Hey, remember back in May when every single Big East basketball coach voted for the dissolution of the double-bye format in the Big East Tournament?
The Big East basketball coaches unanimously voted to get rid of the Big East tournament's double-bye format at the league's spring meetings Tuesday morning.
The new format, which is expected to be approved by the league's athletic directors on Wednesday and then must be voted on by the league's presidents, would pit the No. 1 seed vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, No. 3 vs. No. 14 and No. 4 vs. No. 13 on Tuesday's opening day of the 2011 tournament.
I said at the time that it seemed as though common sense was reigning at least for a day in the conference. Alas, it was only for that one. Cause now it's August and the Big East Conference had decided to tell the Big East's coaches to shove their opinions neatly up their backside. The double-bye stays, says New York Post's Lenn Robbins:
The Big East has decided not to change its post-season tournament format..The top four seeds will conitnue to receive a double bye NY Post
All we can do is go off the evidence and the evidence suggests that the double-bye hurts more than it helps (In the past two seasons, five of the eight teams to receive the "honor" have lost their first game of the BET). So if it doesn't provide any real advantage to the teams that earn the top seeds, why keep it?
Money. The conference will come up with some other explanation, but, the current format makes them more money (5 days of selling tickets & merchandise vs. 4 days).
Plus, this keeps the DePaul's and St. John's of the Big East happy, which oddly always seems more important to the conference than keeping Syracuse, West Virginia and Pitt happy. Here's what I wrote when explaining why the double-bye is the perfect analogy for how the Big East does business:
In a way, the double-bye set-up was a great example of the way the Big East thinks (and subsequently why it's in the position it's currently in). It created a complicated system that removed the benefit earned by a top seed in order to make room for the bottom feeders that didn't really deserve to be there Shelter the lesser at the expense of the greater.
Can't wait to hear what Boeheim has to say about it.
Update: Fanhouse's Brett McMurphy has some details:
The Big East's presidents did not approve earlier recommendations by the league's athletic directors and coaches to change the format,...
"There were a variety of reasons and it was concluded that the timing wasn't right," Big East associate commissioner Dan Gavitt told FanHouse.
Variety of reasons? This dollar...and that dollar...and that dollar over there...and that dollar on the floor over there...