No surprise: B1G basketball tourney will expand to 5 days & include all 14 schools

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SelectionSunday

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No surprise: B1G basketball tourney will expand to 5 days & include all 14 schools

This from ESPN"s blog:

"With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland bumping the conference up to 14 teams, the Big Ten men's basketball tournament is expanding from four days to five days. A revised format for the tournament, which will start on a Wednesday next March in Chicago, has not yet been set."

The revised format hardly is gonna' be a surprise. They'll go with two games on Wednesday, #11 vs. #14 and #12 vs. #13, with the two winners joining the other 10. God help us this board if the Gophers become regulars on "Opening Wednesday" of the Big Ten Tournament.
 

Seems like this format, which presumably will give a double bye to the top 4 teams, is stacked to protect the higher ranked teams and make the lower finishing teams' path to the semi's and finals as difficult as possible.

Fairer and more logical way to do it would be to keep at at 4 days (4 rounds) with just give the top 2 teams receiving a bye into the quarterfinals.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Seems like this format, which presumably will give a double bye to the top 4 teams, is stacked to protect the higher ranked teams and make the lower finishing teams' path to the semi's and finals as difficult as possible.

Fairer and more logical way to do it would be to keep at at 4 days (4 rounds) with just give the top 2 teams receiving a bye into the quarterfinals.
Click to expand...

Respectfully, that's just not feasible. I don't think the Big Ten (or any other conference) is going to play 6 games in one day. That means starting games at 8 or 8:30 in the morning. Having 6 single-byes (to Thursday) and 4 double-byes (to quarterfinals) makes a lot more sense. It should be more difficult for the bottom teams to advance far, I think, and the truly best teams (top 4) are getting a reward for a strong regular season.

Was hoping they'd stay at four days at the primary site. Just play the #11-#14 and #12-#13 games at the higher seed (Monday or Tuesday), but figured they'd go this route. They want every fan base to have the opportunity to travel.
 

WanderingGopher said:
Seems like this format, which presumably will give a double bye to the top 4 teams, is stacked to protect the higher ranked teams and make the lower finishing teams' path to the semi's and finals as difficult as possible.

Fairer and more logical way to do it would be to keep at at 4 days (4 rounds) with just give the top 2 teams receiving a bye into the quarterfinals.
Click to expand...

Very good idea except less TV revenue. Here is an idea, your format but best 2 out of 3 making it a 12 day tourney with at least 20 games. A team could enter the tourney licking it's wounds at 9 and 9 in conference and say 17 wins over all and come out of the tourney with 25 wins:). NCAA selection committee would love this.

And the TV revenue!
 

SelectionSunday said:
This from ESPN"s blog:

"With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland bumping the conference up to 14 teams, the Big Ten men's basketball tournament is expanding from four days to five days. A revised format for the tournament, which will start on a Wednesday next March in Chicago, has not yet been set."

The revised format hardly is gonna' be a surprise. They'll go with two games on Wednesday, #11 vs. #14 and #12 vs. #13, with the two winners joining the other 10. God help us this board if the Gophers become regulars on "Opening Wednesday" of the Big Ten Tournament.
Click to expand...

Hopefully they won't add another 50 clams to the strip of tickets and essentially offer the two extra games as a "throw in" for those of us who buy all tournament passes. However, this is the Big Ten and I predict they will try to suck a few more greenbacks out of us for the extra entertainment we are getting on Wednesday night.
 


Holy Man said:
Hopefully they won't add another 50 clams to the strip of tickets and essentially offer the two extra games as a "throw in" for those of us who buy all tournament passes. However, this is the Big Ten and I predict they will try to suck a few more greenbacks out of us for the extra entertainment we are getting on Wednesday night.
Click to expand...

I'll guess they split the difference and bump it up $25 to $350 for the better seats. Definitely would be nice if the Big Ten threw us a bone and kept the prices the same for a year or two.
 

If Delany could do it, he would probably extend it to a week and have play-in games from the MAC. Why stop at 14?
 

SelectionSunday said:
Respectfully, that's just not feasible. I don't think the Big Ten (or any other conference) is going to play 6 games in one day. That means starting games at 8 or 8:30 in the morning. Having 6 single-byes (to Thursday) and 4 double-byes (to quarterfinals) makes a lot more sense. It should be more difficult for the bottom teams to advance far, I think, and the truly best teams (top 4) are getting a reward for a strong regular season.

Was hoping they'd stay at four days at the primary site. Just play the #11-#14 and #12-#13 games at the higher seed (Monday or Tuesday), but figured they'd go this route. They want every fan base to have the opportunity to travel.
Click to expand...

In theory, I agree with WanderingGopher. However, you are right, this probably is the only route that makes sense from a logistical and revenue standpoint. Unless you wanted to do a multi-site tournament, but then that still doesn't address lost TV revenue.
 

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