The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference officially announced that the format of their conference tournament will change.
Starting in 2016 the top two seeds will play their quarterfinal game on Friday night and, should they advance, receive a day off prior to playing again on Sunday night. At the conference’s coaches meetings in June, the league approved this measure.
“The vote for the revised format was 9-1-1, with Manhattan opposed and Quinnipiac abstaining,” MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said in a statement. The proposition was then taken to the Times Union Center, which will host the next two tournaments, who approved the measure.
The changes to the format will mean that every day will feature a men’s and women’s session. During the last two MAAC tournaments, the women’s quarterfinals were played on Friday and men’s quarterfinals were played on Saturday.
Since adding Monmouth and Quinnipiac, this will be the first revision to the tournament’s format with 11 teams. The last time the format changed was in 2007, when the MAAC rescinded a double-bye from the conference’s regular season champion.
The top seed has won just three times since the format change, with Siena the only school to win in their run from 2008-10. Only two of the last five regular season champions have played their way to the championship game, both being the Iona Gaels of the last two seasons.
Ryan Restivo wrote the America East conference preview for the 2014-15 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference among others for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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