So now lets talk volleyball. Does the Conference tournament generate the significant revenue for the league that would justify its existence? If not, there is no logical reason to have it and the regular season champion should be crowned as the MAC Champion. Period.
To suggest that the only "logical" reason for having a conference tournament is revenue generation is a bit short-sighted.
Another (good) reason:: competitive equity. Currently, conference teams do not play a double round-robin during the regular season. You play everyone in your division twice, and the other division once. Thus, relying solely on the regular season (without a double round-robin) would inherently disfavor the teams in the stronger division -- which, over the last number of years, has been the west (note that three of the four teams that did not make the MAC tournament were from the east: (Miami, Kent, Buffalo).
Returning to a double round-robin format would then reduce the number of out-of-conference play opportunities, which are necessary to builing your own post-season resume as well as MAC credibility. If we want the MAC to have multiple bids to the NCAA, we have to be willing and able to play the better teams from around the country. If you look at Ohio's pre-conference schedule, you will note that it was stacked with heavyweights. If we could have won a couple of those games early on, we could very well have been looking at an at-large bid (absent a conference tournament championship).