Big East to get rid of double-bye

[SelectionSunday]

I think this is a knee-jerk reaction by the coaches simply because the teams with the double-byes have struggled the first couple years. Coaches always looking for excuses. New format will be more equitable to the bottom teams, but now the top 4 teams (the ones that performed best during the regular season) will have to win 4 games instead of 3 to win the Big East tourney.

How long will it be before the coaches complain about the new format once one of the top seeds gets unexpectedly bounced on the first day (Tuesday) of the Big East marathon?

http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/...ig-east-tournament/?ncid=txtlnkusspor00000002

 

[Rosemountian]

This is why 16 team conferences are bad...even in basketball. The Big East should go to a 12 team tourney and just have the bottom 4 teams not qualify for the BE tourney.

 

[josh087]

The complaint about the double bye makes absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever. I'm surprised I haven't heard more stunned reaction from the talking heads about how stupid the coaches are being with this double bye.

All you have to do is think about it for a moment with a little Josh087 common sense as to what the complaint is to realize how stupid and unfounded it is.

First you must realize that no team with a double bye has ever been beaten by a team seeded 13-16 that has already played two games.

Therefore, the double bye is essentially non-existent. What has happened is that you have a team which has not yet played (double bye) getting beaten by a team that has only played one game (single bye).

Sound familiar??? This is the exact SAME SCENARIO that plays out in almost every single conference tournament throughout the country. Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Pac 10 - all these conferences have teams that receive a bye in the tournament playing teams with one victory in the tournament - JUST LIKE THE SCENARIO THE BIG EAST COACHES ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT.

If the double bye teams were getting beat by teams that had already won two games it would be a valid complaint. But that is not what has been happening. Therefore, the complaint is actually about the single bye, not the double bye. Since no other coaches or conferences are complaining about the single bye, this makes the complaint not only irrelevent, but ignorant.

I say give the Big East coaches what they want - a full 16 team tournament with no byes at all. something tells me, though, that they might have a slight complaint about that. Maybe then they will realize how faulty their complaint about the double bye actually is.