MOSCOW, Idaho -- After a one-year experiment last season, the WAC Tournament's seeding structure has returned to its traditional format this year.
That has left Wolf Pack coach David Carter, whose team opened WAC play Idaho on Thursday, wishing the format used last season was more than a one-year test.
"I wish they would have kept it that way," Carter said of last year's format.
Last season, teams that finished first or second in the WAC during the regular season received double byes into the semifinals.
Teams that finished third or fourth got a bye into the quarterfinals. And teams that finished fifth through eighth had to win four games in four days to win the WAC Tournament title to get the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
This season, the byes have been eliminated. Each team will have to win three games in three nights to win the WAC Tournament.
The first seed will play the eighth seed in a quarterfinal game. The second seed will play the seventh seed. The third seed will play the sixth seed. And four will play five.
Carter said he preferred last year's format, which rewarded excellence during the regular season.
"You get a chance to get a rest if they kept it that way," Carter said. "But we're used to playing three games in a row. It's been like that for a long time. We just switched it one time. So, the format is what it is. The teams that are more physically fit benefit the most from the three games in a row."
Carter said the WAC didn't tell the coaches why the change was made, but he assumed television rights and attendance were the key factors. The tournament, which moved to a neutral site in Las Vegas last year and will be played there again this March, had poor attendance.
WAC commissioner Karl Benson said after last year's tournament that the sagging attendance was a result of the top two teams getting byes until Friday when the tournament started Wednesday. Those two sets of fans bases, typically the strongest in the WAC, didn't arrive at the tournament until it was halfway completed.
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"It's in the best interest to revert to a traditional eight-team bracket with four quarterfinal games," Benson said when announcing the change during the WAC's preseason media teleconference in October.
Benson said he liked the move to the neutral site, but added attendance needs to improve this year for the neutral-site format to continue.
"We made the decision to go to Las Vegas the year previous to accommodate the long-time wishes of coaches (for a neutral site)," Benson said. "A year later, coaches came back with a new format. At the time, I wish I could have said that you can't have both. It was a lesson learned. Going back to this format gives us the best possible chance to make Las Vegas successful so we can return to the site."
Despite winning five WAC regular-season titles during its stint in the conference, the Wolf Pack has struggled in the WAC Tournament. Nevada has won the event only twice: in 2003-04 over UTEP and 2005-06 over Utah State.
Carter said the coaches' support for last year's format was mixed. He was in favor of it, but knew of other coaches who preferred the format that will be used this season.
"It had its benefits," Carter said. "But it is what it is, and you just have to deal with it."
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