Conference tourney's make me so confused. So, if you are already a #1 seed they don't matter you could completely tank and then take 2.5 weeks to practice for the NCAA... but if you sucked all year but then cruise through the conference tourney on adrenaline, a bit of focus, and some lucky breaks you are in to the NCAA... right? No matter what the season if you win your conference tourney you are in correct?
There are about 10 regular season conference champions who are in the NCAA already because their record is so good/their schedule was so strong - the P5 plus BE, AAC, A10, plus probably James Madison, Green Bay, BYU this year and of course the Ivy League which doesn't have a tournament. There are a few more that might be bubbly, like SoDak/SDState and FGCU. Beyond that, yes it is win the tournament or look to the WNIT - but the conferences themselves make their rules for the automatic bid, not the NCAA. There have been discussions on a yearly basis whether some conferences should change their rules, but it is just speculation because I don't think any conference has actually considered a change.
With the above in place, all the bubble teams, both in and out, pray for other bubble teams to lose early in conference tournaments, for the teams already firmly in the tournament to play to form, and for teams like James Madison, Green Bay, and BYU to win their tournament so they don't take one of the expected bubble spots off the table by putting a conference mate in with them. If Uconn were to lose to Temple or even possibly Memphis/Tulane in a semifinal, that loss probably would push the winner into the tournament - same would hold true for board line teams in any of the P5. A scary prospect for teams living on the edge.
