It's not fair, but it's the norm for some of the nation's non-power leagues. Fight all season. Win the regular season championship. And you still might watch the Big Dance from home. The conference tourneys for these leagues ignite a nice pre-March Madness fire for the rest of us, but it leaves teams like Iona with that unshakable queasiness.
For the past two years, Iona has been the best team in the MAAC. But Manhattan has represented the league in the NCAA tourney in back-to-back seasons. A new format to the league tournament will give the top seeds an extra day between the quarterfinals and semis (top seeds had to win games on three consecutive days to secure the automatic bid with the old format). That switch should please everyone in the MAAC, right?
Well ...