re: sec basketball champs question

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Is it up to the conference to determine the automatic bid? My understanding was that the conference could designate the regular season champion or the tournament champion as the automatic qualifier. All conferences designate the tournament winner, in part because it increases the chances of at least 2 teams getting bids. But if the field were limited to one team per conference, you might find that conferences would then tend to send the regular season champion.

In my view, both in baseball and basketball, the regular season championship is the more significant recognition since it represents a season's work, not just a hot 4 game streak.

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Yes it is up to the conferences. The NCAA doesn't care how you select your champion. Historically, conferences have given the tournament champion the bid in order to give the tournament some meaning. Back in the day S. Carolina was in the ACC and had some great basketball teams that didn't go to the NCAA (only 8 spots available at the time) because they couldn't win the tournament. I'm pretty sure most of the other conf tournaments didn't get added until after the NCAA expanded.

I agree the regular season is more important, but it is the price you pay if you want a profitable postseason tournament. In 2001 football, you can say TN was the regular season football champ and LSU was the CG champ, but we don't (even though TN played and beat LSU during the season). LSU is considered the SEC champ that year.