D3 is in love with the AQ? Try the entire NCAA outside of D1 football.
The NCAA operates national tournaments of conference champions, with other teams added to fill out the field. There is no claim that these are the best 11, 32, 68 teams (whatever the number is for that sport) in the country.
And it's clear the schools want it this way... and likely most of the public as well.
The schools want it because that's what they've chosen, of course. And, other than the few independents out there in whatever sport, EVERY team knows it has one simple, logical path to the NCAA tournament: win your conference's automatic bid. Unlike the B1G not making the College Football Playoff this year, in all other sports and divisions, the conference winner goes. Everyone else is, for lack of a better word, "filler."
Fans like it, too. Take the D1 basketball tournament. They want to see Florida Gulf Coast win its lower-echelon conference and then make it to the Sweet 16. That's the excitement of the tournament. I would rather see another Horizon, MEAC or Atlantic Sun team than the 8th B1G team. Not going to happen most times, of course. But Cinderella is usually the conference winner from a non-power league.
Of course, it is more problematic when D3 hockey or D3 football doesn't have nearly the same number of at-large bids as the D1 hoops monstrosity. But that tourney pays the bills, too.
So I get not liking it, but it is here for a reason, as I see it: the schools & conferences want to guarantee their opportunity & representation, respectively, in the national tournament. And when you accept that it is not claiming to be the tourney of the best "x" number of teams, it makes more sense. At least to me.
