Bob Huggins says the major conferences should start their own b-ball tournament

[NatiHuskiFan]

I can’t wait for WV to get its come-up on a number of fronts. It’s hard to imagine a less relevant state that thinks higher of itself. It’s a dystopic future in the present.

Wow I couldn’t disagree more. Have you been there more than just passing through? WV is a gorgeous state for anyone who even remotely enjoys the outdoors. I’d give it another go if you have never visited more than journeying through for vacation somewhere else.

 

[BapeKidd88]

At this point this is starting to sound inevitable. They’re gonna effe up one of the great sports rites of spring. Unbelievable.

Agree.

It is inevitable the P5 will break away.

The Big 12 currently have 3 teams in the Top 8, with Baylor looking to repeat.

 

[Hondo 77]

There are only two ways to make that work:
1. Everyone participates like the Indiana /Ky HS tourney
I ran some models the other day and although less compelling
its doable.
2. The definition of major Conference is expanded for BB
Anything else would be a disaster.
However Penn State , BC, Rutgers ,or even Syracuse representing the entire NE is problematic.
An invitation 16, even 32 team type tournament with a 64 teams pool is simply unappealing.
Let’s be real here the NCAA has created the second best and most lucrative tournament in the world ,the best annual tournament. Killing the goose that lays the Golden eggs is insanity.
If you want more money that’s simple , just eliminate the General Academic Distribution. That doubles the money for participating conferences.
Increasing the Value of the Earned units which overwhelmingly go to power conferences.
If you really want to be nasty stop supporting all National Championships that are not Div1 .
I wonder what would happen if you stop funding any D2 women’s
tournament.

It's a money grab. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Hondo 77]

I can’t wait for WV to get its come-up on a number of fronts. It’s hard to imagine a less relevant state that thinks higher of itself. It’s a dystopic future in the present.

Entire towns where everybody has the same last name.

 

[freescooter]

I think the likely scenario is football eventually breaks away from the NCAA, but basketball stays. I don’t think P4 presidents would be in favor of blowing up March Madness like that…something that big would find it’s way into national politics. Way too messy to even think about trying it

Honestly, it depends on one thing. Money. If they can get a media deal that guarantees them more money, they will take more money. If that means a 2 team tournament, so be it. If it means they pick the champ out of a hat, well, they’ll get a hat. The NCAA tournament was nice while it lasted. But we have this cool hat with an ESPN logo.
The P5 have shown their willingness to end all sorts of things in pursuit of an extra buck. Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry going back to 1921? Not important. Texas-A&M played every year since 1888. Nah! You really think they care about tradition? Their motto is The only principal that matters is that upon which interest is paid.

 

[freescooter]

The Huggins tournament isn't happening. If it did, we would be in and so would Villanova, Georgetown, Memphis, Gonzaga, etc.

Maybe. I doubt it honestly. Unless we got some form of affiliation with a P5 league. Maybe us, Villanova as hoop affiliates of the ACC, the Zags with the PAC. I kind of suspect the B12 is in though. They will have good enough football and top flight basketbal.

 

[upstater]

While I think Huggins is absolutely right that football is free-riding on the NCAA tournament, there are bad implications for what Huggins is saying. Football makes all this revenue but the NCAA can't use it to run championships for non-revenue sports. The NCAA relies on basketball for that, so basketball subsidizes the championships of all other sports. That may be fine at the end of the day, but it increases the importance of football relative to basketball at individual schools. So Huggins is right.

Huggins' plan would actually benefit UConn.

That being said, it would absolutely demolish non-revenue sports. I'm not sure Huggins cares.

 

[MU in MKE]

Huggins tells us everything we need to know about his point of view when he said: "Those Cinderella schools are putting 200 people, at best, in their gym," Huggins said. "We're putting 14,000."

He demonstrates that he has no idea what drives the casual or non-fan to the tournament. Big schools draw the fans to seats and viewership during the year, but come tournament time you get way more viewership from casual fans and people who don't follow college BB at all. A major conference program may not care about a small program losing out during the year, but they'll see the real consequences come tournament time.

Once again though, this shows how FB $$ is ruining college athletics and tradition. (his original point of view is how schools don't see the big money from the tournament and basketball often helps pay for FB programs... so they need the revenue).

 

[Jimdish255]

He's literally asking a bunch of greedy fools to join him in a suicide pact. And some probably will. Remember this next time anyone asks his opinion on anything. What a dope!

 

[bendm]

We will be included, but it won't happen anyway.

if the idea is to consolidate as much power and money as possible i will be SWEATING it out as a BE fan if this gains traction.

w/ the additions of houston, cincy, ucf there are 68 P5 teams. they could hold a self contained 64 team tourney including the first 4 play in games, without the BE. that way everyone makes it and gets a split of the revenue.

being included would be much more beneficial for the BE than for the rest of the P5 and since when has the p5 ever been voluntarily inclusive?

if the p5 break away for football, and are contemplating the same for bball, why wouldnt they just break away from the ncaa completely for all sports? besides march madness as we know it, the only noticeable change would be OOC schedules comprised completely of other p5 schools and that's actually way better for their fans to watch than a bunch of cupcakes....

 

[John Greene]

People love the NCAA Tournament in the early rounds due to the Cinderella stories. Mercer beating Duke, Norfolk St. beating Missouri, Hampton beating Iowa St., Lehigh beating Duke, Richmond beating Syracuse, Vermont beating Syracuse, UMBC beating Virginia. Stephen F. Austin beating Huggins WVU. College basketball is not like college football as the little guys can beat the big guys. And, I don't see how you could exclude schools from every state. Politicians would go nuts.

Politicians in a few states might 'go nuts' but most will not care. If you look at a map the only states that do not have a school in the current P5 conferences are New England (except for MA) Delaware, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico. That's not even enough Senators to hold a filibuster never mind raise any serious objections. In the House it would be even less of an issue since the 'out' States don't have a lot of House seats.

 

[Scoe]

If I were the coach of a high mid major team I would run up the score on WVU and full court press them after those comments.

 

[KembaKek]

People love the NCAA Tournament in the early rounds due to the Cinderella stories. Mercer beating Duke, Norfolk St. beating Missouri, Hampton beating Iowa St., Lehigh beating Duke, Richmond beating Syracuse, Vermont beating Syracuse, UMBC beating Virginia. Stephen F. Austin beating Huggins WVU. College basketball is not like college football as the little guys can beat the big guys. And, I don't see how you could exclude schools from every state. Politicians would go nuts.

2006 Elite 8

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Honestly, it depends on one thing. Money. If they can get a media deal that guarantees them more money, they will take more money. If that means a 2 team tournament, so be it. If it means they pick the champ out of a hat, well, they’ll get a hat. The NCAA tournament was nice while it lasted. But we have this cool hat with an ESPN logo.
The P5 have shown their willingness to end all sorts of things in pursuit of an extra buck. Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry going back to 1921? Not important. Texas-A&M played every year since 1888. Nah! You really think they care about tradition? Their motto is The only principal that matters is that upon which interest is paid.

I agree with Huggins that men’s basketball pays for everything including ironically the FCS and other football playoff where football keeps the money 3/4 to P5 1/4 to G5 and Indy’s.
His solution is somewhat unclear.
I don’t agree on limiting the the tourney. Minor conference usually end up with a pittance and add immensely to the fun.
If the goal is to increase basketball payouts the solution is much simpler
1. Eliminate the general distribution
Which accounts for 50% of the revenue. Adding that money to the conference participants.
2. Get football to share in financing non revenue championships and administrative costs.
BB revenue is $800,000,000 while football is half that number.
That keeps the vast majority of the money in Div 1 basketball. Yet still finances all the non revenue championships.
That makes BB a lot more attractive disproportionately to Basketball only conferences ,G5 and most Indy’s. because of their crappy media deals helping stressed budgets.
I suspect the NCAA might lose membership but at 1200-1300 schools with little in common maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Not financing non revenue NCAA championships is a non starter.
The legal ramifications are mind boggling.

 

[Ha Who]

if the idea is to consolidate as much power and money as possible i will be SWEATING it out as a BE fan if this gains traction.

w/ the additions of houston, cincy, ucf there are 68 P5 teams. they could hold a self contained 64 team tourney including the first 4 play in games, without the BE. that way everyone makes it and gets a split of the revenue.

being included would be much more beneficial for the BE than for the rest of the P5 and since when has the p5 ever been voluntarily inclusive?

if the p5 break away for football, and are contemplating the same for bball, why wouldnt they just break away from the ncaa completely for all sports? besides march madness as we know it, the only noticeable change would be OOC schedules comprised completely of other p5 schools and that's actually way better for their fans to watch than a bunch of cupcakes....

http://nec-commission.com/app/uploads/2018/04/NEC-American-Economy-Final.pdf

 

[superjohn]

Is he positive that the Big 12 is still going to be considered a major conference?

Seems like the others didn’t think so when they excluded them from their lil alliance.

Huggins is a moron, really good basketball coach but a moron.

 

[superjohn]

Wow I couldn’t disagree more. Have you been there more than just passing through? WV is a gorgeous state for anyone who even remotely enjoys the outdoors. I’d give it another go if you have never visited more than journeying through for vacation somewhere else.

It's naturally beautiful but a bleak place for it's residents, all it's indicators tell you that. One of my best friend's started working for their state gov't after years working for CT. state gov't. It's a desperately poor state.

 

[Slick]

Most people don’t understand where the money goes. The NCAA basketball tournament funds all of the NCAA championships in all sports. And, money goes to D2 and D3 schools as well. If the P5 grabbed the all the money, they would then need to at least fund and manage all of the college sports championships.

As for the payoffs to schools currently, most goes to the major conferences based on tournament bids and success.

I just don’t see how or why they would change the tournament.

I think it is easy to see why the P 5 would want change. They don't care about the NCAA giving money for sports to Division 2 and Division 3 schools. They can keep all the revenue themselves from their own Basketball Tourneys.
You would have basically club sports or intramural sports all all Division 2 and Division 3 and most of the non P 5 would have to go the same route.
Even though the revenue would be less then it is from the current NCAA Tourney the money would be divided among 40 or 50 schools which would be a windfall for them.

 

[SouthBayHusky]

IMO I seriously doubt Huggins proposal ever takes place. The current model is worth much more to media companies than a glorified 5-6 conference tournament of same teams year in and out. The average/casual fan drives the value in the current model and will not tune in at same levels when talking about same teams every year. Further, so much of media hype is driven by Cinderella stories to cheer thru your brackets, not to mention the alumni of ALL of the other conferences adds up.

 

[shizzle787]

College football is an elitist sport, and college basketball is a populist sport. If anything, going to a 12-team CFP is leaning more in the populist direction for college football too now.

 

[bendm]

http://nec-commission.com/app/uploads/2018/04/NEC-American-Economy-Final.pdf

?

 

[Ha Who]

?

Read it at your leisure

 

[CL82]

Then that would mean that the Big East and the SEC aren't major conferences either. But of course that's not true:

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips: 'We need the Big 12'

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips stated the newly formed ACC, Big Ten and PAC-12 Alliance "want & need the Big 12 to do well."

www.on3.com

ACC: "We want and need the Big 12 to do well, just not too well".

 

[BapeKidd88]

This is why the P5 should have always been the goal.

Anything less than P5 is irrelevant. (the P5 will leave)