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BEARZ77 wrote:It amazes me that anybody at our level places much value or has hopes for significant movement based on conference realignment anymore. I thought yesterday was a defining moment that has been downplayed/overlooked in terms of a statement about the true direction of D-1 major sports. There was much debate about the 4th FBS playoff spot and who it should be, given the three major contestants were all pretty flawed. That Alabama, a team that didn't win it's division, didn't win a conference Championship game, and had no top 15 wins was chosen seems to have been accepted readily. Why this is a portent of the future is that you have an undefeated UCF team that won a top 6 conference title, won a conference championship game and was never in the conversation. They can call all the teams outside the Big 5 whatever they want, but it's clear they're not really D-1 FBS level because they have no way and never will have a way to play for the national Championship no matter what. This year was the perfect chance to see what would happen, and there it was.

I don't think it will be too far in the future when the NCAA does away with automatic qualifiers in basketball so that they no longer have to auto include teams from the lower 20+ conferences to the NCAA Tourney. A few mids might get an invite, but just as we see in football, the club will have exclusivity rules that make it very difficult. They don't really mind the other sports and basically need mids for things like baseball and most women's sports, but in the only two sports where the money is huge, they want it all and will get what they want.

The Big East in basketball and probably a few fringe teams in other conferences, Gonzaga etc, will find ways into the selection process probably by a last realignment move that defines the haves and have nots, but if you aren't someone who is exclusively basketball like Big East schools, Gonzaga, WSU and a few others, you ain't gotta chance. JMO

VUGrad1314 wrote:That just means that Lipscomb is ready for a call-up to the OVC. I have to say Belmont's performance this year is worrisome. Lipscomb isn't a god-awful program by any stretch but there's no reason they should ever sweep Belmont. The narrow losses @Washington and @Providence and the victories over MTSU and Vanderbilt are now firmly in the rearview mirror and any goodwill they gave the program is gone. Belmont can no longer dream of an at-large this year and it's not their league's fault. They have a great track record over the years but is it time for us to question Belmont's candidacy\readiness for the MVC? I'm willing to let the season play out before rendering a final decision on this but this is not the greatest look for a candidate looking to move up .