Conference tournaments

For those of us who can't wait the three weeks until Selection Sunday, well, we've got those pesky conference tournaments to tide us over. Eight conferences ended their regular seasons today and now head into the single-elimination free-for-all that will determine who represents that conference in the NCAA tournament.

Some people hate the conference tournaments, as in all but a few cases, they can virtually negate the regular season (say, when some 11-18 team wins three games in three days to steal an NCAA bid from the regular season champ.) Even the "power" conferences sometimes have a team that would not otherwise be an NCAA team win out to snatch an NCAA bid, often from one of that conference's own members.