(Marana, AZ) In an unprecedented move, the Western Athletic Conference gave their top two seeds in their tournament a double bye until the tournament semi-finals.
Last season’s tournament champs the GCU Antelopes only played two game in route to their 2021 tournament championship with a smaller conference field.
The WAC Conference expanded at the end of last school year and ten teams will compete in this tournament, so an adjustment was needed to bracket the larger field.
The WAC Tournament started yesterday and with the extra day added, all games were played at Mandalay Bay. The remaining games will be moved back to the Orleans Casino Arena where the tournament is normally played.
Two things jumped out looking at the new format. First, the lower seeds will now have to play five games in five days in order to win the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Secondly, the conference is trying to protect the quality of the team that will represent the WAC in The Dance.
The Western Athletic Conference gets an automatic bid to their tournament champion into March Madness and rarely does it receive a second bid via an at large selection.
The conference’s thinking puts the regular season top teams as their priority. They’re trying not to get blown out in a first round NCAA game against a #3 or #4 seed. They’re hoping that their regular season champ or runner up will represent the WAC in a more favorable way.
The mystique of March is watching underdog teams getting hot at tournament time to get into the NCAA’s as a Cinderella.
It remains to be seen how this will pan out, but the Road to the Final Four just got a lot easier for the two top WAC seeded teams trying to gain that lone bid.
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