New Division I NCC

[GeauxSioux]

I heard yesterday that the NCAA may go to a 128 team basketball tourney. What would that do for an auto-bid? Would this be the time to start a new Division I NCC with the thought that the conference "could" get an auto-bid if put together prior to a change to 128 teams?

More on the 128 team tourney.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13538918

[jimdahl]

To qualify for a basketball autobid a conference needs:

31.3.4.3 Additional Requirements, Men's Basketball. The member conference must include seven core institutions. For the purposes of this legislation, core refers to an institution that has been an active member of Division I the eight preceding years. Further, the continuity-of-membership requirement shall be met only if a minimum of six core institutions have conducted conference competition together in Division I the preceding five years in men's basketball. There shall be no exception to the five-year waiting period. Any new member added to a member conference that satisfies these requirements shall be immediately eligible to represent the conference as the automatic qualifier. (Revised: 8/14/90, 12/3/90, 4/27/00, 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04)

So, a new D-I conference (such as a new NCC) could get an autobid after 8 years of 7 members being fully D-I, assuming you managed to convince 6 of those teams to play together for the preceding 5 years. Intentionally punitive. The only way we're seeing new conference autobids is if a mega-conference (12 stable teams for 5 years) split in half and then each half took on a new member.

Random thoughts on the potential expansion... Due to the incestuous strength-of-schedule component of RPI, an expansion of the field (more likely to 80 than 128) would mostly ensure that ACC, Big Ten, and the like sent over half their conference; bottom-tier conferences would, for the most part, still just send their one autobid. Interestingly, some of the mid-majors are starting to refuse the bodybag "guarantee" games that have pumped up the big conferences' RPIs, eroding the definitive two tiers that basketball has had for so long. Big conferences may see this as a defense against that, but it could actually shift the balance of at-large invites even more toward mid-majors if they successfully claim large amounts of the 30-50 RPI rankings through a combination of increasing parity and more insular schedules.

[GeauxSioux]

To qualify for a basketball autobid a conference needs:

So, a new D-I conference (such as a new NCC) could get an autobid after 8 years of 7 members being fully D-I, assuming you managed to convince 6 of those teams to play together for the preceding 5 years. Intentionally punitive. The only way we're seeing new conference autobids is if a mega-conference (12 stable teams for 5 years) split in half and then each half took on a new member.

Random thoughts on the potential expansion... Due to the incestuous strength-of-schedule component of RPI, an expansion of the field (more likely to 80 than 128) would mostly ensure that ACC, Big Ten, and the like sent over half their conference; bottom-tier conferences would, for the most part, still just send their one autobid. Interestingly, some of the mid-majors are starting to refuse the bodybag "guarantee" games that have pumped up the big conferences' RPIs, eroding the definitive two tiers that basketball has had for so long. Big conferences may see this as a defense against that, but it could actually shift the balance of at-large invites even more toward mid-majors if they successfully claim large amounts of the 30-50 RPI rankings through a combination of increasing parity and more insular schedules.

The only way that my "could" would work is if they had a rule change. I neglected to put that in my post. I agree that the current rule does seem punitive and the increase in teams would probably just allow more teams from the power conferences to get into the tournament.