WAC tournament seeding to be based on advanced analytics

[HooperScooper]

Seems like a crazy idea but then I thought, they do this for the NCAA Tournament. But if you're playing every team the same amount of times in conference then why do you need something else to seed the teams? The WAC will be taking into account all games and not just the conference game. Stupid or good idea for other conferences to follow?

The Western Athletic Conference is changing how it seeds its postseason basketball tournaments by introducing an intrepid, evolutionary concept to the sport. The 2022-23 season will see the WAC's men's and women's basketball standings be determined not just by conference wins and losses, but also an algorithm that rewards and/or punishes based off performance against all teams they face in the regular season.

"The idea is to seed the conference tournament based on your full season play, not just your conference standings," Pomeroy told CBS Sports.

WAC altering basketball tournament formats by introducing bold new seeding concept based on advanced analytics

More than just wins and losses: Seeding will be based off KenPom formula, the NET and reward teams for winning against tougher schedules

www.cbssports.com

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

PC won’t be accepting an invite to the WAC

 

[UofCT]

 

[Apollo]

Call me old fashioned but conference seeding should be based solely on conference play.

 

[ctbbfn]

Call me old fashioned but conference seeding should be based solely on conference play.

But it's intrepid!

 

[navery12]

For a mid major conference it's fine, it encourages teams to schedule good OOC games and marginally increases the chance they get 2 teams into the tournament. Wouldn't expect to see this make it's way to major conferences though

 

[pepband99]

For a mid major conference it's fine, it encourages teams to schedule good OOC games and marginally increases the chance they get 2 teams into the tournament. Wouldn't expect to see this make it's way to major conferences though

Bingo. The AAC should think about this, to punish their scheduling problem children (Tulane, ECU, etc)

 

[Fishy]

This will go hilariously wrong.

 

[uconndogs]

Yeah, it's almost always better to make things more complicated than they need to be. Should go swimmingly....

 

[Hey Adrien!]

The WAC did exactly what it intended to do: get people to talk about their conference.

They are also a conference in transition, adding Abilene Christian and Stephen F. Austin last season, Southern Utah and UT-Arlington this season, losing Chicago State and Lamar this season and losing New Mexico State and Sam Houston State at the end of this season, what better time to experiment.

On an unrelated note, the WAC was last year and will be one of the deepest mid-major conferences. If I were on west coast time, I'd catch way more of their games.

 

[auror]

Sounds very similar to WAB (Wins Above Bubble), using NET rankings as the initial rankings and 150th team as the baseline. It's a spiritual successor to RPI in a way, but much improved.

I approve.

The conference wants its best team represented to earn the best seed to have the best chance of winning games and getting tournament credits. Full season WAB will do a much better job than just conference standings of determining that, since those conference standings are included fully baked in the metric and then added to.

They're not using this for anything other seeding. Regular season and conference champions are still determined by playing the games.

 

[HuskyFich]

I can see this being extremely appealing...

until people need to decide on which metrics to use, and how long they will be used before updating or adapting...which becomes a friggen nightmare.

Sounds alot like my fantasy baseball league...

 

[huskiesNhoos]

games will no longer be decided based on who scores more points...instead we will use a complex formula with math and stuff to determine the most deserving winner...extra points for effort

 

[McLovin]

Intriguing, and as others have pointed out for a mid major conference this could help them schedule better OOC and improve the odds at getting multiple bids / better seeds for the auto bid team.

Will their standings during the season be based on the real-time “ranking” of each team or is this solely for conference tournament seeds? Put another way, can a team win the WAC regular season title without having the best conference record?

IMO if you don’t award the 1 seed the regular season title too, it kind of devalues the regular season champion award (granted it’s the WAC so who really cares?)

 

[auror]

Intriguing, and as others have pointed out for a mid major conference this could help them schedule better OOC and improve the odds at getting multiple bids / better seeds for the auto bid team.

Will their standings during the season be based on the real-time “ranking” of each team or is this solely for conference tournament seeds? Put another way, can a team win the WAC regular season title without having the best conference record?

IMO if you don’t award the 1 seed the regular season title too, it kind of devalues the regular season champion award (granted it’s the WAC so who really cares?)

The article doesn't mention it. The WAC record book does keep regular season and conference titles, so we'll see I guess. IMO they should still use conference record for regular season and only use this for seeding. I don't think it devalues anything. Measuring different things.

 

[Scoe]

Lame, not that it will matter to the Zags anyways.

 

[Get a Job]

Lame, not that it will matter to the Zags anyways.

Especially because they're not in the WAC

 

[Scoe]

Especially because they're not in the WAC

Ok I sure got that wrong was thinking of the 3 letters, WAC-WCC ehh.

 

[Austin316]

Lame, not that it will matter to the Zags anyways.

You weren’t alone. I immediately thought of Gonzaga too.

Let’s drink in the casual corner.

 

[Kitaman]

What was broke that needed fixing?

 

[auror]

What was broke that needed fixing?

Difference between your conference getting a 15 and 12 seed is huge. Probability wise it's half a mil per year. Doing your best to optimize for that at a probably low cost seems valuable.

 

[History Geek]

games will no longer be decided based on who scores more points...instead we will use a complex formula with math and stuff to determine the most deserving winner...extra points for effort

I’m usially anti-grumpy old man takes but I ageee with this.