The Solar Belt revealed a brand new format for its convention basketball tournaments on Thursday that may reward common season efficiency in a serious method. The league’s prime two groups will obtain byes to the semifinals of what is going to now be a seven-round match.
In the meantime, groups seeded No. 11-14 shall be required to win seven video games in seven days if they’re going to declare the Solar Belt’s computerized bid to the NCAA Event.
“The brand new Solar Belt Basketball Championship brackets will reward our prime seeds for his or her accomplishments in the course of the common season, making certain they obtain the benefit they’ve earned for his or her on-court efficiency,” Solar Belt Convention Commissioner Keith Gill mentioned within the league’s announcement of the brand new format.
Beforehand, the highest 4 seeds within the bracket acquired byes into the quarterfinals and needed to win three video games to win the convention match. In that format, seeds No. 11-14 needed to win 5 video games.
Arkansas State was picked to win the Solar Belt within the convention’s preseason coaches ballot, receiving 12 of 14 first-place votes, whereas James Madison and Troy acquired one first-place vote apiece. Coastal Carolina and ULM had been picked to complete thirteenth and 14th, respectively.
Whereas the visible of a seven-round convention match with a number of byes for the highest two groups is jarring, the idea of providing a number of byes to high-performing colleges is just not unprecedented in school basketball. Within the WCC, for instance, the highest two groups have been afforded byes into the semifinals in recent times whereas the 2 poorest-seeded groups had been tasked with successful 5 video games in 5 days.