(08-25-2017 04:07 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 12:37 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Regardless, this is simply the free market exerting natural forces.

The free market and collegiate amateur athletics should only be in the same sentence together when that sentence is that they should never be in the same sentence together. I mean, I get what you're trying to say, but, that thing just has no place with the NCAA. Case in point, the NIT. And, couldn't the NCAA add another preseason tournament in its portfolio? One people actually know?

I've heard chatter over the years from some of the Philly schools...they'd (some) much rather toss their money to go to a top ACC, Big Ten, or other program's venue than deal with the politics and "business" the bigger tournaments put on the schools. Only, now with so many tournaments, and so many programs participating, the money these majors can spend to bring in good non-conference games is considerably capped. You hand over money, and you lose all control of your program for television coverage. No guarantees of what you get when you play (better not muck up early). It makes for a financial headache, dealing with the media and revenue side of it. It definitely impacts how schools can schedule during the non-conference. And that's the part that really annoys me (Penn State tossing it out there they didn't have the money to bring in some schools, and ones like Temple and St. Joe's on the other side selling themselves for next to nothing to get onto others' schedules).

It became a cashgrab. It's just a shame one of the more recognizable ones is gone.

Well, I agree with your first sentence in the sense that the free market and college athletics aren't one and the same when college athletics don't actually compensate their labor (and even if you argue that scholarships are compensation, it still doesn't approach fair market value when it comes to P5 football and men's basketball). Of course, that's entirely different discussion.

However, I don't really see how the rest of it really means much. Preseason tournaments have always been a cashgrab, including but not limited to the Great Alaska Shootout. The reason why it's not continuing is that it's no longer making money and, in turn, isn't attracting marquee programs any more. The Great Alaska Shootout was NEVER intended to be some type of charitable event for non-power schools - they wanted to make as much money as they could with the Dukes and Michigan States of the world visiting. More competition for non-conference games (whether through preseason tournaments or one-and-done buy games) can deflate prices, which is simply how the market for such games would naturally adjust. I understand that you're taking the side of the smaller schools, but from the perspective of the P5, they shouldn't be spending more money on buy games out of their goodness of their hearts. It has never made much economic sense that the least desirable games on the non-conference schedule for a P5 school could actually be the most expensive for them (where they're paying for one-and-done guarantee games), so the larger number of preseason tournaments bring a bit of sanity in that regard.

(08-25-2017 11:37 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  I'll never forget that Trajan Langdon-Duke team losing to Cincinnati on that full court bomb and chuck. It was their only loss until UConn in the national title game.

It was a full court pass and then a dunk by Melvin Levitt. UC was actually up at one time by 20+ points and Duke made a late comeback late in the second half.

Yes, the "bomb" was the pass.

(08-28-2017 09:31 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  I understand that you're taking the side of the smaller schools...

That's not where I'm coming from on this. I'm a Big 5 fan ahead all else, PA schools large and small thereafter, and then the A10. And I don't care that WAC and Southland afterthoughts have one less tournament they can access in November no matter where they have to go to play it.

I'm bothered that a staple of the early basketball season is gone while it competes against the very body that could preserve it. I'm also bothered that you lose this known thing AND continue to see the non-conference scene suffer as a whole because of the saturation of tournaments and the complexity of competitive scheduling in the non-conference AND the expansion of the conference regular season.

I feel like I'm watching the sport that got me into college athletics die in front of me. CFB is practically dead to me now anyway...CBB's about to flatline to me. I'm not taking the change of the last decade very well at all. I AM hopeful that cable's decline might change some of that, though, but, I'll probably tune out until it gets there.