With the Mountain West now consisting of 11 basketball programs (because Hawaii is a football only member). The annual Mountain West Tournament needed to be reformatted to accommodate 11 teams instead of 9. The Mountain West has decided on a new format and gone is the #8/#9 “pig tail” game which saw the winner take on the #1 seed in the first proper round. The new format will see the top 5 teams receiving a first round bye with the bottom 6 teams playing each other for both the men and women. The new format is as follows:
First Round
# 8 vs # 9
# 7 vs # 10
# 6 vs # 11
Second Round
# 1 vs # 8/9 winner
# 2 vs # 7/10 winner
# 3 vs # 6/11 winner
# 4 vs # 5
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I like this new format and it should provide for an entertaining tournament. It rewards the top 5 teams for regular season success by giving them a bye while allowing every team in the conference a chance to come to Vegas and compete. Now the only thing left to “fix” the tournament would be to move it to another arena so UNLV no longer has the luxury of playing these all important games on their home floor.
Here is the official bracket with dates game times if you want to get a jump on planning your trip to Las Vegas: 2014 MWC Bracket
What do you think WyoNation, do you like this new format?