I kind of thought the Power conferences seemed to have more of their teams in than ever this year. THe mids seemed to get passed over pretty well for a variety of well known and much discussed reasons

They have all the say in the world because they developed the formula which by almost any measure is deeply flawed.

And don't forget OHIO's resounding 85-69 victory of those same "honky cats" a few seasons before that defeat in the championship game. OHIO had an integrated team. I like to say that we had a starting team that was one half white and one half black as the two forwards were black (Hilt and Haley), the center was white (Storey), one guard (Gill) was white, and the other guard was mixed-race (Jackson). So. 2.5 black and 2.5 white! ;-) At the time I was very proud of that fact, and I still am!

Tennessee was a 3 seed. Why would anyone think they didn't deserve an at-large bid? What even are you talking about.

The original post never suggested that the losing teams didn't deserve to be in the tournament. What he was saying was that under-seeded mid-majors have a history of upsetting Power Conference schools when given the chance. Because of these results some Mid-majors who were snubbed (Like MTSU and St. Mary's) deserved more benefit of the doubt from the committee.

Agree

I heard we were just a smidge out of having a third team.

I think the majors will wake up to the underseeding if they continue to get beat. Not sure what else you can do but play and win.

It is enlightening to see what things would look like if the boys....oops...men's side opened up and went on the road similar to their counterpart....but that is not what the big boys want to happen.

Could there be more OOC "classics" instead of an ACC-Big 10 showdown on a neutral court that pits these two classes of teams against each other?

You highlight something that I think would be useful for schools not in the P6 to consider: reinstating something like the Bracketbusters. Reorganize the OOC schedules to allow for a 10-day gap at the end of January to allow for two games matching up the teams to give them 2 more games against potential Q1/Q2 teams. Manipulate the schedule based on what you're given. Schedule the first two conference games for the first weeks of December before finals when students are present. Make Dad's weekend the first home Saturday game across all of the MAC while students are present and get butts in the seats early in the season. If you're Ohio, Offer Dads/Moms a discounted season ticket at orientation, and at Parent's Weekend in football season. Hit up every single person through the door at Peden, and canvass the tailgate lots beforehand talking to people about coming back for basketball. Get a "parents weekend" in The Convo in February. Get creative.

It's also time to get creative if you're in the MAC offices in Cleveland, and get your teams better games. Ditch two of the "required" 8 home OOC games, and require everyone to schedule two games between themselves and a forecasted RPI top 150 team on the road, unless they can get that game at home.