I respect you JBaker, but this post has some glaring holes. First, if you want to consider the tournament winner the conference champion, so be it, I really dont care, but being the #1 seed of the tournament is a bigger accomplishment than winning it.
Since you brought football into the equation, Who won the Pac 10, Big 11, & Big Least conferences last year? And how did they do so?
How does the Ivy league determine its champion?
Those organizations don't end their season with a playoff.
Anything that ends in a playoff... the winner is the winner of the playoff.