NCAA Tournament Field

[grahoben]

Just started playing the demo and really enjoying the new game so far! I know you couldn't do this in prior years, but just thought I would ask - in this version is there a way to manually edit who gets selected to play in the NCAA/NIT at the end of the season? Or if not within the game, would there be an easy way to do this with a database editor?

[Gary Gorski]

No there is not a way to change that.

[ECHood]

Do you ever foresee a time when this might be possible? Right now we can create a Tournament Maker tournament, but will it ever be possible to integrate with the actual game so as to avoid the intra-conference matchups in the first/second rounds? The user as Selection Committee - would be amazing!

And how fun would it be for a multiplayer league to convene an NCAA Selection Committee offline made up of league members, that the commissioner could then input the tournament matchups manually?

[Gary Gorski]

I don't know about selecting teams especially in the challenge mode because you could just swap your team into the tournament when it does not deserve it and therefore possibly save your job or whatever. Maybe I would allow you to swap teams who are the same seed or something but even with that you could organize the tournament to try and give your team an advantage.

[ECHood]

I appreciate that thought. Maybe it's a Sandbox mode feature, or maybe you severely limit the teams that can be picked as an at-large bid, like just the Bubble Watch teams, or even less. Maybe in single player the user's program is locked into whatever seed/region the AI determines and you can't change it (including locking the user into the NIT or CBI if they don't deserve an invite to the Big Dance). Or like you said just allowing for seed swaps feels like a happy medium. It would be pretty hard to know you were getting an advantage if you were just changing an 11 seed to another 11 seed or whatever.

Related to postseason tournaments, has there ever been a thought to making the NIT games home/away instead of neutral, like in real life (except for the semis and finals)? The top high-major programs usually end up hosting NIT games for as long as they stay alive, then who hosts might be determined by seed or by arena availability and/or capacity.

[grahoben]

I agree with ECHood. I understand not including this in challenge mode, but I only really play in sandbox mode anyway and would love to have this as an option.

[RGSchulzy16]

We really need a fix. The bracketing sucks more than ever this year. Just in my first season
First round conference matchups in the ncaa tournament
Baylor/Iowa State
Pittsburgh/Duke
UCLA/USC

Second round matchups that also break bracketing rules included SEC and Big Ten teams meeting other teams from within their own conference

Sadly it just takes fun out of the game when it’s so far from realistic. The 2nd round ones don’t bother me much we’ve seen it on occasion. But first round is quite poor and frustrating

[grahoben]

I get it, because the real-life bracketing rules are complex and I’m sure it’s hard to put all that in the game. That’s why I’d just love to be able to manually edit the field, not only to avoid conference matchups but I also just have fun doing my own bracketology in my saves.

One other nitpick that’s not major, but I’d also like to make manual edits to the CBI and CIT since in real life power conference schools rarely if ever play in these tournaments.

[ECHood]

One other nitpick that’s not major, but I’d also like to make manual edits to the CBI and CIT since in real life power conference schools rarely if ever play in these tournaments.

Did they even have a CIT tournament this year? Last year it was renamed The Basketball Classic and I can't find anything on it. Looks like there's no real life third tournament right now.

I'd also like to see the NIT bracket reflect the real-life NIT as much as possible. Mainly this means home and away games for all except the semifinals, but also there should be a hosting rule, perhaps the higher seed remaining always hosts and the tournament has four regions of eight teams seeded 1-8. Though in real life it's more complicated and usually has to do with arena availability. And power conference schools tend to get the higher seeds in the NIT.

Would love Tournament Maker templates based on the 68-team NCAA field, with play-in games, and also NIT, CBI and CIT templates. The NIT would be four regions of 8 teams each. All home/away games until the semis and finals, which would be neutral. The CBI would be one 16-team neutral tournament like it is now in the game. The CIT would be... um, I dunno. Historically it has been a home/away tournament all the way through to the title game but that changed during covid. But it should also be four regions of eight.

On a note related to the thread's main topic, I've been thinking about Gary's concern that players would game the system for their own benefit if they had the ability to edit the field. If it's a single-player experience, what really is wrong with letting us break things once in awhile? It's our own single-player world, and no one else will see it or know or care if we get a little goofy with it. Now that being said, I absolutely won't mess with the integrity of my seasons in this scenario. I just love the bracketology aspect of college basketball and would try to make tournaments that match the real world, and I think there are a lot of people who play the game who would do the same.

[grahoben]

The CIT didn’t happen this year, I’m not sure if that’s a one-time thing or if it’s going away for good