It is time to do away with split conference championships.

#3
#3
omghulkhands said:
The unbalanced schedule makes this work really weird.

I’d really like to see us get back to a balanced schedule format somehow.
Click to expand...

With Texas and Oklahoma joining, not sure we’ll ever get a balanced schedule. But I agree. This season in particular feels like one of those times balanced schedules would have benefitted us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Big Orange#1, berryvol, EasternVol and 3 others
#6
#6
TheMookieMonster said:
With Texas and Oklahoma joining, not sure we’ll ever get a balanced schedule. But I agree. This season in particular feels like one of those times balanced schedules would have benefitted us.
Click to expand...
On the other hand, we only play Auburn once and it’s on Knoxville. Among the top conference championship contenders, our schedule might be the most favorable. If we can split with Kentucky and beat Auburn, we’re probably champs. If we take Bama in Tuscaloosa, we’re almost certainly champs. Those 4 games are the key.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EasternVol and chuckiepoo
#7
#7
IMHO... The benefit of conference tournaments is that a team that was bad at the start of the season--maybe only because of key injuries--might have become one of the best teams by April.

Regular season record acknowledges consistency over time.

A tournament may acknowledge who is currently the better team.

Both teams deserve to move on. The NCAA Tournament (theoretically) seeks to find who IS the best team in the nation--not was.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCRocket, Big Orange#1, StarRaider and 2 others
#8
#8
VolFreakJosh said:
Imo, conference tournaments should be done away with.

Let the regular conference play determine the champion.

Gives the teams an extra week of practice for the NCAA Tournament.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the student-athletes are at the mercy of greedy powers that be.
SEC football championship needs to disappear also now with the 12 team fiasco coming. I’m probably wrong but, as I understand it, as of this year, no divisions and top two teams go to SEC Championship game. Good chance both those teams will be in playoff so they could face off in the SEC Champ game and again in National Championship game and they may have played each other in the regular season. Could happen. Would we want to watch the same teams play 3 times? Same thing might even happen in other conferences with a similar setup.
Blast away!
 
  • Like
Reactions: backdoorcutvol
#11
#11
BruisedOrange said:
IMHO... The benefit of conference tournaments is that a team that was bad at the start of the season--maybe only because of key injuries--might have become one of the best teams by April.

Regular season record acknowledges consistency over time.

A tournament may acknowledge who is currently the better team.

Both teams deserve to move on. The NCAA Tournament (theoretically) seeks to find who IS the best team in the nation--not was.
Click to expand...
Remember the year that trash Georgia team won the SEC tournament when the storm hit the dome and they had to move it? I have no point, I was just reminded of that as why the SEC tournaments drive me crazy. It didn’t affect us as we weren’t a bubble team that lost a NCAA bid, but that team should never be called SEC champions just because they won that tournament. It was a great run by them, and the strangest SEC tournament I can recall. Anyway, your post just made me think of that because it was just the team that got hot at the right time and had more to gain than many of the other teams who were in the NCAAT and pretty set as far as their seed, IIRC (and I may not).
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo and BruisedOrange
#12
#12
NighthawkVol said:
On the other hand, we only play Auburn once and it’s on Knoxville. Among the top conference championship contenders, our schedule might be the most favorable. If we can split with Kentucky and beat Auburn, we’re probably champs. If we take Bama in Tuscaloosa, we’re almost certainly champs. Those 4 games are the key.
Click to expand...

We may get Auburn at home, but I would take their schedule over ours in a heartbeat. It’s generally more favorable than what we have to play. One less game against Kentucky, they don’t have to go to Rupp, and they don’t play in College Station either.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rememberthelate90s, Big Orange#1, berryvol and 4 others
#13
#13
NighthawkVol said:
On the other hand, we only play Auburn once and it’s on Knoxville. Among the top conference championship contenders, our schedule might be the most favorable. If we can split with Kentucky and beat Auburn, we’re probably champs. If we take Bama in Tuscaloosa, we’re almost certainly champs. Those 4 games are the key.
Click to expand...
Don't be too quick crown us conference champions. We did lose to Mississippi State and that loss is not looking so good anymore. They are 1-3 since they played us. We also have to play Texas A&M and South Carolina twice. Both of those teams are very dangerous at home.
 
#14
#14
VolFreakJosh said:
Imo, conference tournaments should be done away with.

Let the regular conference play determine the champion.

Gives the teams an extra week of practice for the NCAA Tournament.
Click to expand...
Bear with me on this one, it is a little complex. They could use the conference tournaments in the major conferences as an automatic bid but with a little twist. All the Power 5 (Pac-12 is dissolving) major conferences can use their regular season conference standings and give each of their top 6 teams automatic bids into the NCAAT. The teams that finish below that threshold will participate in a conference tournament and the winner will get an automatic bid into the NCAAT. That would give the major conferences 35 bids (7 from each). Each of the 26 remaining conferences will send their regular season champion into the NCAAT which would put us at 61 total bids. And then the remaining 7 bids could be determined with the highest NET ranking as at-large teams. The lowest NET ranked auto bid and the 7 at-larges would compete in the First 4 games.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: kptvol1
#15
#15
TheMookieMonster said:
We may get Auburn at home, but I would take their schedule over ours in a heartbeat. It’s generally more favorable than what we have to play. One less game against Kentucky, they don’t have to go to Rupp, and they don’t play in College Station either.
Click to expand...
Therein lies the reason analytics favor Auburn over UT by a very wide margin to win the SEC. Even with their loss to Alabama, they are still the favorite going forward. The unbalanced schedule is a real b!tch, especially when you are a team like Tennessee that plays Kentucky twice every year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MinisterofDef#92, berryvol and chuckiepoo
#16
#16
Would be interesting to see the dollars the SEC generates and distributes from their SEC tournament compared to dollars the conference pulls from the NCAA tournament, most of which is kept by the NCAA, 80 percent of the NCAA's operating budget is from their tournament
 
#17
#17
esarmstrong said:
Therein lies the reason analytics favor Auburn over UT by a very wide margin to win the SEC. Even with their loss to Alabama, they are still the favorite going forward. The unbalanced schedule is a real b!tch, especially when you are a team like Tennessee that plays Kentucky twice every year.
Click to expand...

Yeah. But outside of us playing Kentucky twice, Auburn also has favorable scheduling against the middle of the league.

We play Kentucky, South Carolina, and A&M twice.

They play Georgia, Ole Miss, and Miss State twice.

We both play Alabama and Vandy twice.
 
#18
#18
VolFreakJosh said:
Imo, conference tournaments should be done away with.

Let the regular conference play determine the champion.

Gives the teams an extra week of practice for the NCAA Tournament.
Click to expand...
Simple odds say that a team winning its conference tournament (3 games) is less likely to win the NCAA tournament (6 games). To win both thats 9 straight wins against top competition and 3 of those back to back to back. I came to this feeling after seeing first hand that the NCAA seeding is done prior to these conference tournaments, adjusting only for surprises. What's the purpose of them, a banner? Get ready for the NCAA and let the teams without bids have a tournament. Yeah, some team might get lucky occasionally and steal a birth, did they really deserve it base on their season?
 
#19
#19
esarmstrong said:
Don't be too quick crown us conference champions. We did lose to Mississippi State and that loss is not looking so good anymore. They are 1-3 since they played us. We also have to play Texas A&M and South Carolina twice. Both of those teams are very dangerous at home.
Click to expand...
Huh? When did I crown us conference champions? I said if we win those particular games we’re very likely to win the SEC. Didn’t say we would.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo
#20
#20
esarmstrong said:
Don't be too quick crown us conference champions. We did lose to Mississippi State and that loss is not looking so good anymore. They are 1-3 since they played us. We also have to play Texas A&M and South Carolina twice. Both of those teams are very dangerous at home.
Click to expand...
Those Cowbells could do us a big today by beating the Barn
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo and StarRaider
#22
#22
Should have never had conference expansion $$$$$. Why not let every team in the NCAA tournament, half the field will be eliminated the first day. As far as football I like it the way it has been, every week is a playoff game which makes every game important and exciting. 18-19 games is too much for college football, Heck basketball season will be half over before football ends.
 
#23
#23
BigOrangePhoenix said:
Use the tie breakers that determines the seeding to pick the true champion.
Click to expand...

Most common sense people view the split titles are ceremonious… the fact we still claim one after we got our butts smacked by Auburn a few years ago in the head to head is absurd.
 
#24
#24
JMSqb11 said:
Most common sense people view the split titles are ceremonious… the fact we still claim one after we got our butts smacked by Auburn a few years ago in the head to head is absurd.
Click to expand...

I don’t think it’s absurd to claim a share of a title. This is basketball not football. It’s a 30+ game season and 18 in conference play. It’s a sport with extreme variance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Big Orange#1, berryvol, EasternVol and 1 other person
#25
#25
VolPack22 said:
Bear with me on this one, it is a little complex. They could use the conference tournaments in the major conferences as an automatic bid but with a little twist. All the Power 5 (Pac-12 is dissolving) major conferences can use their regular season conference standings and give each of their top 6 teams automatic bids into the NCAAT. The teams that finish below that threshold will participate in a conference tournament and the winner will get an automatic bid into the NCAAT. That would give the major conferences 35 bids (7 from each). Each of the 26 remaining conferences will send their regular season champion into the NCAAT which would put us at 61 total bids. And then the remaining 7 bids could be determined with the highest NET ranking as at-large teams. The lowest NET ranked auto bid and the 7 at-larges would compete in the First 4 games.
Click to expand...

They better not call it them conference tournaments. When the 6 best teams don’t participate, then the 7th place team or below doesn’t get to be called the conference tournament champion.

The Play-In Tournament maybe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chuckiepoo and VolPack22
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top