This is the format for basketball in C-USA.
Men's Basketball Format
CONFERENCE USA MEN'S BASKETBALL FORMAT FOR 2019-20
2019-20 Teams (14):
Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Rice, Southern Miss, UAB, UTEP, UTSA and WKU
Divisions:
One
Scheduling Format:
Teams play 12 members once and their travel partner twice. Following the initial 14 games, teams will be grouped based on their finish and scheduled against four conference opponents in the final three weeks of the season for an 18-game schedule. Potential dates during group play are to be determined.
2020 Championship:
March 11-14, Frisco, Texas (The Ford Center)
Championship Format:
The top 12 teams qualify for the single-elimination tournament with the top four teams as seeded by regular season standings receiving a bye. The winner will gain the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
Please correct me if I am wrong. As of today, we are #13 out of 14. So, in "Bonus Play" we on the 22nd of February play Rice. Then, on March 1 we play Southern Miss. On the 4th we play Middle Tennessee. On the 7th we play Rice again. During that period, other teams are playing and the standings or rankings in C-USA are subject to change, right? By the time the times have finished the round of games above UTEP could have risen substantially in the standings, right?
So, when the conference tournament begins on the 11th with the top 12 teams playing a single elimination tournament, UTEP could by that time have gone from 13th where they are now, to maybe 10th or something and with a run of wins become the conference tournament champion. Right? I guess the term Bonus Play is what is bothering me. Why is it a Bonus if it is just an extension of conference play? If Bonus means UTEP still has a chance at playing for the conference tournament championship, that is an entirely different matter, in which our 13th place finish before "Bonus Play" was a rather stupid artificial end of regular play, since "Bonus Play" was still a full slate of games left to play.
It seems to me that we still are in the hunt for a conference championship, and so it isn't over until its over. No one in C-USA is worth spit on any given day. UTEP loses games by a bunch when they shouldn't and UTEP wins games when you think there is no way. I know, it is a long shot for them to win the tournament, but in the crazy, no sense world of C-USA and in particular, UTEP basketball, anything is possible. We could easily lose the "Bonus" games and finish last, but we could almost just as easily win a few and get into the tournament, where the other teams aren't exactly dominating. Especially when you consider the games will be on a neutral court. Throw Home Court advantage out the window and the crap shoot that is C-USA basketball games becomes even more so. Go Miners!
Trust the process.
