(02-08-2024 04:04 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  

(02-08-2024 04:00 PM)HartfordHusky Wrote:  

(02-08-2024 03:52 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(02-08-2024 03:40 PM)HartfordHusky Wrote:  

(02-08-2024 03:17 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Honestly, I’m surprised more non-P4 leaders aren’t focusing on the NCAA Tournament more. Even on this forum, we’re overwhelmingly concerned with how new changes will impact football compared to basketball and everything else.

However, to the general average American viewer that doesn’t follow all of the gritty details, they just see (1) a CFP that’s going from 4 to 12 and (2) the NCAA Tournament that they love. On the football side, all the public has seen has been a way-too-small playoff that has left them dissatisfied, so all of the haggling over the details of the 12-team playoff seem like white noise.

In contrast, understanding that the NCAA Tournament is legitimately at risk is what *emotionally* gets the casual sports fan involved (not just the hardcore fans of smaller revenue schools). Saving the NCAA Tournament is a much more effective tool in the court of public opinion compared to trying to get more conference champ slots for the CFP or really anything about football.

I'm surprised and somewhat disappointed that the Big East and UConn aren't being more vocal about demanding a seat at the table to discuss anything that would impact the highest level of non-football college sports and especially the NCAA tournament.

You can demand all you want, but the current discussion is just about football, or almost entirely just about football. If/when we get to the point of the SEC/B1G/etc actually discussing a plan to leave the NCAA, others that bring big value in MBB will all of a sudden be potentially worth far more than they are today, thus they'll be included in the late stage conversations. However, if Sankey/etc decide to remain within the NCAA but get even more autonomy within that umbrella, then the NCAAT will remain intact and there will thus be no need for non-FB schools to ever enter the discussion. And, yes, I include UConn in the "non-FB" category until you guys join the existing Power structure in football.

Being included on the non-football side is fine but the discussions taking place do impact all NCAA sports and to that end, the Big East and UConn should be unequivocal in their intention to continue to be included within the highest level of college athletics. They should be throwing their support behind the Baker proposal, or something similar, where well-resourced schools can opt-in to the highest level of competition.

Just because they aren't talking in public, doesn't mean that they aren't having discussions behind closed doors.

The Big East rarely lets dirty laundry or public advocacy go through the media.

Yeah, like when they were a football league too.

(02-08-2024 03:17 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Honestly, I’m surprised more non-P4 leaders aren’t focusing on the NCAA Tournament more. Even on this forum, we’re overwhelmingly concerned with how new changes will impact football compared to basketball and everything else.

However, to the general average American viewer that doesn’t follow all of the gritty details, they just see (1) a CFP that’s going from 4 to 12 and (2) the NCAA Tournament that they love. On the football side, all the public has seen has been a way-too-small playoff that has left them dissatisfied, so all of the haggling over the details of the 12-team playoff seem like white noise.

In contrast, understanding that the NCAA Tournament is legitimately at risk is what *emotionally* gets the casual sports fan involved (not just the hardcore fans of smaller revenue schools). Saving the NCAA Tournament is a much more effective tool in the court of public opinion compared to trying to get more conference champ slots for the CFP or really anything about football.

I posted a link a few years back that several non FBS men's basketball coaches from the other conferences are afraid that D1 would put them in 1AA in basketball which they said it was trending that way. This was before the Alston case came about. One of the coaches that was worried at the time was Grand Canyon U's coach. There were some in the Big East and other lower conferences. That is why a lot of the FCS schools are now coming out that they want to be part of the FBS so that they won't be classified 1AA for all sports.

(02-20-2024 08:31 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(02-08-2024 03:17 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Honestly, I’m surprised more non-P4 leaders aren’t focusing on the NCAA Tournament more. Even on this forum, we’re overwhelmingly concerned with how new changes will impact football compared to basketball and everything else.

However, to the general average American viewer that doesn’t follow all of the gritty details, they just see (1) a CFP that’s going from 4 to 12 and (2) the NCAA Tournament that they love. On the football side, all the public has seen has been a way-too-small playoff that has left them dissatisfied, so all of the haggling over the details of the 12-team playoff seem like white noise.

In contrast, understanding that the NCAA Tournament is legitimately at risk is what *emotionally* gets the casual sports fan involved (not just the hardcore fans of smaller revenue schools). Saving the NCAA Tournament is a much more effective tool in the court of public opinion compared to trying to get more conference champ slots for the CFP or really anything about football.

I posted a link a few years back that several non FBS men's basketball coaches from the other conferences are afraid that D1 would put them in 1AA in basketball which they said it was trending that way. This was before the Alston case came about. One of the coaches that was worried at the time was Grand Canyon U's coach. There were some in the Big East and other lower conferences. That is why a lot of the FCS schools are now coming out that they want to be part of the FBS so that they won't be classified 1AA for all sports.

It's easier for smaller schools to find 5 men or women to put on the basketball court then to find 12 players to put on the football field.

Football has always been a different from other sports for decades, with the FBS level teams technically being the only sports team not to have an official postseason NCAA Tournament. The FBS has always done it's own thing compared to FCS, and at the end of the day teams in each category are going after different endgames.

Basketball by comparison, even though the NCAA Tournament has expanded over the years, it helps simplify things a lot since everyone has the same goal in mind, even if some conferences will always have a better shot, at least on paper.

As far as basketball goes, a bigger conference like the SEC is always going to have a general overall advantage in most sports then say the Southern Conference(ETSU, UTC, Wofford).

Using the SEC and SoCon as examples, in football most of the time the SEC is all but guaranteed to win against a smaller SoCon team. Aside from ETSU steamrolling Vanderbilt in 2021, I can't remember the last time a Southern Conference team won a football game against an SEC school. By contrast, just my school, ETSU, has won 3 basketball games against SEC schools within the last 10 years(Mississippi State, LSU, and Georgia) and back in 2015 pulled off a win against ACC member Georgia Tech.

Fun fact, ETSU and Georgia have to date played each other 6 times on the basketball court, most recently in 2021 and 2022. They are split evenly 3-3 as far as wins and losses go. That would be impossible or close to it in football.