Conference Tournament Auto-Bids are Bullshit!

Let me preface this post with the fact that I am a Georgia grad and extremely proud of the unreal effort the put the Bulldogs in the big dance.

That being said, there is absolutely NO WAY we should be continuing our season into the NCAA tournament! We doubled (yes, doubled) the amount of conference wins that we had all season over the last 4 days. We were competitive in most games even up against very talented teams such as Tennessee.

I would be more than happy to walk away from this forgettable season with the prestigous title of 2008 SEC champions. Who wouldn't be? I think the automatic bids de-value effort put forth by teams throughout the entire year. There's plenty of arguments that could be made against my stance here.

Let's put it another way. I think it's much clearer when using teams outside of a major conference:
Texas-Arlington gets into the tournament with the automatic bid from the Southland Conference. You have Stephen F. Austin who was 26-5 overall and 13-3 in conferce. (Lamar was also 13-3 in conference, but was 19-11 overall). Texas-Arlington was a paltry 7-9 in conference. Basically, you have a sub-par season in a sub-par conference, BUT you get to go to the tournament as a reward for a few good days of high level play.

This is absolute bullshit in my opinon.

I will put one caveat on my overall opinion (knowing that my caveat actually goes against the example above). I do like the fact that all conferences are represented in the tournament. So if your conference is not represented by an at-large selection, then your conference champion is awarded a bid.

This, of course, would still leave my Bulldogs watching the tourney from the comfort of their own couch.

sic 'em,
dawgball