A fun but dorky topic: the WBB championship belt

[alexrgct]

Someone like Phil will be all over this, I suspect.

Here's the concept: what if, instead of a championship tournament, or perhaps in addition to, there was a championship belt, like boxing? You beat the champ, you get the belt. Doesn't matter when. Any game at any time could end up being for the belt; you just never know. Allow me to illustrate.

Let's assume that at some point during the 90-game win streak, UConn picked up the WCBB championship belt. That's not a given, but it seems a reasonable assumption. The belt from that point would have been passed as follows:

Stanford-12/30/11
Texas A&M- 4/3/11
Purdue- 12/4/11
Notre Dame- 12/10/11
West Virgina- 2/12/12
DePaul- 2/18/12
Syracuse- 2/21/12
Georgetown- 2/25/12
St John's- 2/27/12
UConn- 3/5/12
Notre Dame- 4/1/12
Baylor- 4/3/12
Stanford- 11/16/12
UConn- 2/29/12
Notre Dame- 1/5/13
UConn- 4/7/13

Kind of fun, right? Who would have predicted Purdue-Notre Dame on 12/4/11 or Georgetown-Syracuse on 2/25/12 was for the belt?

So here's the tricky part: who did UConn beat during their 90-game streak to get the belt? Unfortunately, I don't see a good way to find out except by starting at the beginning. When was the beginning, you ask? That's a good question. Let's say we award the belt to La Tech for winning the 1982 NCAA tourney (the first NCAA tourney for WCBB). What happened after that? Well, here's a start:

La Tech (1982 champs)
USC- 12/4/82
La Tech- 1/22/83
USC- 4/3/83
Texas- 1/2/84
La Tech- 3/25/84
USC- 3/30/84
Georgia- 1/6/85
Kentucky- 1/29/85
New Orleans- 2/1/85

New Orleans??? Really? They didn't even make the tourney in 1985. Damn it Kentucky, couldn't you have dropped the belt that doesn't actually exist to a team with a media guide?

So that's the challenge- try to trace what happened to New Orleans, and thus the belt, after 2/1/85. If someone has any idea how to pick up the trail...I owe you a quarter.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[Phil]

Excellent!

Not only am I all over it, been there, done that.

A few years ago, I pushed a Slippery Rock contest, to see the shortest string of games which could be used to argue a chosen school was number 1. They beat X, who beat Y...

It failed, but for a good reason. If you restrict yourself to the current year, an undefeated team makes the game impossible.

The Slippery Rock game is mathematically the same as the Slippery Rock contest, with the modification that you can extend over multiple years. Which is a very nice modification, and does eliminate the possibility that the game dies in a year with an undefeated team.

One can have multiple belts simultaneously (just as in "real" wrestling. Might also be fun to track two which never over lap, or two others which eventually get unified.

For those who don't know the story, it is in Item one of this page, although it is mentioned almost as an aside, and I thought it was a bigger deal. There must be a better write-up somewhere.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Completely OT - CVS graduated from Slippery Rock U. One of our friends, who went to Slippery Rock with CVS, has had some very creative bumper stickers, etc. supporting her school.

 

[Suebird10fan]

Well to start with TN almost certainly had it at the end of the 07-08 season. As long as the team that holds the belt going into the NCAA tournament actually gets into the tournament, then the NCAA Champion ends up with the belt at the end of the season.

Assuming TN had it to open 2008-09 I traced it from them to UVA to ODU to MSU to ND to Mich to OSU. Or something like that==I didn't take notes. Then I couldn't find OSU's 08-09 schedule/results so I'm stuck!

 

[Suebird10fan]

Ok, now I've gone from OSU to Minnesota to Purdue back to OSU to Wisconsin. I think. Again, wasn't taking notes. For now I'm stuck again but only a few games away from end of regular season.

 

[Suebird10fan]

Ok, Wisconsin gave it back to OSU who kept until they lost to Stanford in the tournament. You know how it goes from there.

I'm sure I didn't document the chain with perfect accuracy but I'm pretty sure that the end product was right ... again, assuming that whoever had the belt going into the NCAA tournament in March 2008 made it into the tournament.

Bottom line: I'm pretty sure the answer is Stanford.

 

[alexrgct]

Ok, Wisconsin gave it back to OSU who kept until they lost to Stanford in the tournament. You know how it goes from there.

I'm sure I didn't document the chain with perfect accuracy but I'm pretty sure that the end product was right ... again, assuming that whoever had the belt going into the NCAA tournament in March 2008 made it into the tournament.

Bottom line: I'm pretty sure the answer is Stanford.

You are correct. In the era of conference tourneys and 64-team NCAA tourneys, the belt will end up in the hands of the national champion. Here is the chain:

Tennessee
Virginia- 11/17/08
Old Dominion- 11/21/08
Michigan State- 11/26/08
Notre Dame- 11/29/08
Michigan- 12/10/08
Ohio State-12/21/08
Minnesota- 1/15/09
Purdue- 1/22/09
Ohio State- 1/25/09
Michigan State- 2/8/09
Wisconsin- 2/22/09
Ohio State- 2/26/09
Stanford- 3/28/09
UConn- 4/5/09
Stanford-12/30/10
Texas A&M- 4/3/11
Purdue- 12/4/11
Notre Dame- 12/10/11
West Virgina- 2/12/12
DePaul- 2/18/12
Syracuse- 2/21/12
Georgetown- 2/25/12
St John's- 2/27/12
UConn- 3/5/12
Notre Dame- 4/1/12
Baylor- 4/3/12
Stanford- 11/16/12
UConn- 2/29/12
Notre Dame- 1/5/13
UConn- 4/7/13

 

[alexrgct]

Just think how exciting an otherwise blah season in the B1G would have been in 2008-09 with the belt being up for grabs seemingly every night.

I think it's safe to say that, starting in 1994 when the tourney moved to a 64-team format, the national champion had the belt by season's end. How it got from New Orleans to UNC could be an interesting study...

 

[Icebear]

Reminds of the "Step Ladder" tournament structures used at some racquetball facilities. Players are seeded and then can challenge players above them sometimes unlimited rungs up, sometimes limited to two or three rungs above you.

Start the basketball season seeding everyone and let teams play 40 games or challenges.