Quote:
Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor
It's big, but it isn't nuts. You can break basketball into four different 5-team divisions and play a rotating 18 game schedule (everyone in your division twice, and one game with every team in 2 of the remaining 3 divisions).
Top 3 or Top 4 in each division makes the tourney.
It actually sets up very nicely as a 20 team conference.
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That works for basketball, but I would do some thing a little different:
Add: TCU, UCF, Memphis, and ECU
Four conference five team:
Division 1(Central):
Marquette
Depaul
Notre Dame
Cincinnati
Syracuse
Division 2(East):
WVU
Pitt
Georgetown
East Carolina
Villanova
Division 3(Northeast):
Rutgers
St Johns
Seton Hall
UConn
Providence
Divison 4(South):
USF
UCF
TCU
Memphis
Louisville
However, in order to qualify for the Big East tournament, you will have to win your conference or qualify as a wildcard. I will always say that while the Big East is usually the best basketball conference (IMO its the Big Ten this year), the current tournament format is a gauntlet that usually leaves the teams gassed come NCAA tournament time and most of the Big East schools dropping like flies early on. Going to this format would eliminate that.
Example using bolded teams(division winners) and italics(wildcard):
Assume Pitt and Syracuse finish with the two best records and receive a first round bye:
Round 1:
Marquette vs Louisville
WVU vs UConn
Round 2:
Winner of Marquette Louisville vs Pitt
Winner of WVU UConn vs Syracuse
Round 3:
Semifinals
Round 4:
Championship
Clear as mud?