(03-13-2023 11:32 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  Move to on campus sites based on seeding. The environment for the final would be electric.

Screams small time. A lot of the negatives to the current format/location will be solved simply by getting better at basketball imo. This year has been a good start, will be a better start when Louisiana takes down the Vols.

Well I doubt any of the almost 7k fans we had against App in the quarterfinals would say it felt small time. Heck me and my friends were making plans of coming to NOLA for the Semis after riding the high of that game. Stupid covid....

Ok so we all joke about and are very familiar with CUSAs tournament set up but other than that exception do you know or care what other conferences do for theirs? If you do then you might be a little obsessed

Playing games on campus is what the regular season is for. Either play the tourney in a neutral arena or don’t even bother.

The venue in Pensacola is great. I wouldn't mind limiting it to the top 8 only though.

I'm still in favor of no days break between games... I get what they were trying to do, but it should be HARDER for a lower seed to get through a few days straight with no rest to make it to the finals...

I definitely am generally more than a little obsessed with college basketball. I did lose a little interest over JMU's worst years and when I wasn't going to the tournaments(never stopped going to home games though), plus over COVID, but I was pretty much back in full force this year and watched tons and tons of conference tournaments like I used to. Most of the time I had one game on my TV and two others on my PC monitors.

So yeah I definitely pay attention to what other conferences do, and there are plenty who are just as obsessed with college basketball as me. Including recruits and their coaches/families. Some conferences definitely do things that scream small time to me, and it's generally the conferences that are small time. Like the MEAC having Norfolk State wrap up their semifinal game past midnight and then playing in the championship at 1:00 the next day.

I think the SBC generally did a great job of doing all the right things to have a big time feel, plus a very cool and pretty unique twist to have the men's and women's together. The crowds were great for certain games too, just some games the crowd size was the one thing taking away from the big time feel.

I think those perception battles matter in a lot of ways, a lot of those type of things are why the SBC has been so successful in football. We get a big time feel of playing good football in stadiums full of passionate fans, not the small time feel of playing Rice at Charlotte in front of 12 fans. Being on ESPN also helps the big time feel and exposure a ton. I didn't really end up watching much conference tourney basketball that wasn't on ESPN, and not much feels more small time than being difficult to watch the games.

Smaller, top 7 with champion getting a 1st round bye. A team that can't get 8 conference wins does not deserve a shot at the conference championship.

(03-12-2023 04:31 PM)Eagleyed Wrote:  The option I want that's not on there is playing the games one after another. I've been watching other tourneys and the lower seeds always play the next day. They don't get a break in between games.

Agreed, the breaks take some of the benefit of the byes away. We should be giving the top four real advantages to represent the conference.

I could be convinced that the top two teams should only have to play two games to win and if that means the bottom 2-3 teams don't make the tournament I'm fine with that too.

(03-13-2023 03:03 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(03-13-2023 11:32 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  Move to on campus sites based on seeding. The environment for the final would be electric.

Screams small time. A lot of the negatives to the current format/location will be solved simply by getting better at basketball imo. This year has been a good start, will be a better start when Louisiana takes down the Vols.

And what does playing semis and finals with 80% of the seats empty scream? Sorry, but I'd rather see a full raucous crowd than a bunch of seats.

(03-14-2023 11:57 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  

(03-13-2023 03:03 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(03-13-2023 11:32 AM)Monarchist13 Wrote:  Move to on campus sites based on seeding. The environment for the final would be electric.

Screams small time. A lot of the negatives to the current format/location will be solved simply by getting better at basketball imo. This year has been a good start, will be a better start when Louisiana takes down the Vols.

And what does playing semis and finals with 80% of the seats empty scream? Sorry, but I'd rather see a full raucous crowd than a bunch of seats.

Agreed. Since apparently every casual fan judges conference tournaments based on whether they are big or small time I would think the most apparent thing they would notice/judge on TV would be full or empty seats not the location of the game.

A decent amount of teams had really solid crowds. Any mid-major is gonna have trouble with crowd size in the early rounds and when the furthest away teams are playing. Getting better at basketball will help all around though.

Only four of the 32 conference tournaments were played at the higher seeds. America East(#25 NET), ASUN(#17 NET), NEC(#32 NET), and Patriot League(#27 NET).

SBC MBB teams (current, past and affiliate members) since last NCAA appearance:

Louisiana 2000, 2004, 2005, 2014 (2023)
*FAU* 2002 (2023)
GSU 2001, 2015, 2018, 2019, (2022)
*NMSU* 1999, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, (2022)
App St 2000, (2021)
*UNT* 2007, 2010, (2021)
ODU 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, (2019)
Marshall (2018)
Troy 2003 (2017)
*MTSU* 2013, 2016, (2017)
*UNO* (2017)
*UALR* 2011, (2016)
CCU 2014 (2015)
JMU (2013)
*WKU* 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012, (2013)
USM (2012)
*Lamar* 2000, (2012)
USA 1998, 2006, (2008)
*UTA* (2008)

stAte (1999)
TXST (1997)
ULM (1996)
FIU (1995)
GS (1992)
LA Tech (1991)
Jacksonville (1986)
UTRGV (UTPA) never, but haven't been D1 all that long
Denver (never, but didn't move to D1 until 1998)

Basically teams that have played in the SBC since TXST last went to the big dance in 1997 have combined for 60 trips since then. Also had no idea LA Tech was historically that terrible at basketball.