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Can someone with insight explain to me why, after decades of the NC$$ avoiding flights like leprosy, now have potentially 5 flights PRIOR to the finals!? Why the sudden seismic shift in the D3 budget?? And is this "generosity" evident across the board in other D3 sports as well?? Has sanity actually arrived or has the exclusion of Adrian given them no options to stay < 500 mi?
I've said it many times, this is a new policy across all D3 sports. I've posted many times when the football bracket came out in 2024, it was obvious they were really going to do this. And I've used the basketball brackets as examples that we should see the same thing in hockey.
From what I understand, the NCAA has reallocated funds from different places in the championships budget to help pay for these bracket shifts that prioritize bracket integrity over least amount of money spent possible.
This was a conversation back in the PWR days. And even before that. It's the sole reason SUNYAC dropped the best of three final round and then eventually all the two-game series (with mini-game). Because, sometimes even for winning teams, it hurts your metrics and especially for losing teams, resulting in less chances of getting a second team from your conference in.
I know the Ivy League did this until recently. I didn't know that about the Big 10 so I looked it up. Apparently 1998 is only ten years ago
I know the Ivy League did this until recently. I didn't know that about the Big 10 so I looked it up. Apparently 1998 is only ten years ago
This is the way.
Regular season championships are way more impressive than conference tourney championships. As much as it pains me to say it, despite SNC and Adrian being pretty evenly matched in terms of conference tourney success, Adrian has been far and away the best team in the NCHA since the merger in 2013. They have dominated in the regular season and won all but 3(?) regular season championships.
I don't disagree with you; my preference would be to eliminate the tourneys and just award the AQ to the best team throughout the entirety of the season. The reality is, despite it being more impressive unless you get an at-large bid it means nothing if you don't win the AQ.
I might just be biased towards what I am used to, but I mostly like the current system. It gives (almost) every team a chance at the end of the season. One of the things that always bothered me about college football was that your season was "over" after one loss in the regular season (I know that has changed recently with playoff expansion).
The biggest holdout was Bobby Knight. He was adamantly against conference tournaments.I know the Ivy League did this until recently. I didn't know that about the Big 10 so I looked it up. Apparently 1998 is only ten years ago
A lot of the D1 conferences do this also.