Projecting the NCAA Tournament Field Stats

[Dave in Green]

Time to play statistical games with the latest CBS Sports projection for the NCAA tournament:35% (23 of 65) of currently projected teams come from 74% (23 of 31) of D1 conferences65% (42 of 65) of currently projected teams come from 26% (8 of 31) of D1 conferencesThe only 8 multi-bid conferences are:8 Big East7 Big 126 ACC6 Atlantic 105 Big Ten5 SEC 3 Mountain West2 C-USAOmitting the Mountain West and C-USA, and only counting the "really major" conferences:57% (37 of 65) currently projected teams come from 19% (6 of 31) of D1 conferencesBut not all of the "really major" conferences are there. The Pac-10 is a 1-bid conference this year. How about such high aspirational conferences as the Missouri Valley and Colonial? Fugetaboutit!Whenever a system has been in place for awhile, the real players will soon figure out how to game the system and rise to the top, and the little guys will be left to fight for the scraps. A half dozen or so major conferences now have a stranglehold on the NCAA tournament, and a couple of different conferences break through each year with 2 or 3 bids.When I look at all of the above, I don't feel so bad about UA being in the MAC. Chances of getting a bid pretty much require being in one of the top half dozen conferences, being lucky enough to be in one of the lesser conferences that occasionally gets multiple bids, or winning the championship in one of many also-ran conferences. The Zips have to win the MAC championship, just as they'd have to win the conference championship of any other conference in which they could realistically have a chance to play.For all its problems, the MAC this year is no different from 22 other D1 conferences -- win the conference championship or put the team uniforms in cold storage.CBS Sports Link