CougarCorner

Looking at the final four for the 2016 NIT tournament, you have to wonder if ESPN is disappointed that the final four does not include any of the P5 conference teams and therefore a little more pull of TVs.

For the 1st time in 10 years you have zero P5's in the final four. You have the WCC, MWC, Horizon and A10 conferences represented. Originally they had 10 P5 teams invited and all have fallen by the wayside.

ESPN doesn't do this tournament because they are generally good guys, but to make money. Generally speaking I have to imagine them a bit disappointed to not have any P5 teams represented as there has been a P5 in every championship game in the last decade. Of the forty last participants in Final Four, there have been 28 P5 and 12 non-P5 teams participating (team highlighted in bold was champion). Only twice was there more than one non-P5 team in the Final Four (2 non-P5 teams in 2015 and 2010).

2015 Stanford vs Miami (Fla) (Temple/Old Dominion)
2014 Minnesota vs SMU (Clemson/Florida State)
2013 Baylor vs Iowa (BYU/Maryland)
2012 Stanford vs Minnesota (Washington/Massachusetts)
2011 Wichita State vs Alabama (Colorado/Washington State)
2010 Dayton vs North Carolina (Mississippi/Rhode Island)
2009 Penn State vs Baylor (Notre Dame/San Diego State)
2008 Ohio State vs Massachusetts (Florida/Mississippi)
2007 WVU vs Clemson (Air Force/Mississippi State)
2006 South Carolina vs Michigan (Louisville/Old Dominion)

It's because the committee for the Big Dance was so enamored with P5 schools that they gave them way too many bids, leaving few even mediocre P5 teams for the NIT.

Schmoe wrote:It's because the committee for the Big Dance was so enamored with P5 schools that they gave them way too many bids, leaving few even mediocre P5 teams for the NIT.

Exactly right. Syracuse could be in the NIT final four right now instead and no one would feel the least bit perplexed about that. Pretty weird.

BlueK wrote:

Schmoe wrote:It's because the committee for the Big Dance was so enamored with P5 schools that they gave them way too many bids, leaving few even mediocre P5 teams for the NIT.

Exactly right. Syracuse could be in the NIT final four right now instead and no one would feel the least bit perplexed about that. Pretty weird.

Kind of, in a way, I can understand some of that. I don't believe that since conference championship tourneys were give the actual NCAA tournament invitation that we had seen so many regular season champions not also winning the conference tournament that we have this season. I've not actually seen any data on that issue, but generally it has been inferred.

With so many non-regular season champs not receiving that bid this season, naturally there were many regular season champs that didn't make the Dance.

In my own world one day, we're staying with the regular season champ getting the actual bid. I understand the excitement of a team that suddenly has an incredible run overtaking that champ, but I don't like them getting the invitation and the team that worked all season for that championship not finding an equivalent value from that effort.

Tend to agree.

Say, for example, Pepperdine won the WCC tourney. Given the uneventful records of the top WCC teams and the committee'a infatuation with the Pac 12 this year, the WCC would have likely been represented just by Pepperdine this year. Say by some miracle Syracuse wins the championship, everyone knows they aren't the best team in the country. It's an odd model, but it's one that creates a lot interest in college hoops comes March.

If I am ESPN, I play up oddities of the NCAA tournament and use it promotes the NIT.

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