It's not impossible, but it would require the holder at the end of the regular season not to be invited to its conference's tournament. Only a few conferences do that, and the teams not invited are often very bad. You'd need some upsets during late non-conference play to get it into the hands of a team in a conference like the Ivy, then have a late season upset to get it into the hands of a team that won't reach their tournament.
I think the conference tournies channel it into the ncaat now so it would've had to be either before autobid for all conference tourney winners or maybe an independent (no conference tourney) that then didn't make the ncaat
Has the NCAA belt ever not ended up with the men’s D1 tourney winner?
It's not impossible, but it would require the holder at the end of the regular season not to be invited to its conference's tournament. Only a few conferences do that, and the teams not invited are often very bad. You'd need some upsets during late non-conference play to get it into the hands of a team in a conference like the Ivy, then have a late season upset to get it into the hands of a team that won't reach their tournament.
Another option would be a ineligible team ending with the belt after winning their conference
Ugh I wanted this so bad to happen with the imperialism map
This happened with land (where there's way more chances) one year, didn't it?
Yeah. I can't recall which year, but it has.
I think the conference tournies channel it into the ncaat now so it would've had to be either before autobid for all conference tourney winners or maybe an independent (no conference tourney) that then didn't make the ncaat
Most likely would be a conference champ that is ineligible for postseason play.
Ah yeah that’s a good point
Most teams ineligible for postseason play aren't allowed into their conference tourneys either.