Big East Statement on NCAA Tournament Selection

[admin]

Sorry to create a new thread, but this is getting a lot of reaction in the twitterverse. Not terribly positive, I should add.

We are very proud that UConn earned the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament following another tremendous season that included both the Big East regular season and tournament titles. Marquette, a No. 2 seed, and Creighton, a No. 3 seed, give the Big East three of the top 10 overall seeds in the tournament, as many as any other league. We consider each of them legitimate contenders for a Final Four berth and another Big East national crown on April 8th.

These high seeds follow our most successful Big East Tournament to date, which saw five sellouts and our usual impassioned crowds at The World's Most Famous Arena. Our four-year extension with Madison Square Garden, announced on Friday, means that the event, a New York City staple, will celebrate its 50th anniversary at MSG in 2032, a run unmatched in the college basketball world.

We have great respect for the NCAA men's basketball committee and the time and effort that goes into selecting and seeding the teams for the NCAA tournament. It is a very challenging job, and we have been advised that this year’s upsets added to the complexity and contributed to the committee's final bracket selections. Given the high level of play in our league, we are understandably very disappointed that some worthy Big East teams were not selected to participate. We will be working closely with our schools in the coming months to best position the Big East next year and to ensure that we continue to be represented in March Madness in a manner befitting our stature as one of the best conferences in college basketball.

https://www.bigeast.com/news/2024/3/18/ ... tions.aspx

[ecasadoSBU]

I mean, what else can they say?

Are we expecting the Big East to completely rebel against the system when it has three top seeded teams in the tourney?

The situation sucks. We all know the league deserved a 4th or 5th team in. But it is what it is.

The league has to strategize with its members on how to best schedule for this to not happen again. As the marquee sport of the league its even more critical