Holy cow. We're talking 25 years ago. (Save UNLV). Also, was it
even a 64 team tournament at that time. I don't think so.

UNLV on the other hand did make the final four, but not as a BUBBLE
TEAM.

I think that's the key point of my argument.

Once again, the small conference bubble teams that got bids all
sucked wind, and our final was all major conferences.

Back in 2000 we had two (2) Big Conference Bubble Teams, NC and
Wisconsin, that made the final four. Both of these teams barely got
in, and ended up being our Cinderella teams for the tournament.

Somehow, this point is never brought up on ESPN by Dickie V.

Remember the small conference teams that got in last year? Southern
Ill, Dayton, etc. What did they do?

Remember, the goal of the tournament is to establish a champion. The
small conferences don't have bubble teams that are capable of winning
a championship.

To prove my point further Dr. Jerry, what is the lowest ranked small
conference team to make the final four, or elite eight?

UNLV made it, but that was when they were ranked number 1 in the
country.


--- In collegerpi@yahoogroups.com, "Jerry P. Palm" <jppalm@y...>
wrote:
> As a followup, there have only been 24 Final Four (TM) appearances
by
> teams not currently in a major conference, the last of which were
the
> two in 1979, which, ironically, is the Final Four (TM) that really
made
> the tournament a national "event."
>
> Of those 24, five are by teams that no longer play D-I (CCNY, NYU
and
> Seattle) and, except for the 1979 pair, all of the other appearances
> came prior to 1972.
>
> There are also some teams, like UNLV, that made appearances prior to
> joining a major conference. DePaul in 1979 was an independent, as
was
> ND in 1978 and Marquette in 1977, to name a few.
>