Tom B.
10-06-2015, 11:57 AM
Just finished reading Al's latest article for the DBR, and this snippet caught my eye:
Clemson has had a few notable accomplishments. In 1939, the Tigers won an improbable Southern Conference championship. It was improbable because Clemson shouldn’t have been in the field. In every other season between 1932 and 1953, the Southern Conference limited its tournament field to the top eight teams in the league. For some reason I have not been able to discover, in 1939 the league experimented with an 11-team field. Clemson was one of the three extra teams. The Tigers – led by two-sport All-American Banks McFadden – upset North Carolina in the first round, then knocked off Wake Forest, Davidson and Maryland to win the title.
Like Al, I have no definitive knowledge as to why the SoCon used an 11-team tournament field in 1939. But I can speculate.
At the time (as Al pointed out), the SoCon took the top eight teams for its conference tournament. (Before 1932, the SoCon actually had a 16-team tournament, when the conference was a 23-school behemoth that included several of the modern-day SEC programs.) The problem was that the programs in the league played highly unbalanced schedules -- way more unbalanced than the current ACC. The 1938-39 SoCon -- like the current ACC -- was a 15-team league. And like the current ACC, there was no double round-robin. Unlike the current ACC, the member programs didn't even play the same number of conference games each season.
In the 1938-39 season, Wake Forest (the regular season "champion") played 18 conference games, finishing with a record of 15-3. The remaining league programs all played somewhere between 10 and 16 conference games. The final conference W/L records looked like this:
Team
Record
Wake Forest
15-3
Maryland
8-3
Washington & Lee
8-3
The Citadel
7-3
Davidson
9-7
North Carolina
8-7
N.C. State
7-6
Duke
8-8
Clemson
6-6
VMI
6-6
U. of Richmond
5-5
William & Mary
4-9
South Carolina
2-8
Virginia Tech
2-10
Furman
0-10
Right away, you see the problem if you're trying to pick the top eight teams. You've got seven teams above .500, then four teams at .500, but with different numbers of conference games and wins. Duke played 16 conference games, Clemson and VMI played 12, and Richmond played 10. So who gets the eighth spot?
It looks like the league decided that the fairest result was to let all four .500 teams into the conference tournament, and have an 11-team field. The top five teams -- Wake Forest, Maryland, Washington & Lee, Davidson, and The Citadel -- all got byes to the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals. The remaining six teams -- Clemson, UNC, Richmond, VMI, N.C. State, and Duke -- all played in the first round, with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals.
Like I said, I have no definitive information to confirm that this was the SoCon's rationale, but it seems to make sense. It gets a little weird, though, because the very next year, there was another tie for eighth place in the SoCon standings -- The Citadel and William & Mary both finished 6-5 in conference play. But rather than use a nine-team field for the conference tournament, the SoCon only took eight. The Citadel played in the SoCon Tournament, while William & Mary was left out. What makes it even stranger is the fact that William & Mary had the better overall record -- they were 12-11 overall, while the Citadel was 8-9. I don't have any information that would shed light on how the conference broke that tie or why they chose The Citadel over William & Mary, but that's what they did.
There was another tie for eighth place in the SoCon in 1948. It was a three-way tie, with Wake Forest, William & Mary, and South Carolina all finishing 8-7 in conference play. That year, the conference used a ten-team tournament field and let all three eighth-place teams play. The top six teams got byes to the quarterfinals, while the seventh-place team (Duke) and the three eighth-place teams had to play first round games.
Clemson has had a few notable accomplishments. In 1939, the Tigers won an improbable Southern Conference championship. It was improbable because Clemson shouldn’t have been in the field. In every other season between 1932 and 1953, the Southern Conference limited its tournament field to the top eight teams in the league. For some reason I have not been able to discover, in 1939 the league experimented with an 11-team field. Clemson was one of the three extra teams. The Tigers – led by two-sport All-American Banks McFadden – upset North Carolina in the first round, then knocked off Wake Forest, Davidson and Maryland to win the title.
Like Al, I have no definitive knowledge as to why the SoCon used an 11-team tournament field in 1939. But I can speculate.
At the time (as Al pointed out), the SoCon took the top eight teams for its conference tournament. (Before 1932, the SoCon actually had a 16-team tournament, when the conference was a 23-school behemoth that included several of the modern-day SEC programs.) The problem was that the programs in the league played highly unbalanced schedules -- way more unbalanced than the current ACC. The 1938-39 SoCon -- like the current ACC -- was a 15-team league. And like the current ACC, there was no double round-robin. Unlike the current ACC, the member programs didn't even play the same number of conference games each season.
In the 1938-39 season, Wake Forest (the regular season "champion") played 18 conference games, finishing with a record of 15-3. The remaining league programs all played somewhere between 10 and 16 conference games. The final conference W/L records looked like this:
Team
Record
Wake Forest
15-3
Maryland
8-3
Washington & Lee
8-3
The Citadel
7-3
Davidson
9-7
North Carolina
8-7
N.C. State
7-6
Duke
8-8
Clemson
6-6
VMI
6-6
U. of Richmond
5-5
William & Mary
4-9
South Carolina
2-8
Virginia Tech
2-10
Furman
0-10
Right away, you see the problem if you're trying to pick the top eight teams. You've got seven teams above .500, then four teams at .500, but with different numbers of conference games and wins. Duke played 16 conference games, Clemson and VMI played 12, and Richmond played 10. So who gets the eighth spot?
It looks like the league decided that the fairest result was to let all four .500 teams into the conference tournament, and have an 11-team field. The top five teams -- Wake Forest, Maryland, Washington & Lee, Davidson, and The Citadel -- all got byes to the SoCon Tournament quarterfinals. The remaining six teams -- Clemson, UNC, Richmond, VMI, N.C. State, and Duke -- all played in the first round, with the winners advancing to the quarterfinals.
Like I said, I have no definitive information to confirm that this was the SoCon's rationale, but it seems to make sense. It gets a little weird, though, because the very next year, there was another tie for eighth place in the SoCon standings -- The Citadel and William & Mary both finished 6-5 in conference play. But rather than use a nine-team field for the conference tournament, the SoCon only took eight. The Citadel played in the SoCon Tournament, while William & Mary was left out. What makes it even stranger is the fact that William & Mary had the better overall record -- they were 12-11 overall, while the Citadel was 8-9. I don't have any information that would shed light on how the conference broke that tie or why they chose The Citadel over William & Mary, but that's what they did.
There was another tie for eighth place in the SoCon in 1948. It was a three-way tie, with Wake Forest, William & Mary, and South Carolina all finishing 8-7 in conference play. That year, the conference used a ten-team tournament field and let all three eighth-place teams play. The top six teams got byes to the quarterfinals, while the seventh-place team (Duke) and the three eighth-place teams had to play first round games.