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Streaming Sports Network Canada Username Password Login Games Leagues Teams Venues Hockey Football Basketball Soccer Volleyball Blogs Neates take Regional contact long overdue March 18 2009The wildcard spot many mens basketball followers know and loathe could be going the way of the dodo according to an Ottawa Citizen report The countrys foremost collegiate hoops chronicler Wayne Kondro reported that the CIS sport committee will vote later this year on a plan to beginning in 2011 hold regional tournaments across the country to decide the final three spots at the Final 8 The other spots would go to the four conference champs and whoever is assigned as the host team A national playoff structure which admits there is some variance in the level of competition across the country sounds too good to be true but apparently its coming According to Mr Kondros gumshoeing the 16team OUA would have five spots in regionals The 14team Canada West conference would get four the eightteam Atlantic conference would have two and Quebec would have one This eliminates the wildcard debates which have been very heated and sparked cries of regionalism in the past The beauty of it seems to be that it basically challenges each conference to put up or shut up Its slapyourforehead simple Why didnt I think of that It comes a little late for teams which have been hardpressed to get out of loaded divisions such as coach Mike Katz Toronto Varsity Blues or Craig Beaucamps Victoria Vikes It should do a better job of ensuring the eight teams who arrive at the Final 8 are the most elite eight in the country and avoid the drudgery of last Friday when the average winning margin in the four quarterfinal games 243 points was the highest of this decade by a fair margin Conceivably the host conference could have as many as five teams at nationals One assumes plans are to have three conference runnersup (the Atlantic and Quebec conferences would rotate hosting duties) each stage a fourteam regional on the weekend prior to the Final 8 with at least one team coming in from each of the other two areas of the country The OUA could have two teams play at its regional and send two teams to the East regional Lets suppose that had been in place this season Carleton (host) Calgary Concordia Dalhousie and Western would have had the automatic berths (no the Mustangs didnt win the OUA outright but play along) For arguments sake the regionals would have looked like this West regional Brandon vs Windsor (CW4OUA2) UQAM vs UBC (AQ3CW1) Ontario regional McMaster vs Cape Breton (OUA4AQ2) Victoria vs Ottawa (CW3OUA1) East regional Toronto vs Trinity Western (OUA3 vs CW2) Waterloo vs St Francis Xavier (OUA5 vs AQ1) Apparently regularseason performance will be considered so the committee would have to weigh Ryersons 1210 record in the OUA East vs Waterloo ...