Running 2018 college rings postseason thread

Here's Deadspin's take on it. Better explanation, more details.

https://deadspin.com/conference-usa-is-completely-revamping-its-conference-s-1826386373

 

Now hoping the Mid-American Conference tries this.

 

I think it's a smart move, considering the current system.

Here's a radical proposal for the NCAA tournament, since there's no way we're ever going back to 64 teams and incremental expansion seems to be looming again.

* Scrap the NIT. Eliminate it. It's long past outlived its usefulness. Does anyone remember who won this year's event, without looking it up? I don't. It's turned into the NCAA's experimenting grounds as it is, so you're playing a "championship" under different rules than you played the entire regular season.

* Expand the field to 96 teams, with these caveats. Any regular-season champion gets an automatic bid into the expanded tournament. Great, so where's the motivation to perform in the conference tournament if you're already in the field? Well, if you win both the regular season and the tournament, you are automatically slotted into the round of 64. Winning both is hard, in any league. Reward that. Here's the list of mid/lows that would have earned their way automatically into the 64 this year: Montana, Charleston, Penn, Buffalo, Loyola Chicago, Murray State, Bucknell, UNC Greensboro, SD State, Gonzaga, New Mexico State.

* This means the amount of auto bids would fluctuate from year to year, but you still would have at minimum, 34 at-large bids which with to work, which is about what we have now, give or take a few. Some years, you may have 45 at-large bids. Either way, the marginal, barely .500 power conference teams are protected, and more mid- and low major teams get in the field. Would you rather watch an extra weekend of Valpo and Oregon playing to advance to the round of 64, or watch the NIT?

 

Damn, Godfrey is good.

Inside the NCAA’s years-long, twisting investigation into Mississippi football

 

I've heard worse ideas....

 

An entertaining read. Does come off as a bit whiny on the part of an Ole Miss fan/writer.

 

So this is nuts. Can't see how he wasn't charged with manslaughter.

Wake Forest University assistant coach arrested in death of man punched at Queens wedding

 

It does seem like the definition of involuntary manslaughter, emphasis on involuntary. Have to think he's going to claim self-defense.

 

If Con Air taught me anything, it's that this ends with a jet landing on the Vegas Strip.

 

I never realized how and why the recruiting game is of such interest, particularly with the social media angle. I have no doubt that head coaches or "someone" within the program communicates the "key targets" to friends of the program. The dance of social media updates, campus visits, narrowing of lists, verbal commits, etc. is the negotiation.