college basketball 365 – Page 5

Big East Perspectives

Big East Perspectives

Well now… First of all. From up here in the cheap seats, it appears the Selection Committee is slowly relegating the Big East to lesser conference/mid-major status. The BE has consistently secured 5 NCAA bids since conference reformation in 2013. Averaging (4.86) 5 bids/year over the last 13 years. However, the last 3 years we’ve been awarded 3 – 4- 3 bids in the NCAA Tourney..

Potential selection bias?

The committee snubbed Seton Hall, the 4^th place team in the Big East Conference, one with a 21-12 overall/10-10 conference record, a team on par with 4^th/5^th place teams in the P4 and with current tourney select teams such as Kansas 23-10, Missouri 20-12, Tennessee 22-11, Texas Tech 22-10 , Clemson 24-10, Iowa 21-12, UCLA 23-11, Kentucky 21-13.

Of this sampling of teams playing today in the tourney, only K-TT (3-way tie for 3rd), UCLA (logjam with 3-way tie for 2^nd), Tennessee (3-way tie for 3rd) were 4^th or better in conference play. Others such as NC St. 20-14, BYU 23-12, Ohio St 21-13, Texas 20-14, Georgia 22-11, TAMU 22-11, were also well down their respective conference standings.

The current reliance on ‘metrics’ favors conferences with multiple ranked teams, heavily factoring in “tiered” wins/losses, power rankings, and the like. Still, the committee siting the 7^th team in the B12/ACC or the 8^th/9^th team in the B1G/SEC over the 4^th team in the BE reeks of P4 bias. It is what it is.

Friday / Sunday Slate

The 3 Big East teams are all playing the Fri/Sun slate. 2-seed Uconn and 5-seed St Johns in the East Region with 8-seed Villanova in the West Region. The seeding is such that prognosticators suggest that the Johnnies will probably bow out in the 2^nd Round (KU) or at best in the SS (Duke). Uconn is expected to make a FF run, but could bow out in SS (MSU) or EE (Duke). ‘Nova the lowest seeded BE team is expected to bow out in the 2^nd Round (Arizona), although they are slight underdogs to Utah St in the 1^st Round.

Big East exceeds prognosticator expectations, again.

My expectations are:

A 2/5 seed matchup in the East Region elite eight btwn Huskies/Johnnies. St Johns moves on to the Final Four. Nova ‘sneaks’ to the West Region EE with close victories over Utah St, Arizona, and Arkansas, before bowing to Purdue in the EE game.

In other news:

Big East 4th Place team – Seton Hall 21-12/10-10 (conf) decided to forego any postseason play after being snubbed by the NCAA Selection Committee. Well Done, Pirates, Well Done!

Big East 5^th Place team – Creighton 15-17/9-11 (conf)…passed over by both the NCAA and the NIT…accepted a bid for the College Basketball Crown tourney in Las Vegas. Hmmm? Three games are slated for April 1^st – 4^th.

Jim Harvey a.k.a. @gtmoBlue

Business as Usual…Hardly!

Connecticut head coach Dan Hurley celebrates with the trophy after their win against San Diego State in the men’s national championship college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Ah yes. Here we are finally…the postseason and the plethora of tournaments.

The NCAAs, the NIT… Wait one… Where’s the CBI, the CIT? Huh? Only 3 postseason tourneys this year (incl the CBC)? What’s up with that? Only 108 possible Div 1 postseason bids.

Postseason college basketball tournament bids:
2026 – NCAA (68), NIT (32), CBC (8) 108 bids
2025 – NCAA (68), NIT (32), CBI (16), CBC (16) 132 total bids
2024 – NCAA (68), NIT (32), CBI (16), CIT (16) 132 total bids

The College Basketball Invitational – CBI (2008-2025), with its’ 16-team format, cancelled this season (2026) due to declining (fee-based) participation. Only 14 teams entered in 2024 and 11 teams in 2025.

The College Insider Tournament – CIT (2009 -2024), a 16-team format, discontinued after a 9-team field in 2024. Revival plans were planned but did not materialize.

The College Basketball Crown tourney – CBC (2025), initially a 16-team format in 2025, has cut participation down to eight teams for 2026.

NCAA bids are where the money is. 31 Automatic (conf champ) bids, 37 At-large bids.

Who’s participating?

P4 teams are claiming 35 (51.5%) of 68 NCAA bids, 46 (42.5%) of 108 total postseason bids.
NCAAs: P4 teams – 35 (4 Auto bids, 31 At-large bids) Other – 33 (27 Auto bids, 6 At-large bids)
NIT (NCAA owned): P4 teams – 4 (12.5%) , other – 28.
Two P-4 teams (Indiana & VT) and 3 other teams (Belmont, SDSU, & Seton Hall) declined NIT bids.
CBC: P4 teams – 7 (87.5%) (B12-3, B1G-2, SEC-1, ACC-1), Other – 1.

It is doubtful the the CBC tourney will endure permanently. Both NCAA owned tournaments will continue, most probably evolving into a haves and have nots situation. NCAA tourney for the haves and an expanded NIT for the rest. Unless of course the P4 does a, football-driven, total breakaway from the NCAA. In that scenario, the BE/WCC teams become the Big Dogs of a new, more ‘inclusive’ NCAA Tourney. All 68 Div 1 bids going to the 27 non-P4 conferences.

Some Alternatives: Relegating conferences to open up more NCAA Tourney Bids.

Alternative #1 – is to move all Football Championship Subdivision conferences to Div. 1AA, 146 schools, with separate tourneys for national championships. An expanded NIT as the Div 1AA hoops championship. This is inclusive of approximately 14 conferences.
Alt #2 – move all non-football conferences to Div 1AA, 145 schools, again with separate Alt #1 tourneys. This alternative is inclusive of approximately 13 conferences, including the Big East, MVC, WAC, & WCC. Perhaps exemptions for members of the BE and WCC to the NCAA Hoops Tourney? Perhaps not?
Alt #3 – Move both FCS and non-football schools, 291 of them & their respective conferences, into Div1AA.

Jim Harvey a,k.a gtmoBlue

Note: 2025-26 is the 2^nd time in 3 seasons in which the Big East has only placed 3 teams in the NCAA Tourney. The conference has avg’d 4.83 NCAA Bids a season since the reformatiion of 2013-14. Seton Hall, #4 in the BE at 21-12/10-10 was snubbed by the NCAA Selection committee. Hmmm?

https://www.thesetonian.com/article/2026/03/seton-hall-mens-basketball-declines-non-ncaa-post-season-tournament-invitations