The Great Eight was a pretty popular tournament back in the day.

Don’t forget the Atlantic 10-Great Midwest Challenge. Smells like this could be resurrected with the American taking the Great Midwest’s spot.

But how could I leave out the Diet Pepsi Tournament of Champions! This tournament was in Charlotte and Carolina played in it quite a few times IIRC.



Side note, bowl games used to have corresponding basketball tournaments around the football game. Cool concept.

(04-07-2023 01:06 AM)esayem Wrote:  Side note, bowl games used to have corresponding basketball tournaments around the football game. Cool concept.

Orange Bowl does do a showcase game but that is cool.

(04-06-2023 11:30 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 10:06 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 09:09 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 08:39 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 08:30 AM)ChrisLords Wrote:  Lots of good ideas in this thread.

ACC/B1G challenge
ACC/BE challenge

Bracket Busters was fantastic. I don't see why they did away with that. They plugged it for 2 weeks leading up to it.

That's interesting to me, as I have absolutely no recollection of that event at all. Who decided who played in it? What did the winner get?

It was a 1 day thing where teams from middle and smaller conferences would play each other- with matchups set about 2 weeks before the event so they could have top teams playing each other. Think this year like would have seen Charleston and Oral Roberts playing each other- that type of matchup.

Wouldn't that hurt their chances for an at-large NCAAT bid if they lose?

Not as much as a win would help their at-large NCAAT bid. A Q1 win quite possibly.

I doubt the committee would be swayed much either way. Even if they win but lose in their conference tournament, that final loss would probably count for more than a bracket buster win in the committee's eyes. And if they win their tournament they don't need the bracketbuster win, nor are they hurt by a bracketbuster loss.

If there are a lot of bracketbuster games competing for air time with both each other and also P6 conference games, the exposure won't be much. Their audience will likely be limited to a fraction of mid-major fans. Maybe that's why this event was cancelled in the first place.

(04-06-2023 07:07 AM)esayem Wrote:  Great Alaska Shootout

My assumption is Hawaii/Maui or Bahamas and a lot of nicer places have replaced Alaska as the Thanksgiving or early season preseason tournament destination of choice and I personally don't blame them.

(04-06-2023 08:49 AM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Recent: ACC-Big East Challenge

Not So Recent: ECAC Holiday Festival (8 teams, Madison Square Garden)

Historic: Dixie Classic (UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, four at-large teams, played 1949-1961)

New York usually hosts the Jimmy V Classic and gets good teams. Illinois beat Texas in this past season. I remember one year Illinois and Temple played in the Preseason NIT in Brooklyn in separate games and I went to see it. I also watched Villanova and Penn State in separate games in a tournament in Newark on a Saturday afternoon in December. Plenty of good non conference games in New York.

I'm intrigued about the idea of getting UNC, Duke, NC State, and Wake together one day in one building (Raleigh or Charlotte) and all playing. Have it on a Saturday and have Wake and NC State in the afternoon DH and UNC and Duke in the night DH.

(04-06-2023 08:49 AM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  What-If: The eight original Southwest Conference schools play a early season tournament in Dallas.

Hmm...

You'd likely have to split up the four Big 12 teams.

Game 1: Texas Tech vs. Rice (Someone has to get them)
Game 2: Baylor vs. Texas A&M

Game 3: Houston vs. Texas
Game 4: TCU vs. SMU

(04-07-2023 05:49 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 08:49 AM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  What-If: The eight original Southwest Conference schools play a early season tournament in Dallas.

Hmm...

You'd likely have to split up the four Big 12 teams.

Game 1: Texas Tech vs. Rice (Someone has to get them)
Game 2: Baylor vs. Texas A&M

Game 3: Houston vs. Texas
Game 4: TCU vs. SMU

Houston wasn't original. I'd do:

Texas - Rice
Texas A&M - Baylor
Arkansas - Texas Tech
TCU - SMU

I think it would be awesome if there was a tournament for the old Big 8 teams. Same for the SWC.

I also think an Ohio-based tournament would be a lot of fun—Ohio St, Cincinnati, Xavier, and Dayton for sure. Maybe even go big and have an opening round featuring the 6 MAC teams, and the 3 from the Horizon.

Seed the field 1-13

Seeds 1-3 get first round byes &
4 vs 13
5 vs 12
6 vs 11
7 vs 10
8 vs 9

A similar sort of state tournament model could work in other states that have lots of D1 programs.

The Richmond-Times Dispatch Tournament played from the late 70's to the 90's between Christmas and New Years. VCU and UR the hosts with UVa., Va. Tech, JMU, ODU, and W&M playing on a rotating basis. Not realistic in today's world but was fun to watch in its day!

(04-07-2023 05:07 AM)ken d Wrote:  I doubt the committee would be swayed much either way. Even if they win but lose in their conference tournament, that final loss would probably count for more than a bracket buster win in the committee's eyes. And if they win their tournament they don't need the bracketbuster win, nor are they hurt by a bracketbuster loss.

If there are a lot of bracketbuster games competing for air time with both each other and also P6 conference games, the exposure won't be much. Their audience will likely be limited to a fraction of mid-major fans. Maybe that's why this event was cancelled in the first place.

My sense was that Bracketbuster wins did very little to move mid-major teams off the bubble and losses helped cement their exclusion.

The one good thing that happened -- at least for most of its existence -- is that Bracketbuster road teams got return home games the following season. So Drexel, for example, went to Omaha to play then-MVC Creighton in the 2007 Bracketbuster, then got Creighton at home the next season. That never would have been a scheduled home-and-home in a million years.

Bracket Busters, and the 24-Hour Tipoff.

(04-07-2023 05:45 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 07:07 AM)esayem Wrote:  Great Alaska Shootout

My assumption is Hawaii/Maui or Bahamas and a lot of nicer places have replaced Alaska as the Thanksgiving or early season preseason tournament destination of choice and I personally don't blame them.

(04-06-2023 08:49 AM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  Recent: ACC-Big East Challenge

Not So Recent: ECAC Holiday Festival (8 teams, Madison Square Garden)

Historic: Dixie Classic (UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, four at-large teams, played 1949-1961)

New York usually hosts the Jimmy V Classic and gets good teams. Illinois beat Texas in this past season. I remember one year Illinois and Temple played in the Preseason NIT in Brooklyn in separate games and I went to see it. I also watched Villanova and Penn State in separate games in a tournament in Newark on a Saturday afternoon in December. Plenty of good non conference games in New York.

I'm intrigued about the idea of getting UNC, Duke, NC State, and Wake together one day in one building (Raleigh or Charlotte) and all playing. Have it on a Saturday and have Wake and NC State in the afternoon DH and UNC and Duke in the night DH.

Why not: UNC, Duke, NCState, Wake Forest, App State, Western Carolina, Charlotte, Campbell, ECU, UNCW, UNCG, Elon, NCA&T, NC Central, UNCA, Gardner-Webb, Queens, Davidson, and High Point.

Monday: 3 play-in games. Winners to main field, losers to 17-19th place.
Tuesday: 1st round (4 games)
Wednesday: 1st round (4 games, including winners of play-in)
Thursday: Quarterfinals.
Friday: Semifinals.
Saturday: Final and 3rd place.

Thursday: Consolation 1st Round (losers from 1st Round)
Friday: Consolation Quarterfinals (winners Consolation 1st Round, losers Quarterfinals)
Saturday: 5th-6th, 7th-8th, 9th-10th, 11th-12th

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Round-robin play-in losers.
Friday: 13th-14th, 15th-16th.

(04-07-2023 01:43 PM)Mav Wrote:  Bracket Busters, and the 24-Hour Tipoff.

It was amazing to see some of these schools hosting games at midnight or 2am or 4am in 24-hour Tipoff. Early 2010s really were the peak of college basketball tv with 24-hour Tipoff and BracketBusters. Those two things should've never gone away.

I loved it when the A-10 tournament was at the Palestra. I hate what has happened to the Big 5(City Series if you include Drexel) in Philly. It isn’t a full round robin anymore; there will be two groups of three and the winner of each group will play for the Big 5 title. The Big 5 hasn’t been the same since the games went from the Palestra to campus sites.

Big Four Tournament - Wake, NC State, UNC and Duke in Greensboro.

Original Eight Team ACC Tournament

Dixie Classic

(04-08-2023 12:01 AM)RutgersMike Wrote:  I loved it when the A-10 tournament was at the Palestra. I hate what has happened to the Big 5(City Series if you include Drexel) in Philly. It isn’t a full round robin anymore; there will be two groups of three and the winner of each group will play for the Big 5 title. The Big 5 hasn’t been the same since the games went from the Palestra to campus sites.

The Palestra is wonderful, but the Big 5's main problem is that Jay Wright turned Villanova into a juggernaut just as Temple and St. Joe's both turned blah.

The disastrous doubleheader this season showed that the missing ingredient isn't the Palestra.

We'll see how the new format goes.

Whatever happened to all the Vegas tournaments lately? Seems like they dried up.

(04-10-2023 12:10 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  Whatever happened to all the Vegas tournaments lately? Seems like they dried up.

Illinois played in one in Vegas with Virginia, UCLA, and Baylor.

Duke and Gonzaga played in Vegas the previous season. I'm not sure if it was a tournament or a single game/pair of games like the Jimmy V Classic or Champions Classic.

(04-06-2023 11:30 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 10:06 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 09:09 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 08:39 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 08:30 AM)ChrisLords Wrote:  Lots of good ideas in this thread.

ACC/B1G challenge
ACC/BE challenge

Bracket Busters was fantastic. I don't see why they did away with that. They plugged it for 2 weeks leading up to it.

That's interesting to me, as I have absolutely no recollection of that event at all. Who decided who played in it? What did the winner get?

It was a 1 day thing where teams from middle and smaller conferences would play each other- with matchups set about 2 weeks before the event so they could have top teams playing each other. Think this year like would have seen Charleston and Oral Roberts playing each other- that type of matchup.

Wouldn't that hurt their chances for an at-large NCAAT bid if they lose?

Not as much as a win would help their at-large NCAAT bid. A Q1 win quite possibly.

Thus why it was called a Bracket Buster.

Would be cool if they brought that back.

(04-07-2023 06:07 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-07-2023 01:43 PM)Mav Wrote:  Bracket Busters, and the 24-Hour Tipoff.

It was amazing to see some of these schools hosting games at midnight or 2am or 4am in 24-hour Tipoff. Early 2010s really were the peak of college basketball tv with 24-hour Tipoff and BracketBusters. Those two things should've never gone away.

Gotta love 6AM MAAC action from St Peter's or Manhattan.

There was talk about Charlotte. North Carolina is playing in a tournament there.

https://tarheelswire.usatoday.com/2023/0...-revealed/