ORONO, Maine — Had a play-in game between the Nos. 8 and 9 teams in America East men’s basketball teams been required last winter, it would have matched the University of Maine against Binghamton University.
That contest wasn’t needed since only eight AE teams were eligible for postseason competition with the University of Massachusetts Lowell completing its transition period from NCAA Division II to Division I.
That changes next winter when the River Hawks become eligible for the America East tournament. But even with a ninth contending team conference the league’s athletic directors recently voted unanimously not to hold an 8-9 play-in game and instead leave the event as an eight-team, three-round effort to determine the conference’s NCAA automatic bid.
That vote to omit the last-place team from the tournament came at the recommendation of the league’s coaches.
“We all looked at it as what’s best for the league,” said UMaine coach Bob Walsh. “I think the initial response as a coach is, ‘I don’t want there to be a chance that I don’t make the league tournament because then that’s a disaster,’ that sort of self-protection.
“But ultimately for the league the 8-9 game is only good for the one team that wins that game. It’s really not good in any other aspect.”
UMaine finished eighth in two of the previous three seasons, including last winter.
Walsh said the topic first came up two years ago, when in an informal vote of America East coaches he was lone voice against having an 8-9 game.
“Last year we talked about it again and it was about 50-50, and this year we were all in favor of not having it,” he said.
Coaches cited the impact of the extra round of postseason play that comes with the play-in game on both the conference’s postseason and regular-season schedules, as well as the logistics of having the 8-9 winner having to travel to the No. 1 seed for a quarterfinal just two days later.
“It’s not like a team puts itself in a great situation if you finish ninth but win a play-in game so then you had a good year,” Walsh said.
There are exceptions.
Holy Cross two years ago entered the Patriot League tournament as the ninth seed with a 5-13 conference record only to win four consecutive road games in eight days to capture the conference tournament and qualify for the NCAA tournament.
“I would argue that’s still not good for the league,” Walsh said. “That’s good for Holy Cross but not good for the league.”
America East athletic directors also voted to change the schedule for its men’s basketball tournament to allow for both the quarterfinals and championship game to be played on Saturdays in order to enhance the event’s exposure.
Last season, the AE quarterfinals were played on a Wednesday with the semifinals the following Monday before the title game was held at its customary time at 11 a.m. on the final Saturday before the NCAA tournament begins.
The new format will allow the tournament to be played within an eight-day window compared to 11 days in 2016.
“There was a lot of sentiment to condense our tournament and to make it more relevant,” said Walsh, whose team is expected to open its Division I regular-season schedule this fall with road tests at Boston College and Texas Tech.
“We were playing on weeknights, and there were coaches in the room saying they got text messages from friends wishing them good luck in the conference tournament and they had already lost. People didn’t know our tournament was going on.”
The final games of the 2017-2018 America East men’s basketball regular season will be played Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The conference quarterfinals will be held Saturday, March 3, followed by the semifinals on Tuesday, March 6, and the championship game on Saturday, March 10.
“The coaches felt that the playoff format has been really positive for the conference and that these adjustments will only make it better,” said Binghamton men’s basketball head coach and coaches’ chair Tommy Dempsey in a press release.
