Like I said in another thread I have been talking brackets for all but 8 hours since they were announced. I slept for 7 and watched 24 for an hour. In that time one of the guys I've had on the coverage had an interesting thought. We were talking off air about how you can make a 16 team conference work in the system in place and he proposed this. The Big East should just go to a home and home with all 16 teams and have everyone play a 30 game conference schedule. This would vault every top half team into the upper portions of the RPI and it would be hard to deny any 18 win team from the tournament. It will never happen so let's hear the pros and cons just for fun...

The Big East probably would never have tournament success because all the teams would be tired at the end of the season playing that type of competition game in and game out and since every team would be beating upn each other teams would lose more games and have lower seeds. That's the worst idea I ever heard of.

BearcatShane09 Wrote:The Big East probably would never have tournament success because all the teams would be tired at the end of the season playing that type of competition game in and game out and since every team would be beating upn each other teams would lose more games and have lower seeds. That's the worst idea I ever heard of.

So let's hear how you want to fix what we are in. 6 of 16 got in and a 10 win BEast team was left home in large part because the top program was awful and they had them scheduled twice. How do you fix it???

no out of conference games? There would be no way to judge teams. The BE teams would get absolutely no respect.

Fanatical Wrote:no out of conference games? There would be no way to judge teams. The BE teams would get absolutely no respect.

Based on the criteria being used the committe would have no choice but to respect them. Very few games against teams over 200. A bunch of games in the top 25, 50 and 100. No weak schedules in November and December. Look at how the selection is going and tell me how it's a bad thing to keep all the money while doing all you are told to do...

A split...thats's how. BE football schools and Memphis and off we go. Play every team twice and we have the best basketball conference in the nation. Each team would need to load up OOC though because a lot of records will suffer because of the SOS in the conference. Not to mention more money and less teams to spread it around too. It's a no-brainer plus Calhoun and Boheim are all for it. I'm sure Calipari would go for it too. Can't think of any coach that would have an objection from the football schools. It would suck to part with GTown, Depaul, Marq, and Nova but it's needed...but they can start the Catholic league which would become the next old C-USA.

GameTime_21 Wrote:

Fanatical Wrote:no out of conference games? There would be no way to judge teams. The BE teams would get absolutely no respect.

Based on the criteria being used the committe would have no choice but to respect them. Very few games against teams over 200. A bunch of games in the top 25, 50 and 100. No weak schedules in November and December. Look at how the selection is going and tell me how it's a bad thing to keep all the money while doing all you are told to do...

So by your logic, if the Horizon League did what you proposed, then half of the horizon teams would get into the Tournament. If you don't play OOC games, you can't be better than other teams.

Exactly Rad.

Gametime is assuming that the majority of BE teams would win the OOC games (even if very few) that they played. Considering the BE track record of doing just that, I think its an assumption you can legitmately make.

So the BE teams collectively would come in to conference play with a high win percentage.

It would work pretty well for RPI purposes, but might be a little boring. I mean I like playing the teams in the BE, but it is fun to throw in good matchups from other conferences.

Big East didn't do well in OOC games this year that is why there are only 6 teams in the dance.

Big East should be loaded next year. I think 8 teams will make it next year assuming there aren't too many underclassmen declaring early.

I'm lost on this one. How is 1/3 of your conf in the tourney a bad thing? We were not as dominate as last year so to expect more or the same amount of teams in seems a bit illogical????

Are there other conferences getting more than 1/3 of their teams in on a regular basis? Do we honestly think that if we split we'd still have 6/8 teams in the dance? Would SU have miraculously made it in an 8-team conf by not a 12? Seems somewhat absurd to me.

I know I am in the huge Minory here.. but umm.. big schools get the rag big time.. just because Drexel went on the road and played 4 decent teams means they should get in?

UC was 8-4 against mid major foes, including wins against NCState, Xavier, and Miami(OH)... they also had wins over big east team WVU and Seton Hall, and some "good close losses" to Syracuse on the road, Providence on the road, Georgetown..

Now dont get me wrong UC had no place for the tourney this year.. but for power conference schools mid majors and lower..(the likes of VCU, Old DOminion, and Drexel) games are lose lose.. if you win.. its over a sub par opponent, if you lose, it is a HUGE LOSS..

I am almost to the thought process that as many as 8(or 9 for the BEAST) teams from the ACC and Big East should make it, and as many as 5 or 6 from the PAc 10, Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 should make it.. with every mid major conferece getting 1 bid, unless they have another team besides their automatic ranked in the top 25... Not to discount the SUnbelt and those kinds of conferences,.. but in some of those conferences UC's team this year would have been in the semi's or finals of their tournament no doubt..

I hate the idea of playing 30 conference games.

I do think every Big East team should play eachother though. That makes 15 conference games. 10-15 out of conference games is plenty too.

I see no reason to mess with the current setup.

My radical idea would be to allow conference teams to schedule other conference teams as OOC opponents and not allow it to officially impact the conference standings.

For example, certain teams have long standing rivalries with other teams, such as UC and Louisville. If Louisville was schedule to play UC on the road as a conference game, they could schedule UC at home as a non-conference game. If they lose on the road in their official conference game, it goes as a loss, obviously, in the conference standings. If they win at home as an OOC game, it cannot impact BE conference standings. It only impacts their rpi, overall won-loss record, and gives them a good OOC win (even though it's a conference opponent).

That way, UC could schedule some of it's long standing rivalries that are in conference such as Marquette and Louisville to play 2 games a season .........one during conference play and one designated as OOC play.

Not sure if the NCAA would allow it, but that is my radical idea.