From across the scorers’ table in Albany’s Pepsi Arena, as Siena prepares to face Niagara in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game, ESPN’s broadcast duo performs the billing.

It’s a must-win tonight, ladies and gentlemen. This one game will decide what these two teams have been working for all season — an invitation to the Big Dance.

They’re right on one account: This game decides everything. And that’s exactly the problem.

The first 30 games decided nothing. On Monday evening, the MAAC’s top two teams, Rider and Marist — both with 13-5 conference marks — sat at home while Siena (12-18 in the regular season) defeated Niagara and earned the league’s lone NCAA Tournament bid.

Such a problem isn’t unique to the MAAC. Every year, a handful of small conferences that have virtually no hope of sending an at-large team to the NCAA Tournament select their champion through a revenue-driven, three-day tournament. In the process, these conferences reduce their grueling regular season to a two-month opening act.

‘From a purist’s point of view,’ Maine head coach Dr. John Giannini said, ‘I’d like to see it so that the regular season champion — the true champion that’s proven it over the long haul — gets the automatic bid to the NCAAs.’

Giannini should know a true champion when he sees one. On Sunday, his 12-17 Black Bears defeated one. Vermont, the America East Conference’s regular season champ with a record of 21-8, fell to Giannini’s team in the conference semifinals.

‘I can tell you first-hand,’ Giannini said, ‘it’s rough when you’re a champion and you have to prove it for a second time. This year we knocked off that team, the regular season champion. It’s tough to say, but I do think that Vermont deserves it more than we do.’

Upsets such as that occur frequently during Championship Week, as evidenced by No. 1 Rider’s loss to No. 8 Canisius in the MAAC and No. 1 Butler’s loss to No. 8 Wisconsin-Green Bay in the Horizon League.

As a result, these mid-major conferences will send an inferior team as their representatives in the NCAA Tournament. This system not only damages the competitive nature of the NCAA Tournament, but also minimizes the chances for a first-round upset.

Utah State, Hampton and Georgia State — all teams that posted remarkable upsets in last year’s Big Dance — earned automatic bids by winning postseason tournaments. Each, coincidentally, proved its worth as its conference’s regular season champion.

‘It’s tough to win both, though,’ Canisius head coach Mike MacDonald said. ‘When I was an assistant back in ’93, we had a team that had won 15 straight games going into the MAAC tournament. Then we got beaten by Loyola, and they end up making the NCAAs. I can tell you, at that point, it sucks.’

So what’s the reasoning behind these conference tournaments that often derail the league’s best team? Revenue.

‘Frankly, it’s the biggest event we host all year,’ MAAC Commissioner Richard J. Ensor said. ‘We had 40,000 people show up over the weekend, and the revenue we get from the men’s tournament is about five percent of our overall budget.

‘We also do it for recognition. We attract the greatest media attention when tournament time comes around.’

One remaining conference — yes, just one — now goes without a tourney. Apparently only the brains of the Ivy League understand that it’s harder to be good for two months than three days.

As a result, the Ivy League benefits in March. Ivy champ Princeton upset first-round opponents in 1996 and 1998. And in 1989, the No. 16 Tigers came as close as any bottom seed has ever come to knocking off a No. 1, losing 50-49 to Georgetown.

Surprisingly, Yale head coach James Jones said the majority of Ivy coaches don’t think highly of the traditional format.

‘Normally, the team that wins in the Ivy League only has three or four losses, so the margin of error is very small,’ Jones said. ‘In our format, if you lose a couple games early on, it kills you.’

So here’s the logical solution.

At the end of the regular season, the four highest finishing teams advance to a playoff-type conference tournament. This way, the mid-major leagues can receive their TV exposure and their revenue, all while guaranteeing that a sub-.500 team such as Siena doesn’t advance to the NCAAs.

To further emphasize regular season record, the semifinal round should be held at the home arenas of the first and second seeds.

‘That would certainly help the mid-majors in some situations,’ said Joe Mitch, the Missouri Valley Conference Associate Commissioner. ‘When the regular season champion is left out, it’s always unfortunate. That wouldn’t happen as much with four teams.’

‘The four-team playoff is certainly a strong concept,’ Ensor said. ‘We do that in a lot of our sports. But in men’s basketball, we just want to make sure that every team has a chance.’

No offense, Mr. Ensor, but the regular season should be chance enough.

ACC Tournament

Charlotte, N.C., March 7-10

2:1 Maryland: won’t Duke-Maryland III be great?

2:1 Duke: two losses in two weeks

9:1 Wake Forest: needs just one more win for 20

12:1 N.C. State: young nucleus could launch it into elite next year

6:1 Virginia: will make a strong case for the tourney with a couple wins

30:1 Georgia Tech: this is where things start to get bad

40:1 North Carolina: even MJ couldn’t solve this slump

100:1 Florida State: played well once this year to beat Duke

200:1 Clemson: worst in the ACC again

Pick: Duke

Big East Tournament

New York City, March 6-9

4:1 Pittsburgh: hoping to get a first-round NCAA game at Mellon Arena

5:1 Connecticut: an impressive 8-4 record vs. RPI top 50

6:1 Miami: pathetic 249th-ranked non-conference schedule

6:1 Notre Dame: roller-coaster team seems unlikely candidate for a long winning streak

6:1 St. John’s: essentially playing at home

10:1 Georgetown: everybody’s sleeper team

12:1 Boston College: may need to win outright to get in

50:1 Villanova: injury to Gary Buchanan will prove costly

Pick: St. John’s

Big 12 Tournament

Kansas City, Mo., March 7-10

1:1 Kansas: looks too good for the typical Jayhawk choke

4:1 Oklahoma: competing with Cincinnati for an NCAA No. 1 seed

7:1 Texas: surprising many with Chris Owens out for the season

6:1 Oklahoma State: worst free-throw shooting team in the conference

10:1 Texas Tech: winners in five of six

5:1 Missouri: seems like an NCAA lock, even with a first-round loss

50:1 Kansas State: assist totals surpassed turnovers in 10 of 15 games

100:1 Nebraska: has Husker basketball ever been good?

200:1 Colorado: seeded ninth for third time in six years

200:1 Baylor: freshman Lawrence Roberts led all conference rookies in scoring

200:1 Iowa State: no Jamaal Tinsley this year

200:1 Texas A&M: needs one more win for double-digits

Pick: Kansas

Pac-10 Tournament

Los Angeles, March 7-9

3:1 Oregon: owns 6-1 record against AP’s Top 25

3:1 Arizona: the defending conference tourney champs … since 1990

5:1 USC: swept first-round opponent Stanford this season

5:1 Stanford: the last of four teams tied for second place

6:1 California: can anyone name one player on this team?

6:1 UCLA: the nation’s most inconsistent team

50:1 Arizona State: slipped in despite three consecutive losses

100:1 Washington: started nine different lineups this season

Pick: UCLA

SEC Tournament

Atlanta, March 7-10

3:1 Alabama: likely lost chance for an NCAA No. 1 seed with recent loss to Ole Miss

4:1 Kentucky: winners in eight of last ten SEC tournaments

5:1 Florida: without a bye, needs four straight wins for the SEC title

5:1 Georgia: 8-4 record against teams with RPIs above 50

6:1 Mississippi State: enjoyed a 23-7 season without much national attention

15:1 Mississippi: could squeeze into the Dance with a win or two

20:1 Tennessee: the nation’s finest annual underachievers

50:1 LSU: just 3-9 away from home

100:1 Vanderbilt: outscored 2035-2034 this season, so expect some close games

100:1 Arkansas: with Nolan Richardson gone, the Hogs soon will follow

200:1 South Carolina: four losses by less than one basket

200:1 Auburn: SEC champions just four years ago

Pick: Kentucky

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Published on March 6, 2002 at 12:00 pm