As Auburn Found Out, The NCAA Committee Doesn't Care About Conference Title Games, So Move Them To Saturday

So what was the actual point of Auburn making a run in the SEC Tournament this past week in Nashville and cutting down the nets after winning the title? If you have the correct answer, I'd love to hear it, because the NCAA Tournament committee sure didn't care. 

A few hours after the Tigers left Bridgestone Arena for the team hotel to watch the NCAA selection show, they sat in a ballroom stunned about the decision that would send them to Spokane, Washington for the opening rounds of March Madness. After winning their final six games and finishing as the 7th ranked team in the country according to the AP poll, the Tigers were about to find out that their SEC title was pretty worthless in the eyes of the selection committee. 

While I don't understand the committee's decision on a number of different teams and their seeding in the tournament, this one sticks out when it comes to a conference championship winner. Maybe Kentucky head coach John Calipari is right about the SEC Tournament. That it truly doesn't matter if you're already dancing in the NCAA's. 

There wasn't much gained by Auburn cutting down the nets in Nashville, and that's where we've got to figure out a solution when it comes to conference tournaments. First off, stop playing the finals on Sunday, as it certainly does the conference no favors in the eyes of the committee. The decision to put Auburn as the 4th seed in the East Region was already made before the Tigers throttled Florida for the SEC title. 

So, as we head into a new era in college hoops, thanks to realignment, just have the conference championship game on Saturday, like the ACC and others do. Yea, it's nice to have the spot on Sunday when it comes to television ratings, but it really doesn't matter anymore. The only chaos that these conference tournaments brought to this year's NCAA selection decisions was the number of upsets that led to teams stealing bids from others. 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 17: Bruce Pearl the head coach of the Auburn Tigers celebrates with Chad Baker-Mazara #10 after the win against the Florida Gators in the championship game of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 17, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Auburn Heads Into Hornets Nest Of East Region, Led By UConn, Iowa State

The East Region is already stacked, led by UConn, with Iowa State and Illinois joining that side of the bracket along with Auburn. 

When it comes to being sent across the country to play in the opening rounds, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl hinted that maybe the selection committee is giving one back to the Tigers, since they played in Birmingham last year against Houston. Even if that's the case, all the selection committee would be worried about in that scenario is selling tickets, which Auburn obviously did, along with Alabama playing in the same arena. 

They wanted a sellout, and that's exactly what the NCAA tournament received in 2023. So, to make it up, Auburn, Alabama and UAB are all headed to Washington this week. 

"Well they’ve been talking about us being out in Spokane a lot for some reason," Bruce Pearl told reporters on Sunday . "Maybe that’s because that’s where the 4s are. We were hoping that an SEC Tournament championship and wherever we are in the NET, maybe we’re 5 or so in the NET, would get us to the 3-line. But it obviously didn’t. So, are we paying a price for being in Birmingham last year and getting an incredible opportunity against Houston, the one seed? Perhaps. It’s a long way to travel for our fans. 

"We’ve been in this for a few times now. We got San Diego. We got Salt Lake City. Yes, we did get Birmingham, but we also now got Spokane. So this is three times now that they’ve shipped us quite a ways away from our fans."

The winner of the Auburn versus Yale game will play either San Diego State or UAB, which could lead to a very entertaining round two. But at the core of the conversation surrounding the selection process lies the selection committee, and its lack of care about who wins the conference tournament. 

If It's All For Show, Just Move The Games To Saturday. How About The Fans?

Let's be honest about this whole ordeal with conference tournaments and realize that the NCAA committee is not paying attention if there's no need to. Given that Auburn was awarded a four-seed for its season, capped off with winning the SEC tournament, it's obvious that the NCAA selection committee was not worried about who won the SEC. Florida was already in, and so was Auburn. 

Their work was done and the only game that truly mattered was Temple versus UAB, with a chance that the Owls could've stolen a bid out of the AAC. Wisconsin had already made the tournament in the Big Ten, so its match-up with Illinois really did not matter in the eyes of the committee. Maybe what seed to give them, but both teams were already locked in. 

So what did playing on Sunday actually accomplish? Besides giving basketball fans something to watch before the selection show, nothing much. But, it's tradition right? Having the Big Ten championship game as the final contest before we're glued to the television for an hour to find out who made the NCAA Tournament is a tradition that CBS pays for, so the chances of that game being moved are slim. 

ESPN gets to broadcast one final meaningful game on its network, the SEC final, before they are stuck with the NIT. All the while, CBS is preparing folks for a gigantic revenue stream of games from its different networks over the next four weeks. Whether it's TruTV, TNT, TBS or CBS, the company is about to cash-in on the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament, so the Big Ten final is almost like their final trial-run before the madness begins. 

We're not even thinking about the fans in this process. If any Auburn alum or fans want to go watch their team play in Spokane, they have about two days to book their travel. A flight from Montgomery to Spokane is anywhere between $900-1800 round trip. Then, you add on the hotel prices, which are between $200-600 a night near the arena, and you've got an expensive trip. 

If we're trying to cater this event towards the fans as well, how about we try to make this cost-efficient in the process? I know all of this is asking a lot, and the selection show is not moving days, but we can come up with better ways to help folks trying to experience a potential once in a lifetime event. 

All of this is to say that the selection committee and the NCAA do not care which day the final tournament game is played on, and they damn sure have proven that the results don't matter if the participating teams are already in their tournament. So why continue to play these games on Sunday? 

Give the athletes an extra day of rest. Have a team like Auburn cut down the nets on Saturday, then get to spend three days back home before traveling 2,362 miles to play in the NCAA Tournament opener. Now, the Tigers, and others, got home late Sunday night and will get back on a plane just two days later, while fans are trying to figure out a way to pay for a trip to Spokane, Washington with only a few days to prepare. 

None of this is complicated, so just make the move to Saturday.