Fox Discussing Post-Season NIT Alternative w/ BE, Big 12, B10 | The Boneyard

Fox Discussing Post-Season NIT Alternative w/ BE, Big 12, B10

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Dooooooomed

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Fox Sports is in negotiations with several power conferences to hold a postseason men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas featuring teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament, multiple sources told The Messenger.

Discussions are ongoing, but the current vision is for the event to include 16 teams that would play at T-Mobile Arena during the final week of March following the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight games. If the tournament happens, Fox plans to encourage its corporate partners to set up Name, Image and Likeness deals for players who are competing; the network will not be able to pay players directly due to NCAA rules.

Under terms of the proposed arrangement, the top 16 teams in the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament — as ranked by the NET — would be required to play in the Fox event even if they are invited to the NIT. Those three leagues have rights deals with Fox.

Fox Proposes New Vegas-Based College Hoops Tournament
 
Dooooooomed said:
Fox Sports is in negotiations with several power conferences to hold a postseason men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas featuring teams that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament, multiple sources told The Messenger.

Discussions are ongoing, but the current vision is for the event to include 16 teams that would play at T-Mobile Arena during the final week of March following the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight games. If the tournament happens, Fox plans to encourage its corporate partners to set up Name, Image and Likeness deals for players who are competing; the network will not be able to pay players directly due to NCAA rules.

Under terms of the proposed arrangement, the top 16 teams in the Big 12, Big East and Big Ten that did not qualify for the NCAA tournament — as ranked by the NET — would be required to play in the Fox event even if they are invited to the NIT. Those three leagues have rights deals with Fox.

Fox Proposes New Vegas-Based College Hoops Tournament
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Well, the newbie isn’t a power conference
 
In practice this sounds great, in reality I'm not sure how interesting it really is. This is what it would have been last season.

1) Rutgers vs N/A
2) Oklahoma State vs 15) Georgetown
3) Ohio State vs 14) Minnesota
4) Michigan vs 13) DePaul
5) Texas Tech vs 12) Butler
6) Oklahoma vs 11) Nebraska
7) Villanova vs 10) St John's
8) Wisconsin vs 9) Seton Hall
 
Who thought bringing the stupid selection dynamics of bowls to college basketball was a good idea? It will destroy the NIT by taking three of the most important conferences out, and none of the teams invited to it, or their fans, will give two deuces about it, because they won't have earned their invitation. If not for the potential NIL consequences, no top players will want anything to do with this.

It also raises the issue of breaking off the top conferences for the NCAA Tournament. That would be catastrophic for college basketball. It would turn a tournament that is almost perfect in every way and is watched by people all over the world, into a basketball version of the Holiday Bowl that no one will give a crap about.
 
This reminds me of the attempt to put together a tournament of all the teams that didn't qualify for 2018 World Cup. It was quickly called the World Crap by fans and never went anywhere.
 
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This is the first step of colleges leaving the NCAA. They’ll test it out in basketball, and with the NIT. Good. The sooner, the better for us.
 
Though situation for the conferences. If they they felt this isnt a good idea how do they tell Fox no?
 
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Rocktheworld said:
This is the first step of colleges leaving the NCAA. They’ll test it out in basketball, and with the NIT. Good. The sooner, the better for us.
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That would destroy college sports. Basketball and football would become like college soccer or baseball. Only hardcore fans would care. You would be able to cut viewership by over 50%, and revenues by over 75%.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
That would destroy college sports. Basketball and football would become like college soccer or baseball. Only hardcore fans would care. You would be able to cut viewership by over 50%, and revenues by over 75%.
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I’m just saying this is a practice run for eventually making their own March Madness and CFP
 
Rocktheworld said:
I’m just saying this is a practice run for eventually making their own March Madness and CFP
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A tournament of Big 12, Big East, and Big 10 losers. I can tell them how it will turn out.
 
superjohn said:
A tournament of Big 12, Big East, and Big 10 losers. I can tell them how it will turn out.
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I can't imagine it'll be any different than the NIT, maybe a ratings bump not exposing yourself up a North Texas UAB final?

I only watch if UConn is playing. After consuming college hoops for like 40 hours Th-Sun there's not much appetite for the consolation tournament.
 
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superjohn said:
A tournament of Big 12, Big East, and Big 10 losers. I can tell them how it will turn out.
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If UConn didn’t make the tournament but were playing a mini tournament with teams from the other two top basketball leagues on a similar level (top 35-41 for a 16-team tournament) and it was happening in Vegas in March, I could take that excuse to visit. Again, it’s a great time to go.

And if I didn’t want to pay to go to Vegas, I would absolutely watch on TV with nothing else going on in March. I feel like I would watch it over the final rounds of the NCAA tournament. Usually by then Cinderella is out, and I never really cared about Cinderella in the first place; I feel like mainly the general public and fans of schools outside the top 75 are those who care about Cinderella.

And once again it’s just a test. If it performs anywhere near as well as the NIT does, then they know they have something, the public isn’t necessarily beholden to NCAA events, and they could consider starting a new March Madness (and a new CFP).
 
This is bad for college basketball, but a good sign for UConn. This is Fox dipping their toe in the waters of eventually breaking away from the NCAAs, but the fact that the Big East is being included in those plans (at least right now) means we're likely to be part of the breakaway assuming we're still in the Big East.
 
Rocktheworld said:
If UConn didn’t make the tournament but were playing a mini tournament with teams from the other two top basketball leagues on a similar level (top 35-41 for a 16-team tournament) and it was happening in Vegas in March, I could take that excuse to visit. Again, it’s a great time to go.
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You would be by yourself. UConn fans wouldn't go watch this if they held it at Gampel.
 
Waquoit said:
You would be by yourself. UConn fans wouldn't go watch this if they held it at Gampel.
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It wouldn’t be North Texas and UAB. It would be Wisconsin, Michigan, OKState, etc.

Maybe I just like Vegas more than most here
 
Waquoit said:
You would be by yourself. UConn fans wouldn't go watch this if they held it at Gampel.
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For reference, the first round NIT game at Gampel in 2015 only had 6000 in attendance. That was gross
 
WrenchFan69 said:
For reference, the first round NIT game at Gampel in 2015 only had 6000 in attendance. That was gross
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Oh wow, what a shock, nobody went to Storrs CT in March, basically the polar opposite of Vegas.

Actually 6k in Gampel should be celebrated lol
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
Who thought bringing the stupid selection dynamics of bowls to college basketball was a good idea? It will destroy the NIT by taking three of the most important conferences out, and none of the teams invited to it, or their fans, will give two deuces about it, because they won't have earned their invitation. If not for the potential NIL consequences, no top players will want anything to do with this.

It also raises the issue of breaking off the top conferences for the NCAA Tournament. That would be catastrophic for college basketball. It would turn a tournament that is almost perfect in every way and is watched by people all over the world, into a basketball version of the Holiday Bowl that no one will give a crap about.
Expand ...
Someone still cares about the NIT? The NIT became pretty much an afterthought when the NCAA expanded to allow more than the conference champ into the Dance. There are teams in the Dance now that would never have been invited to the NIT when it rivaled the NCAA. And that in no way is an endorsement of this uninteresting contraption of a proposal.
 
WrenchFan69 said:
For reference, the first round NIT game at Gampel in 2015 only had 6000 in attendance. That was gross
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That's sad. An NIT run is what propelled this program to the next level. We celebrated that vigorously (and with fire).
 
HuskyHawk said:
That's sad. An NIT run is what propelled this program to the next level. We celebrated that vigorously (and with fire).
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It's not sad, it's the cycle of life. A good NIT run comes usually from a down program having a good year that couldn't quite make the Dance. The NIT coming after an NC year is a bummer.
 
Rocktheworld said:
Oh wow, what a shock, nobody went to Storrs CT in March, basically the polar opposite of Vegas.

Actually 6k in Gampel should be celebrated lol
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It never should be celebrated. Thats small time attendance, even for a preseason game against Marathon Oil. Either we are the Basketball Capital of the world or we aren't. Which way you want it?
 
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