The West Coast Conference Tournament will begin later this week in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the bracket for the event has already been released.
It is one of the most unique, if not the most unique, bracket formats we’ve ever seen. All 10 conference members qualify for the event, with the bottom four seeds meeting in the first round to whittle the field down to eight.
However, once that happens, the tournament does not automatically move on to the quarterfinals. Rather, the winner of the 8-9 seeing matchup plays the No. 5 seed, with the 7-10 winner facing the sixth seed.
Then, the winners of those two games move on to meet the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds. The top two seeds–Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s–still haven’t played at this point.
In fact, the Bulldogs and Gaels each have a bye all the way to the semifinals. That means they only have to win two games to win the tournament.
The #WCCHoops Tournament Bracket! pic.twitter.com/S4PFH4whCX
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) February 27, 2022
As odd as this format is, it kind of makes sense for a low-major conference that is a one-bid league. After all, you want to give the better teams, especially the regular season champion, the best chance to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
However, it’s a little weird to see this in the WCC, where Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s have locked up at-large bids, at worst. In fact, the conference might wind up getting three or four teams in, depending on what happens with San Francisco and BYU.
What do you think? Is the WCC giving its top seeds too much of an advantage here?
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