is the best path the mid majors can take.

This upcoming season is the last year of the agreement. Will be curious to see if there's an extension announcement over the summer. If not, it's likely over after this season. Quite frankly, I wouldn't hate to see it end. I don't know how much it benefits either conference as the top matchups have typically been lopsided NET wise. It would be better if they expanded it to include other mid major conferences to put more big fish in the pond. The goal should be for the top matchups to be Q1/high-end Q2 opportunities and that isn't happening enough.

Wasn't there a rumor that the challenge has a questionable future?

Not saying they won't be good, but they did not maintain the mismatch advantages that allowed them to be so successful last season. Keep in mind, this is a team that I believe led the country in single possession victories. They did not dominate their competition like Akron did (for the most part), and they achieved those victories over one of the weakest schedules in the country.

A lot less flexibility in this roster.

So he went from being committed to Ohio State to not playing at Rutgers to Kent. There is either a character issue, talent issue, or both.

Not sure if you're auditioning for the next Netflix Roast with these jokes but your post certainly isn't based in reality. Dorian and Miller are intriguing but as Kreed said, neither one has played a minute of DI basketball. In fact, Dorian was with 14th place Rutgers all last season and they seemingly let him walk. I also don't understand Miller's top 100 class ranking because his best offers were PCCC, Miami OH, and Furman. Meanwhile, Akron brought in a guard that averaged 17ppg/4agp/37% 3P and dropped 27 vs. Colorado State, 17 vs. Indiana, 19 vs. High Point, 9 vs. TCU, and 19 vs. McNeese. Sorry he didn't make All Conference in the Southland; I think we've seen enough from the MAC's annual awards to know that these selections are largely a joke and meaningless. By the way, the Southland was ranked 18th in Net, 1 spot behind the MAC. Staveskie will not be in over his head at the MAC level, that's for sure. Did PCCC get better? Maybe, maybe not; that remains to be seen. However, it's a fact that they got smaller and Akron got bigger. Incredibly odd to tout PCCC's two incoming guards with zero DI experience and rip Akron's incoming PG who averaged 17ppg in a very similar conference to the MAC. Go Zips.

It's interesting to see the directions Akron and PCCC have gone respectively. I don't believe PCCC brought in any wing guys - they're all guards and (shorter) post players. That's how Akron was built in the early-mid Dambrot days and Kent used to be built like Akron is now. Roster composition and physicality is completely reversed. We'll see if Akron has the shooters, but I predict PCCC will struggle with Akron's size/athleticism/rotation flexibility/physicality. I think a lot of teams will.