coaches vote to eliminate double-bye in big east tournament
Two seasons ago, the Big East Conference Tournament included all 16 teams to have an automatic bid to the tournament. With that in place, the top four seeds received a double-bye. This changed, however, as the Big East coaches got together at their annual spring meeting in Ponte Verda Beach, Fl Tuesday morning. The coaches unanimously voted to do away with the double-bye format for next years postseason tournament.
The new format is expected to be approved on Wednesday by the league’s athletic directors.
The first round of the new formatted tournament would be held for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s matchups would be 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14 and 4 vs. 13. The remaining eight teams will play the next day in a 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9 matchup.
The Mountaineers were the only team to capitalize from the double-bye this season. Only three teams in the past two seasons survived the potential upset.
Is the double-bye really an advantage? Or does it just give teams too much time off between the end of the regular season to the beginning of the tournament?