The Walton Belt (2018-19 edition)

[Neals384]

Don't one or two of the major conferences keep people out still? I know the old Big East did at one point.

No major conferences do that, but quite a few others do:

Conference	Teams	Conference Tournament Invites
America East	9	8
Atlantic Sun	9	8
Big West	9	8
Conference USA	14	12
Horizon	10	8
Ivy	8	4
Northeast	10	8
Ohio valley	12	8
Southland	13	8
Summit	9	8
Sun Belt	12	10
SWAC	10	8
WAC	9	8

Eight of these conferences had at least one team in the kenpom top 100 this past season, so the belt going to there and ending up "retired" is not inconceivable. In fact, it could have happened this past season.

Michigan held the belt when they played UNC on 11/28/19. Michigan won, but suppose UNC had won, and then won their next 4 games (in fact, they lost to UK) before facing Harvard on Jan 2. UNC won that one, but suppose they had lost to Harvard - then the belt would reside in the Ivy for the rest of the regular season. Here's what would have happened next:

On 1/12, Dartmouth beat Harvard
On 1/26, Harvard beat Dartmouth
On 2/9, Cornell beat Harvard
On 2/16, Yale beat Cornell
On 2/23, Harvard beat Yale
On 3/8, Cornell beat Harvard
On 3/9, Cornell beat Dartmouth to complete its season and retire the belt. Cornell finished 7-7 in the Ivy and missed the conference tournament on a tie-breaker.

[pfrduke]

On 3/9, Cornell beat Dartmouth to complete its season and retire the belt. Cornell finished 7-7 in the Ivy and missed the conference tournament on a tie-breaker.

Cornell then played in one of the lower-rank postseason tournaments (CBI, I think, but maybe CIT), and lost to Robert Morris, which lost to Presbyterian, which lost to ultimate tournament winner Marshall. So Marshall would carry the belt in that unlikely scenario. (This happened in the season-wide imperialism map - not all land was consolidated in the NCAA tournament because Cornell held some at the end of the regular seasons, as did Troy, which failed to make the Sun Belt tournament).

[Neals384]

Cornell then played in one of the lower-rank postseason tournaments (CBI, I think, but maybe CIT), and lost to Robert Morris, which lost to Presbyterian, which lost to ultimate tournament winner Marshall. So Marshall would carry the belt in that unlikely scenario. (This happened in the season-wide imperialism map - not all land was consolidated in the NCAA tournament because Cornell held some at the end of the regular seasons, as did Troy, which failed to make the Sun Belt tournament).

Thanks for the correction.

[pfrduke]

Ok, so let's look at split belts - what happens when the NCAA champion did not pick up a belt during the course of the season and is awarded its own. We'll give each one of those belts a year designation and mark when the titles get reunified. The "original" belt in this context refers to the one awarded to CCNY in 1950. These charts end at the point in time when the belts are consolidated; for everything after that, consult the original.

1951 belt, awarded to Kentucky, consolidates with original in 1952 after Kansas beats Kansas State (Kansas took the original from Oklahoma State a little over a week earlier):

1952	Kentucky	Minnesota	Washington	Idaho	Washington	Washington State	Washington	Wyoming	Colorado	Iowa State	(no postseason)
1953	Iowa State	Bradley	Nebraska	Kansas	Kansas State	Kansas

1952 belt, awarded to Kansas, ends up with the 1953 champion (Indiana - so no separate 1953 belt) and consolidates with the original belt early in 1954 when Indiana beats Kansas State (which had ended the prior season holding the original belt with no postseason play):

1953	Kansas	Rice	Colorado State	New Mexico	Wyoming	BYU	Santa Clara	Washington	Kansas	Indiana
1954	Indiana

1954 belt, awarded to La Salle, consolidates with the original in December of the next season after Kentucky takes out Utah

1955

La Salle

Utah

Kentucky

1957 belt, awarded to North Carolina, never changes hands before it consolidates with the original when North Carolina beats Minnesota early in 1958.

1959 belt, awarded to California, ends up with the 1960 and then 1961 champions (so no separate belts for those years), and consolidates with the original belt late in 1962 in Bradley.

1960	California	USC	California	Ohio State
1961	Ohio State	Cincinnati
1962	Cincinnati	Wichita State	Bowling Green	Toledo	Drake	Bradley

1963 belt, awarded to Loyola (IL), finishes the 1964 season with NIT champion Bradley (so 1964 ended with the NCAA and NIT champions each holding separate belts) before consolidating in Indiana in 1965. Interestingly enough, St. Louis separately held the original belt and then the 1963 belt during the 1965 season.

1964

Loyola (IL)

Georgetown

La Salle

Duquesne

Villanova

St. Joseph's

Dayton

Depaul

NYU

Army

Bradley

(NIT)

1965

Bradley

Saint Louis

Indiana

1965 belt, awarded to UCLA, never changes hands before UCLA consolidates it with the original belt with an early season victory over Ohio State.

In 1967, things start to get a little interesting. The 1967 belt is awarded to UCLA. UCLA has one loss in the 1968 season, to Houston, which it avenges in the NCAA tournament, so there is no separate 1968 belt. UCLA also has only one loss in the 1969 season and is the 1969 champion (inheriting the original belt with that championship); however UCLA's one loss is the last game of the regular season to USC, which does not make the postseason, so the belts still do not consolidate. In 1970, the 1967 belt wanders through the West Coast Athletic Conference (now the WCC), ending up in San Francisco, which does not make the postseason. The original belt also ends up with a team out of the postseason (Washington State), so the 1971 season starts with three belts at play - the original (Washington State), 1967 (San Francisco), and 1970 (UCLA) belts. The 1967 belt ends up with UCLA at the end of the year (so there's no separate 1971 belt), but after it lost the 1970 belt to Notre Dame in its only loss of the season. The 1970 belt wanders through the Big Ten after Notre Dame loses it to Indiana, ending the 1971 the season with Northwestern (which, I think it goes without saying, is not in the postseason). It then goes on a big journey in 1972 before Providence takes it from Seton Hall in early March, consolidating it with the original belt and bringing it into the NCAA tournament. Those consolidated belts get to Florida State, which UCLA beats to consolidate them, finally, with the 1967 belt. That win for UCLA finishes off a 30-0 1972 season, featuring sophomore center Bill Walton. Fitting that Walton brings an end to the only triple-Walton belt we've seen.

1967 belt path:

1968	UCLA	Houston	UCLA
1969	UCLA	USC	(no postseason)
1970	USC	Seattle	UC-Santa Barbara	UNLV	Santa Clara	San Francisco	Santa Clara	UNLV	Pacific	San Francisco	(no postseason)
1971	San Francisco	Stanford	BYU	USC	UCLA
1972	UCLA

1970 belt path:

1971

UCLA

Notre Dame

Illinois

Iowa

Indiana

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Michigan State

Northwestern

(no postseason)

1972

Northwestern

Kentucky

Indiana

Ohio

Michigan

Toledo

Ohio

Miami (OH)

Dayton

Niagara

Fairfield

Colgate

Seton Hall

Providence

Will cover the last two split belts (1977, 1979) in a separate post.

[pfrduke]

Last two:

1977 belt, awarded to Marquette, quickly ends up in the SEC and gets passed around from team to team until landing in Kentucky, which consolidates it with the original belt in the national title game (sigh).

1978

Marquette

Louisville

Georgia

Auburn

Tennessee

Mississippi

Vanderbilt

LSU

Florida

Mississippi State

Auburn

Vanderbilt

Mississippi

Kentucky

1979 belt, awarded to Michigan State, briefly ends up with Louisville (ultimate 1980 champion) but doesn't stay there, instead ending the season in the NIT with Virginia. Virginia holds it for 22 straight wins in 1981 before a one-point loss at Notre Dame. The belt then ends up in the NCAA tournament where it consolidated with the original belt in Indiana, the 1981 champion.

1980	Michigan State	St. John's	Tennessee	Louisville	Utah	UNLV	Hawaii	UTEP	Michigan	Virginia	(NIT)
1981	Virginia	Notre Dame	Depaul	St. Joseph's	Indiana

It's been only one, unified belt ever since.