I’m taking a break from the coaching search and putting this thread together that is going to dangerously sound a lot like SMF, but I’ll post it anyway and accept any shots coming my way afterwards.
We all love March basketball. How can we make it better?
In my opinion, take the field of 68 back down to 64. Take the last 4 at large bids and put them in the NIT. Syracuse and Jim Boeheim do not belong and have no right having the opportunity to play and lose to Jamie Dixon again. And Jamie Dixon shouldn’t get to play a cupcake and his patsy in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney (or is it the first round!!). He sees enough cupcakes during the year.
Now, no one cares about the NIT but hear me out on this one...
In European soccer, there are two competitions:
-UEFA Champions League—all clubs compete in their domestic leagues and the top finishing teams in their domestic league (England, Spain, Germany, etc) qualify the next season for the Champions League. (Think NCAA Tournament)
-UEFA Europa League— this is a second tier competition comprised of the group of teams that were not good enough to qualify for the Champions League (think NIT)
The cool thing about the Europa League is that the winner automatically qualifies the next season for the Champions League. If the NCAA added this stipulation to the NIT, how much more interesting would this tourney be for us fans? And it would give us basketball on Mondays and tuesdays as we wait for the NCAA tourney games to be played Thursday through Sunday.
Lastly, in the Fall, the Champions League winner and Europa League winner play a match vs each other to kick off the season. The NCAA can have an annual game to kick off its season pitting the NCAA champ and NIT champ from the previous Spring. The game can be played at a neutral site at a smaller venue that they use for the first and seconds rounds of the NCAA. Cities like Pittsburgh can bid for the game (PPG arena), and it can be a cool event for the host city and a cool made for tv event for the NCAA.
In summary, as a fan I want more March basketball. Except I don’t care enough about the NIT. This is a way for the fans to win...and of course it’s more money for the NCAA.
We all love March basketball. How can we make it better?
In my opinion, take the field of 68 back down to 64. Take the last 4 at large bids and put them in the NIT. Syracuse and Jim Boeheim do not belong and have no right having the opportunity to play and lose to Jamie Dixon again. And Jamie Dixon shouldn’t get to play a cupcake and his patsy in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney (or is it the first round!!). He sees enough cupcakes during the year.
Now, no one cares about the NIT but hear me out on this one...
In European soccer, there are two competitions:
-UEFA Champions League—all clubs compete in their domestic leagues and the top finishing teams in their domestic league (England, Spain, Germany, etc) qualify the next season for the Champions League. (Think NCAA Tournament)
-UEFA Europa League— this is a second tier competition comprised of the group of teams that were not good enough to qualify for the Champions League (think NIT)
The cool thing about the Europa League is that the winner automatically qualifies the next season for the Champions League. If the NCAA added this stipulation to the NIT, how much more interesting would this tourney be for us fans? And it would give us basketball on Mondays and tuesdays as we wait for the NCAA tourney games to be played Thursday through Sunday.
Lastly, in the Fall, the Champions League winner and Europa League winner play a match vs each other to kick off the season. The NCAA can have an annual game to kick off its season pitting the NCAA champ and NIT champ from the previous Spring. The game can be played at a neutral site at a smaller venue that they use for the first and seconds rounds of the NCAA. Cities like Pittsburgh can bid for the game (PPG arena), and it can be a cool event for the host city and a cool made for tv event for the NCAA.
In summary, as a fan I want more March basketball. Except I don’t care enough about the NIT. This is a way for the fans to win...and of course it’s more money for the NCAA.
