Teams, Like El Cid, that have not yet made the NCAA Tourney

[tribe_pride]

While this list is quite long, many of these schools have only been in DI for less than 30-40 years. If you really want to look at futility, the five schools that have been in DI since the NCAA Tournament's inception in 1947 and never made the Big Dance are:

William & Mary
The Citadel
Army
Northwestern
St. Francis-Brooklyn

W&M had a chance this year and they blew it. With Thornton now gone, it might be awhile before the Tribe get another shot.

Look 10 spots above your post and you'll see that I posted the same 5. The 2OT semifinal game the night before may have taken a lot out of those guys plus Northeastern hit everything even contested 3s last night.

While losing a great player like Thornton would have killed us in the past, he and Schalk (back up "center" really forward who played well in about 15 minutes per game this year as a walk on) are the only Seniors and we have a number of really good players who should keep us in the top 4 or so in the conference next year. The cupboard is not bear. That said, I feel bad for Thornton. His leadership will be tough to replace and hope he powers us through in the NIT this year.

[Ibanez]

While this list is quite long, many of these schools have only been in DI for less than 30-40 years. If you really want to look at futility, the five schools that have been in DI since the NCAA Tournament's inception in 1947 and never made the Big Dance are:

William & Mary
The Citadel
Army
Northwestern
St. Francis-Brooklyn

W&M had a chance this year and they blew it. With Thornton now gone, it might be awhile before the Tribe get another shot.

Less than 40 yrs? That's plenty of time.

[89Hen]

St. Francis-Brooklyn

Had Bob Morris in reach with 2 seconds left, down 3 guy gets fouled beyond the arc and misses all three. Insult to injury, misses first two and then has to try to miss last one and ball never touches the rim. Game over.

[keydet21]

St. Francis-Brooklyn

Had Bob Morris in reach with 2 seconds left, down 3 guy gets fouled beyond the arc and misses all three. Insult to injury, misses first two and then has to try to miss last one and ball never touches the rim. Game over.

AND they had home-court advantage. No excuses for the Terriers last night.

[bonarae]

That said, do you think conference tournaments should be bygones for these teams to have even a chance for a spot in the Big Dance?

[keydet21]

That said, do you think conference tournaments should be bygones for these teams to have even a chance for a spot in the Big Dance?

No.

But what these low-major conferences should do is have a league tourney with a double-bye, giving 2x additional rest to the highest 3 or 4 seeds. I believe the OVC and the Horizon League do this already, despite having 8 teams where they could've done a straight up three-round, no-bye tournament.

Another thing - if your tournament has four rounds (as most do), play it in four consecutive days. This will ensure that the lowest-seeded teams must play 4 straight games with no rest to win, increasing their fatigue further decreasing their odds of winning the title.

Oh, and stop letting all teams participate in the tournament. I don't think anyone on this planet cares to see the 6-11 matchup in the Big South or the 8-9 matchup in the SoCon. These schools are some of the worst in DI and I doubt it does much for the conference's revenue. Eight teams is perfect, 10 max.

In short, make it as difficult as possible for the lowest seeded teams to win.