Paper champions

 John Wooden once spoke the truth to me about conference tournaments, and he did it 33 years ago.

We were in the conference room of an Indianapolis hotel that evening in 1988, just the two of us, and we spent 90 minutes or so talking about everything from his great-grandchildren (he had pictures, of course) to the state of college basketball. And at some point or other the subject of conference tournaments came up.

Wooden came as close to sneering as such a gracious gentleman ever could.

"They're moneymakers," he said. "That's all in the world they are."

I'm reminded of this now because this week in Indy the Big Ten Tournament is happening, and at the end of it the winner will be declared the conference champion and be rewarded with the conference's automatic NCAA bid. This won't be right, but it's a reality to which conference hoo-haws must cling to lend the tournament some sort of relevance. 

Otherwise, it's just what John Wooden called it in 1988: One more chance to squeeze a few extra dimes from an underpaid workforce.

This comes up, obliquely, because of the letter Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman wrote to the Big Ten this week, protesting that Michigan was declared the Big Ten's regular season champion over Illinois. Illinois, by virtue of playing more conference games in this pandemic-scarred season, won more conference games. But Michigan had the better win percentage, which is the metric the Big Ten chose to go with to account for any and all COVID-19 cancellations/postponements.

That Whitman would feel compelled to protest (and come off a bit whiney doing so) indicated that the conference regular season still had some value. And, even if Whitman didn't say so, that it was the true measure of a champion.

Which is what the Blob has maintained all along.

In the world according to the Blob, see, the regular-season champion should get the automatic NCAA bid, because the regular-season champion is the actual champion. Whoever that is proved themselves over the long jaunt, not over a long weekend. And they should be appropriately rewarded.

The conference tournament?

Oh, you can still play it, because the bubble teams probably need it. But the big trophy, and the big prize, should go to the true champion.

This is especially true in the smallest conferences, which yearly receive a single NCAA bid. It's absolutely ludicrous that a sub-.500 team can pull a couple of upsets in the conference tournament and wind up in the big show, while the team that dominated the  season but had one off day sits home. 

And conferences like the Big Ten?

Seven or eight or nine teams are always going to get into the Madness, no matter what happens during the conference tournament. The only thing that might change is a seeding or two, and which teams on the bubble make it or not. But that's going to be true regardless of whether or not the winner gets the automatic bid. 

"But Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "Doesn't that make the Big Ten Tournament sort of pointless, except to make money?"

Now you're gettin' it.