It was 2017 when the Ivy League finally caved in and held its first postseason conference tournament, meaning all 32 Division I men’s college basketball teams were finally in synch in determining how the automatic bids to March Madness were determined.
We can’t really blame the Ivy League for holding out. After all, sporting events at those schools are mere distractions while churning out more attorneys to choke the US legal system and politicos like Al Gore to invent the internet and save us from nasty fossil fuel cars.
But I digress.
Conference Realignment Isn’t New
It may have taken a long time before all D-I conferences held postseason tournaments, but conference tournaments have actually been around much longer than top sportsbooks have been hanging numbers for the NCAA Tournament.
When the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) began to split up, one of the results was the formation of the Southern Conference, a group that was made up of 20+ teams in the 1920s and held league tourneys to determine its champion as early as 1922.
By comparison, the first NCAA Tournament was held in 1939, with invitations going out to the top teams from eight regions, and nobody cared if the second-best team from one region was better than the best team from another region. Oregon beat Ohio State for the crown.
Differences between the schools over several issues led to the Southern Conference splitting off from the SIAA, and it was the Southern Conference’s growth that would lead to it splitting up in 1932 when a baker’s dozen of schools formed the Southeastern Conference.
To Crown a Champ, or Not to Crown a Champ
As the college sports landscape changed and basketball grew in popularity, more and more conferences began to hold postseason tournaments, each with their own set of rules and guidelines for the events.
The NCAA Tournament field also grew as invitations were handed out to more conference champs. The problem was there was no uniformity in how those leagues determined their champions, some preferring regular season winners and others using the tournament champs.
This presented a problem for the conferences who used their regular season champion. Their postseason tournaments were seen as nothing more than exhibition games, and those leagues found it increasingly difficult to draw fans to the tourneys.
Another issue was that while the NCAA Tournament was increasing the field, it still only allowed one school per conference. A couple of ACC Tournaments in the early 1970s helped to change that.
NC State & ACC Force Changes
South Carolina, which shifted from the Southern Conference to the ACC in 1953, ran through the 1970 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season schedule with an unbeaten record, sending the Gamecocks to the league tourney as the top seed.
Unimpressed, North Carolina State beat significant NCAAB odds to drop South Carolina, and it was the Wolfpack that earned the invite to the Big Dance.
South Carolina petitioned the conference to make an exception to its rule proclaiming the tournament winner as ACC Champion, but to no avail. The Gamecocks left the ACC because of that, and played as an independent or in the Metro Conference before joining the SEC in 1991.
North Carolina State stirred the pot again in 1974. The Wolfpack upset then-No. 3 Maryland in the ACC Tournament, preventing the Terrapins from going to the NCAA, and just to prove it was no fluke, NC State won the National Championship.
These two conference tournament wins by NC State were the biggest factors behind the NCAA relaxing its rule of only allowing one team per conference.
Wolfpack Part of History Again in 1983
The NC State team that upended South Carolina in 1970 was 11-14 when the ACC Tournament began, and the Wolfpack were 13-14 when they got to the NCAA Tournament where they went 1-1 before being eliminated.
They were a little better off in 1983 with an 8-6 regular season conference record. The loss of guard Derek Whittenburg early on the ACC slate hurt, but Whittenburg returned to the floor in time to play in the league tournament.
North Carolina State needed at least a deep run in the tourney, if not win it to get an invite to the NCAA Tournament, and the Wolfpack defied the oddsmakers by doing just that, taking down No. 5 North Carolina in the semis before beating No. 2 Virginia in the finals.
In a field of 52, that impressive run through the ACC still only netted the Wolfpack a No. 6 seed…from where they went on a true Cinderella run in the NCAA’s to make the team and its coach, Jim Valvano, household names.
Who Will Be This Year’s Surprise Conference Champ?
That unexpected run by the Wolfpack in 1983 was a huge moment for college basketball overall and impacted conference tournaments from that point on by piquing the interest of casual fans who love to get behind an underdog.
College basketball bettors are no different, and NC State’s championship was a catalyst for business at sportsbooks across the country. Who might be the college basketball pick this season to follow in the Wolfpack’s footsteps?
