i like it. the more i think about it, the more i get po'd by the fact that a team can dominate their regular season and then have a bad game and be out of the dance. totally unfair, but you don't want to lessen the excitement of the conference tourney games. however, there needs to be some sort of exemption for ranked, major conference teams. The conference champion would not have to play the at-large game, so there is still an incentive to win the conference tournament. For lower-level conference teams, it is a HUGE incentive. no, i agree with you that it's more fair for mid-major conference teams, but it's absolutely unfair for ranked, major conference teams that shouldn't have to win a play-in game to get into the tourney.