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2. And I'm fairly confident - bear with me here.
For all intents and purposes I will consider the following teams the only one's able to win the AAC tourney: Houston, Cincy, Tulsa, Wichita St., UConn and Memphis.
The American conference has one lock in the tournament field and that is Houston.
Most brackets undeniably have Wichita State and Cincy as either IN or very close to IN. Most brackets if not all have all other teams out.
Houston is on the bottom of the AAC bracket. Wichita St., Cincy and UConn are on the top of the AAC bracket and can't play Houston until Sunday. If Houston makes the finals against Wichita/Cincy/UConn - the committee may want to deem that game irrelevant for seeding purposes (i.e. not wanting to have a contingency bracket based on the outcome) and just have two teams in the field. The second team being whatever team makes the finals of the top of the bracket. Meaning, I think Cincy/UConn/WichitaSt. are playing for ONE spot in the field IF Houston makes the finals.
Tulsa and Memphis are on Houston's side of the bracket. If Tulsa/Memphis make the finals the committee are undeniably going to have to open an auto-bid spot for the conference WITH Houston. Forcing the american to have two locks in the field with a "bid steal". Keep in mind the winner of the game on Sunday cannot play in the play-in game (i.e. Last Four In as at-large). This opens the path for Wichita/Cincy to get a last 4 in spot if they make the finals and lose to Memphis/Tulsa.
All that being said, I promise you, the committee wants to do everything in their power not to have to worry about the outcome of the AAC finals at 3:15pm on selection Sunday. In my opinion we should be rooting for Houston to get to the finals so we don't need the auto-bid and can just steal Cincy/Wichita's spot in the field whether we win or lose that Sunday game.
TLDR; UConn has a path to get in if they lose to Houston on Sunday otherwise they need to win 4 in 4 days.
For all intents and purposes I will consider the following teams the only one's able to win the AAC tourney: Houston, Cincy, Tulsa, Wichita St., UConn and Memphis.
The American conference has one lock in the tournament field and that is Houston.
Most brackets undeniably have Wichita State and Cincy as either IN or very close to IN. Most brackets if not all have all other teams out.
Houston is on the bottom of the AAC bracket. Wichita St., Cincy and UConn are on the top of the AAC bracket and can't play Houston until Sunday. If Houston makes the finals against Wichita/Cincy/UConn - the committee may want to deem that game irrelevant for seeding purposes (i.e. not wanting to have a contingency bracket based on the outcome) and just have two teams in the field. The second team being whatever team makes the finals of the top of the bracket. Meaning, I think Cincy/UConn/WichitaSt. are playing for ONE spot in the field IF Houston makes the finals.
Tulsa and Memphis are on Houston's side of the bracket. If Tulsa/Memphis make the finals the committee are undeniably going to have to open an auto-bid spot for the conference WITH Houston. Forcing the american to have two locks in the field with a "bid steal". Keep in mind the winner of the game on Sunday cannot play in the play-in game (i.e. Last Four In as at-large). This opens the path for Wichita/Cincy to get a last 4 in spot if they make the finals and lose to Memphis/Tulsa.
All that being said, I promise you, the committee wants to do everything in their power not to have to worry about the outcome of the AAC finals at 3:15pm on selection Sunday. In my opinion we should be rooting for Houston to get to the finals so we don't need the auto-bid and can just steal Cincy/Wichita's spot in the field whether we win or lose that Sunday game.
TLDR; UConn has a path to get in if they lose to Houston on Sunday otherwise they need to win 4 in 4 days.