Yeah, gotta make the regular season matter for more than just pride. I remember Bob Knight didn't like the idea of a B10 post season tournament for exactly that reason.
On the other hand... just thinking out loud here... high school teams get all excited for league championships (and rightly so), celebrating, cutting down nets, winning trophies, etc., and in high school everyone makes the post season tourney. So the league title is simply for pride as well. So maybe I'm over reacting. Idk.