03-12-2012, 09:56 AM
If UW beat OSU then they would have been in. If the conference champ is so weak that they can't just destroy a terrible 8 seed, then they should not get in. UW was not thought to be a lock, so going in to the event they should have known they needed to win at least one game. With that motivation in play they still lost, and I don't think many were crying over UWs lack of an invite. IMO - C.a.l was lucky it beat Stanford because without that win they would have been NIT bound too.
Also Stanford, Colorado, UofA and UCLA all played in February with an understanding that they were trying to fix things for a strong run in the Pac-12 tournament. That at least gave the fans of those programs something to track in February. Take away the tournament auto bid and only C.a.l and UW would have been playing for anything since early February. That would have been bad news for all of the Pac-12's TV games. Not that anyone actually watched those games, but in theory it would have made the ratings situation worse.
Also Stanford, Colorado, UofA and UCLA all played in February with an understanding that they were trying to fix things for a strong run in the Pac-12 tournament. That at least gave the fans of those programs something to track in February. Take away the tournament auto bid and only C.a.l and UW would have been playing for anything since early February. That would have been bad news for all of the Pac-12's TV games. Not that anyone actually watched those games, but in theory it would have made the ratings situation worse.