Are Outright Titles Better Than 1 Seeds From Tiebreakers?

[EvanJ]

Jerry Beach wrote that we have never clinched an outright regular season title at home. Our first CAA 1 seed in 2016 came from winning at home and winning a tiebreaker over UNCW. I think all 1 seeds should be equal. If an NFL division is determined by a tiebreaker, nobody calls the second place team a co-division winner, and the first place team's playoff seed is not affected by winning their division by a tiebreaker. Why should NCAA conferences be different and give a lesser title to a 1 seed from a tiebreaker?

[Wags]

Jerry Beach wrote that we have never clinched an outright regular season title at home. Our first CAA 1 seed in 2016 came from winning at home and winning a tiebreaker over UNCW. I think all 1 seeds should be equal. If an NFL division is determined by a tiebreaker, nobody calls the second place team a co-division winner, and the first place team's playoff seed is not affected by winning their division by a tiebreaker. Why should NCAA conferences be different and give a lesser title to a 1 seed from a tiebreaker?

The 1 seed will get the automatic berth in the NIT regardless of whether that seed was gained via an outright title or a shared title, so I think the NCAA does value it the same either way. I think it's not about penalizing the 1 seed for not winning outright but rather it's more from the perspective of the 2 seed, that they don't want to take away a co-regular season title from that seed for achieving the same regular-season record as the 1 seed. You make a great argument about the NFL not calling the second-place team a co-division winner, so much so, that I'm thinking that maybe college hoops should follow the same. But I'm guessing the reason they don't is to allow as many schools as possible to call themselves a regular-season champion if they have the best record in the conference regardless of what seed they are. In terms of that, I think it always feels a little better if you can call yourself an outright champ of the conference rather than a co-champ. So, it's pretty cool that Hofstra (with at least one more win or a W&M loss this week) will be able to do that in back-to-back years. That's hard to do no matter what league you're in, especially when you lose a two-time POY, NBA draftee.