America East Conference men’s basketball coaches believed that teams should be rewarded for their performance during a 16-game regular season.
They finally got their wish.
The America East Men’s Basketball Championship gets under way Wednesday at four sites as the league implements a new postseason format.
This season, America East is using a home-court format for all three rounds of the eight-team tournament. The top four teams in the regular-season standings each earned a quarterfinal round playoff game.
The winners will then be re-seeded, with the two highest seeds earning a semifinal home contest. The remaining highest seed between the final two secures the right to play the conference championship game on its home court.
The title game is scheduled to be played in front of a national television audience on ESPN2 on Saturday, March 14.
The matchups for Wednesday’s quarterfinals, which all begin at 7 p.m., are No. 8 Maine at No. 1 Albany, No. 7 UMBC at No. 2 Vermont, No. 6 Binghamton at No. 3 Stony Brook and No. 5 Hartford at No. 4 New Hampshire.
The new format rewards teams that took care of business during the regular season and affords their fans the opportunity to see their teams play locally.
During the last five seasons, America East had held the first round, quarterfinals and semifinals of the men’s and women’s teams concurrently at one site, most recently at Albany.
The men’s championship game then was held on the home court of the highest remaining seed, while the women’s tournament was completed at the single site.
America East men’s coaches had unanimously proposed the change in 2013, and it was subsequently approved by league athletic directors and presidents. The formats also will be in place during the 2015-16 season.
America East last used the higher-seed host format for men’s basketball in 1995.
The rationale for the format change stemmed from the desire of coaches and administrators to protect the teams that have proven themselves during the regular season by giving them the chance to play at home during the postseason. The ultimate goal is to send America East’s best team on to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.
This year, the women have adopted the former men’s format, playing the quarterfinals and semifinals March 7-8 at Binghamton University in Vestal, New York, then contesting the title game on the home court of the highest remaining seed on Friday, March 13.