Bye Bye Double Bye

With the addition of the University of The Pacific for the 2013/2014 season the West Coast Conference will sit at 10 members. The addition of Brigham Young in 2011 necessitated a change in the conference tournament set up. The change wasn't much, just the addition of what was essentially a play-in game contested between the 8 and 9 seed.  Now though, the WCC is making some more serious changes.

In a league, like the WCC of the recent past, where only one team (Gonzaga) played at a nationally competitive level, it was of the utmost importance for the league to make it as easy as possible for that team to win the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If Gonzaga were to get upset in say, a first round game against the 8 seed (the tournament was held on a WCC campus until the 2009 edition when it moved to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, so an 8 seed, at home, upsetting the Zags isn't too farfetched.) then their chances of an at large bid to the big dance would take a serious hit, regardless of how well they had played up to that point. Remember when Murray State lost it's first game of the season this past year and people began to wonder if another loss, possibly an early exit in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, could or should exclude them from the big dance? Well, if the Zags lose early, miss out on an at large berth, and the WCC sends another team dancing, even the second best that year (remember, I'm talking about the WCC circa 2003 when the double bye was implemented and the second best team was pretty far from deserving of being called "best"), the level of interest in the WCC is seriously diminished from where it would be if Gonzaga was dancing.

To help prevent this from happening, the WCC adopted a double-bye for the top two seeds in 2003. This meant that for Gonzaga to win the WCC and get an automatic bid to the big dance, they needed only to win two tournament games. Even a loss, which happened twice, both times to San Diego in San Diego (see my point on upsets above), wouldn't look so bad as it could come no sooner than the tournament semis (Those two losses were in the finals, and the Zags received an at large bid both years so, kudos WCC administrators.)

Then, starting in 2005, Saint Mary's became nationally relevant, and the double bye became not just something that helped Gonzaga, but also helped the Gaels build their program. These two teams have met in six of the past nine WCC Tournament Championship games and including the past four straight. Now, while this helps them build programs, it also helps the league build it's brand. Because of the double-bye, the Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary's rivalry has become very big very fast.

But now, with 10 teams, the addition of another nationally relevant program in Brigham Young last season, and a steady improvement in the rest of the league, the WCC feels it no longer needs to protect the two best teams to ensure multiple bids to the big dance. So it's bye bye to the double bye and hello to a standard 10 team tournament format. That means it will take three wins to cut down the nets. The changes won't be implemented until the 2014 Tournament, so enjoy the double bye, or play in game, whichever you prefer, for one more season.

It's also worth noting that the last year of the double bye format is also the last year on the current contract with Orleans Arena. The WCC is currently exploring the option of moving to another venue and will announce if they're staying or going sometime later this summer.