MAC SPRING Meetings

[RoyalBlu]

Here's some scuttlebutt ... hearing the MAC ADs want to go back to a double-bye for MAC BB regular season champ and second place. Coaches, so far, are not on board. ADs spooked by Miami's first-round MAC Tournament loss to UMass, but, IMO, completely ignore the fact Miami needed at least 4-6 last possession wins during the regular season. Also, Akron's last-possession jump shot kept 4-seed Toledo from pulling an upset.

 

All credit to Miami for its undefeated season. But let's recognize that was a unicorn. In this age of Portal/NIL the best MAC team may not emerge until February. The best thing the MAC has is the men's BB Tournament.  The ADs should figure out FB revenue,  and not F+CK with the Golden Goose.

 

Miami's unicorn season got the MAC a 6-year boost in NCAA Tournament revenue, thanks to (1) making the 68-team cut and (2) winning a PIG (Play In Game). I wouldn't expect another MAC team undefeated BB season until ... who knows when ... now that there is a 22-game schedule.

 

These ADs are short-sighted idiots, looking at end results and not the overall product.  Yes Akron has dominated the last three to five seasons. Eastern Michigan has had a run, Miami has had a run, Ball State has had a run, Kent State and Ohio have had runs. Why stack the deck?

 

1) Akron's BB 3-peat success in the MAC Tournament have all come down to the last possession. 

 

2) Those 3 title games were against an 8-seed, a 2-seed and a 4-seed.

 

The beauty of Akron's MAC Tournament success is the Zips have won against a level playing field, on a neutral court, against all (equal) odds.  

 

If the MAC ADs want to stack the deck for the MAC regular-season champion, Miami, let the regular-season champ host the tournament on its home court. Toledo would have hosted three straight, I believe. Certainly they would have won one of those.

 

ADs need to take your AD pampers off, put your britches on, and man-up.

 

I would be shocked if Dustin wants anything other than a 'true' MAC Tournament. And he should say that to the AD.

 

SCUTTLEBUTT NO. 2: The Sun Belt Challenge is expected to continue.

 

Final thought: If the ADs want to re-seed the MAC Tournament after the first round, I would be consider that. (But understand, if that had been the case this year, the 

Zips would have played a very physical UMass in the semifinal ... and we have seen over the years physical defensive teams consistently pull upsets in the MAC Tournament.

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by RoyalBlu

[kreed5120]

15 minutes ago, RoyalBlu said:

Here's some scuttlebutt ... hearing the MAC ADs want to go back to a double-bye for MAC BB regular season champ and second place. Coaches, so far, are not on board. ADs spooked by Miami's first-round MAC Tournament loss to UMass, but, IMO, completely ignore the fact Miami needed at least 4-6 last possession wins during the regular season. Also, Akron's last-possession jump shot kept (I believe) 6-seed Toledo from pulling an upset.

 

These ADs look at end results and not the overall product. 

 

1) Akron's BB 3-peat success in the MAC Tournament have all come down to the last possession. 

 

2) Those 3 title games were against an 8-seed, a 2-seed and a 6-seed.

 

The beauty of Akron's MAC Tournament success is the Zips have won against a level playing field, on a neutral court. 

 

If the MAC ADs want to stack the deck for the MAC regular-season champion, Miami, let the regular-season champ host the tournament on its home court.

 

Otherwise, take your AD pampers off, put your britches on, and man-up.

 

I would be shocked if Dustin wants anything other than a 'true' MAC Tournament. And he should say that to the AD.

 

SCUTTLEBUTT NO. 2: The Sun Belt Challenge is expected to continue.

 

 

A big reason why they went away from the double bye was because schools thought it was too over powered and used it as an excuse for why Akron constantly made the finals under Dambrot. 

 

Now that both Toledo and Miami got embarrassed by an early upset a few years apart and Akron is dominating even more so than before they want to make changes once again. It seems the other ADs are just tired of Akron winning.

[RoyalBlu]

I think you are correct ... but at the same time shows the ADs ignorance. If they are so bummed by Akron's success the last thing they should be doing is making it easier for Akron to dominate, which is what a rule change like this does. GREAT FOR AKRON ... but over time it will water down the MAC.

 

The other thing, that makes no sense, why set. the rules up to favor a program that has never won a NCAA Tournament appearance, and only rarely came close.  

 

AKRON IS THE DOMINANT MAC BASKETBALL POWER ... that is proven. As of now, Miami is a 2-year wonder and a 1-year unicorn. ADs seem to want to favor Miami, but in the long run are really favoring the Zips. Actually, I should probably just quietly stand by. But my college basketball fandom extends beyond one or two teams to the MAC overall and the sport in general. And a rule like this is favortism, not a balanced slate.

 

[Blue & Gold]

10 hours ago, RoyalBlu said:

I think you are correct ... but at the same time shows the ADs ignorance. If they are so bummed by Akron's success the last thing they should be doing is making it easier for Akron to dominate, which is what a rule change like this does. GREAT FOR AKRON ... but over time it will water down the MAC.

 

The other thing, that makes no sense, why set. the rules up to favor a program that has never won a NCAA Tournament appearance, and only rarely came close.  

 

AKRON IS THE DOMINANT MAC BASKETBALL POWER ... that is proven. As of now, Miami is a 2-year wonder and a 1-year unicorn. ADs seem to want to favor Miami, but in the long run are really favoring the Zips. Actually, I should probably just quietly stand by. But my college basketball fandom extends beyond one or two teams to the MAC overall and the sport in general. And a rule like this is favoritism, not a balanced slate.

 

Personally, I like 3 games in three days & agree they shouldn't fix what's not broken. But wouldn't proponents of the move argue it gives more weight to the regular season (which really is a problem basketball - at all levels - struggles with) by  rewarding the top two seeds? 

[zippy5]

Double bye is good imo

[Let'sGoZips94]

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. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Let'sGoZips94

[zippy5]

We act like this is the masters. It'll be okay

[csims0917]

I wouldn’t mind if we did the standard 1-8 games but the 1 seed gets to play on Wednesday or something like that to get a day off. Only issue would be conflicting with the womens day 

[Zippy87]

I actually think the format should change. I believe we are one of the few conferences that doesn't reward its 1 and 2 seeds at all. Regular season performance should earn you an advantage.