Consider the college basketball conference tournament.

It’s a gathering, an event that's part reunion, part convention, the continuation of a tradition. It builds over several days to an electric championship climax.

Madness, baby.

Except the Conference USA tournament is none of that.

Trust me on this, Old Dominion fans. I realize not many of you have been able to attend the tournament in the three years the Monarchs have been in the league. The first year ODU was eligible for it, the tournament was in El Paso, Texas – 2,000 miles from Norfolk. The last two have been in Birmingham, Ala.

Fine cities, both, and gracious hosts. But last year’s championship final between the Monarchs and Middle Tennessee had all the atmosphere of a summer league game. Played in front of 1,000 fans in a 17,654-seat arena, it was enough to make one nostalgic for the heyday of the Colonial Athletic Association, and the Richmond Coliseum. Say what you will about the place – and ODU fans had plenty of disparaging things to say over the years – when the Monarchs and VCU got together there, the unsightly relic thrummed with a real March vibe.

Is there a better way for C-USA?

Wood Selig believes so. At the league meetings this week, the Old Dominion athletic director plans to float the idea of scrapping the current format, in favor of a tournament played at campus sites.

VIRGINIAN-PILOT: Why not change C-USA tournament format?

I am in favor of home site (seeds 1-4) pods allowing all 14 schools to compete with seeds #1 and #2 getting byes

It's not just Cusa, conference tournaments nationally have been on the slow decline for a few years now.

You mean you didn't believe the attendance listed in the box score, 5,519? It was closer to 19 than to 5,500. I was there. Of course the ridiculous ticket prices may have limited the walk-up sales.

Quote:...the league will hear proposals this week to continue the current format.

He expects UTEP, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss to submit bids.

“At a minimum, we will award next year, and may elect to go as far out as 2018 and 2019,” he said.

Selig’s preference is to call a timeout. Though the league is committed to the current format for 2017, it should stop there and consider creative approaches.

Selig’s idea would limit the tournament to the top eight regular-season finishers. Games would be played on the home court of the higher seeds, possibly on a Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday schedule.

The format would reward regular-season performance, put more fans in seats and likely bring in more revenue, Selig contends. It would also provide a more charged atmosphere for players, make for more compelling TV and project an image of C-USA as a conference where folks care about basketball.

“The tournament experience is not a tournament experience for athletes or fans when you go to a remote location that is modestly supported,” Selig said.

Other leagues have gone this route. The Patriot League tournament is played on campus sites. The Horizon League was played on campus sites from 2003-2015 before the league signed a five-year agreement to play in Detroit.

As for limiting the field to just eight, Selig noted that other C-USA sports already exclude some teams in their postseason tournaments.

“We really need to consider scaling back on men’s and women’s basketball,” he said...

I think he's on the right track. Baseball tournament getting ready to start with only 8 participating teams. My Blue Raiders are going to be sitting at home. They deserved to be. I wouldn't mind all tournaments reduced to the same or even fewer.

I'm ok with this idea.

Things to consider are 1. Is it the conference? Has CUSA always had crappy tournaments? I know its historically been in Memphis and they draw well, but did the other teams show up, and was it a cool event or just a game? 2. Is it the fanbases? I would hope any school within a 6 hour drive would have a thousand fans there when their teams play. 3. Is it the destination? It sounds like Birmingham doesn't exactly roll out the red carpet and make the tourney the talk of the town and the most exciting thing happening. And theres not enough there, or at many proposed sites, to be a vacation destination type draw. 4. Is it the conference part 2? Is CUSA just to spread out for there to be a destination location convenient for at least half the schools to get to? Nashville and Charlotte seem to be the only ones.

I agree with shrinking the field. I also think it should be in a large city near one of the projected top 5 seeds, so the odds of the host team advancing are better thus bringing in more fans. I don't like hosting the finals on a true home court however. Theres too much on the line.

I was pretty surprised to hear how poor our tournament is. I went to the CAA tournament every year (about 2 hour drive away). It was great. Big socials with cheerleading exhibitions, bands from all the schools playing, pep rallys. Each school had their own off site socials as well where they would take over a bar. Friendly smack talk. People from message boards would get together for golf or whatnot. Banners all over the city, ads on busses, front page of the newspaper etc. It made it seem like a huge deal. First rounds always had 4-5 thousand people. The semis and finals were dependent upon who was playing. It could have 3 thousand if the teams were from far away. 2,000 of them would be locals. Or, it could be sold out at 12,500 people if ODU, VCU, GMU, JMU or W&M were playing. And that happened frequently. I thought CUSA was a step up, and the tournament would be even better than what we were used to. I appreciate Wood trying to raise the bar for all of us.

Put this on ODU board and interested in peoples thoughts..

Add two schools so we are at 16 and can go to two "regionally friendly" 8 team divisions. Each piece of the pie does get smaller, but the pie isn't that big to begin with. Up side is there would certainly be a savings due to the overall reduction in travel cost throughout the season.

In basketball, have two separate divisional tournaments. This would improve the "driveability" of each tourny and thereby increase the attendance. The winner of each plays in the championship game of the home of the higher seed. Sellout at most schools almost guaranteed there.

In football, play seven "in division games" and five OOC. Use that fifth game to the greatest advantage each program sees fit (money game for revenue booster and potential P5 win?). Again, the winner of each division plays the championship at the home of the higher seeded team.

I don't know if the NCAA would allow this but I'm sure someone here does

I'm good with using home sites and limiting the number of teams. It would also be good for budgets which a concern for anybody not in a cartel conference . . . er . . .I mean a P5 conference.

Limiting the CUSA Tournament is a recruitment killer to our programs that traditionally finish in the lower 1/3 of our league. We need to pull them up, not push them down.

(05-21-2016 11:00 AM)monarx Wrote:  Things to consider are 1. Is it the conference? Has CUSA always had crappy tournaments? I know its historically been in Memphis and they draw well, but did the other teams show up, and was it a cool event or just a game?

The only Cusa tournament I attended was in Memphis in 2012 and the only games I attended were the 3 Memphis was in. Just a guess, but I would say 12,000 for those games. Since I was also visiting friends and family, I didnt go to the other games so I don't have any idea about attendance though I imagine it wasn't very high. Ran into some USM and Marshall fans out drinking, but there wasn't any sort of buzz in the city, although my normal hotel was booked up.

Got this pic of some Marshall fans:

(05-21-2016 12:00 PM)ODU1986 Wrote:  Put this on ODU board and interested in peoples thoughts..

Add two schools so we are at 16 and can go to two "regionally friendly" 8 team divisions. Each piece of the pie does get smaller, but the pie isn't that big to begin with. Up side is there would certainly be a savings due to the overall reduction in travel cost throughout the season.

In basketball, have two separate divisional tournaments. This would improve the "driveability" of each tourny and thereby increase the attendance. The winner of each plays in the championship game of the home of the higher seed. Sellout at most schools almost guaranteed there.

In football, play seven "in division games" and five OOC. Use that fifth game to the greatest advantage each program sees fit (money game for revenue booster and potential P5 win?). Again, the winner of each division plays the championship at the home of the higher seeded team.

I don't know if the NCAA would allow this but I'm sure someone here does

regardless of the question adding more schools is never the answer.

Men and womens tournament should be separated.We need more flexibility.Try it for two years--if it does not work go back to the old system.

MY IDEA : HYBRID TOURNAMENT

---limit to top 8 seeds;higher seeds host 1st round

---winners advance to conf. "final four" and play per seed (hosted by highest seed left or neutral site)

---Thurs.-mens semi-finals,Fri.-womens semis, Sat.--Finals men and women(or women sun. aft.).

Tough to do the home sites because the conference is so spread out.

My concern with having the top 4 seeded teams host conference tournament games is that it places too much value on the regular season tie breakers that frequently end up determine that seeding. Just this past season I believe we had 3 teams with the same conference record tied for 3rd. Under that situation going forward it puts an entirely different dynamic on the unlucky team that drops down from being tied for 3rd to the 5th spot as they now would have to play an away game at the home of the 4th seeded team (if only 8 teams were in the tournament) in order to make it to the NCAA Tournament. Big difference between having to do that and having to play the same team on a neutral court. Seems like a harsh penalty considering they would have the same conference record as two other teams that were hosting.

I understand the plus side of doing this format. Just pointing out the negative regarding the tie breakers associated with the unbalanced regular season schedules.

Unless the conference pays for travel, being the higher seed also would carry a nice financial incentive as the home team would avoid planes and hotels for the team and staff etc. Maybe that would be offset by the home team having hosting expenses such as security and game day costs, neutral floor vinyl coverups etc. If the conference gets all the ticket money, without the expense of hosting, facilities etc that might be a good thing.

(05-21-2016 02:23 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Men and womens tournament should be separated.We need more flexibility.Try it for two years--if it does not work go back to the old system.

MY IDEA : HYBRID TOURNAMENT

---limit to top 8 seeds;higher seeds host 1st round

---winners advance to conf. "final four" and play per seed (hosted by highest seed left or neutral site)

---Thurs.-mens semi-finals,Fri.-womens semis, Sat.--Finals men and women(or women sun. aft.).

I like your idea. Just clean it up a bit. Remove the option of the highest seed hosting the CUSA "Final Four" tournament.

- Limit the CUSA Tournament to no more than 8 teams.

- All 1st & 2nd round games will be played in "on-campus" arenas hosted by the higher seed.

- Winners advance to a "Final Four" tournament at a neutral site.


I think this format will work great. The first couple of rounds of this format will build excitement locally with on-campus games, and the "Final Four" will have a big time reward feel to it for the players in a large media market city on a bigger stage.

(05-21-2016 04:24 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(05-21-2016 02:23 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Men and womens tournament should be separated.We need more flexibility.Try it for two years--if it does not work go back to the old system.

MY IDEA : HYBRID TOURNAMENT

---limit to top 8 seeds;higher seeds host 1st round

---winners advance to conf. "final four" and play per seed (hosted by highest seed left or neutral site)

---Thurs.-mens semi-finals,Fri.-womens semis, Sat.--Finals men and women(or women sun. aft.).

I like your idea. Just clean it up a bit. Remove the option of the highest seed hosting the CUSA "Final Four" tournament.

- Limit the CUSA Tournament to no more than 8 teams.

- All 1st & 2nd round games will be played in "on-campus" arenas hosted by the higher seed.

- Winners advance to a "Final Four" tournament at a neutral site.


I think this format will work great. The first couple of rounds of this format will build excitement locally with on-campus games, and the "Final Four" will have a big time reward feel to it for the players in a large media market city on a bigger stage.

Great idea. How would the conference get an arena in the city with such short notice though? I assume it would be in the region of the highest seed. Otherwise nobody could make advance plans in case their team didn't make it to the finals.

Thinking outside of the box is a good thing sometimes. I like the idea of a "final 4". I know I'm in the minority, but I like the idea of reg. season champ hosting. Men at 1 place, women at theres as well.

I understand the initial impact on the bottom 3rd if they go with this type of format. I'm still 100% behind only the top 8 make the tournament. Even if ODU doesn't make the cut it's best for the entire conference to reward for those that perform and provide the best opportunity to get the best teams in the dance each year. We start getting 2 and sometimes 3 teams in it's elevates everyone.