http://www.adn.com/sports/uaa-athetics/2...ournament/

Budget problems at UAA and low attendance causes of ending the tourament.

It had a great run. So much for UAA to D-I.

Definitely had a great run, but not really surprised to see if go to the wayside. The quality of teams has certainly declined as more tournaments have come on board and have put together great fields like Battle for Atlantis.

Look at the past winner list of the tourney and you have NC State (when they were elite), Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Syracuse, etc...

Your last 5 winners have been Charlotte, Harvard, Colorado State, Middle Tennessee State, and Iona.

Sad ... it's been part of the college hoops landscape for most of the 45 years I've followed the sport.

(08-25-2017 08:35 AM)tcufrog86 Wrote:  Definitely had a great run, but not really surprised to see if go to the wayside. The quality of teams has certainly declined as more tournaments have come on board and have put together great fields like Battle for Atlantis.

Look at the past winner list of the tourney and you have NC State (when they were elite), Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Syracuse, etc...

Your last 5 winners have been Charlotte, Harvard, Colorado State, Middle Tennessee State, and Iona.

There was a time when it was either Alaska or Maui as the must do tournament for the Big Schools. Too much competition killed it and then they lost their primo ESPN exposure. Can't pay the bills with mid-majors coming in.

Sad, spent many a Thanksgiving watching that tournament.

Very disappointing news.

And, when you compare it to a newer tournament, like AdvoCare down in WDW, which is basically an ESPN pay-for-play exposure scheme, it's really sad that you have something like the NCAA on the sidelines of this "objectively" looking on while the networks continue to stack the deck and control content.

There's no way in the blazes it costs more to send kids to Alaska than it is down to one of the warm-climate tournaments. I have little heart or concern about programs, major or no, complaining about funding when this kind of stuff happens.

TGAS should be one the sacred NCAA preseason commodities. Preserve that stuff. Of course, the NCAA would rather chase the buck.

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.

There are a lot of cool (bad pun) things to see in Alaska. I would think it's an opportunity for coaches to take their players to play some hoops and see some majestic sights.

The shootout is dead because of the NCAA changes and nothing else. That arena would be full if Duke, Kentucky, UCLA and other big name schools came to town. There would be sponsors despite the economy. The dwindling attendance started while oil prices were still high and ESPN dropped it and began creating its own tournaments

(08-25-2017 10:53 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  Very disappointing news.

And, when you compare it to a newer tournament, like AdvoCare down in WDW, which is basically an ESPN pay-for-play exposure scheme, it's really sad that you have something like the NCAA on the sidelines of this "objectively" looking on while the networks continue to stack the deck and control content.

There's no way in the blazes it costs more to send kids to Alaska than it is down to one of the warm-climate tournaments. I have little heart or concern about programs, major or no, complaining about funding when this kind of stuff happens.

TGAS should be one the sacred NCAA preseason commodities. Preserve that stuff. Of course, the NCAA would rather chase the buck.

???

Say what you will about ESPN running preseason tournaments, but the argument that it wouldn't cost more to send kids to Alaska compared to any location in the continental US or even the Bahamas is patently false. Even Hawaii has more options since it has much more fully-developed travel connections. The cost to send kids to a place like Orlando with a preponderance of direct flights from every decent-sized city in the country is a fraction of sending kids to Anchorage.

Regardless, this is simply the free market exerting natural forces. The Great Alaska Shootout thrived in an environment when it was part of an oligopoly of a limited number of preseason tournaments with a handful of others like the Preseason NIT and Maui Classic along with the old restriction on schools where they could only play in 2 exempt tournaments in any 4-year period. For someone that claims to cheer for the "little guy", that oligopolistic environment provided few opportunities for non-power conference schools to get any preseason tournament access. When the NCAA rightly deregulated both the ability to play in exempt tournaments (where schools can now play in them every year as opposed to only twice every 4 years) and the number of sanctioned ones, it essentially opened up the market where virtually every school in the country could play in a preseason tournament if it wanted to do so.

The upshot is that the Great Alaska Shootout was only really desirable when there weren't many other options for power schools to play in other tournaments closer to home and/or in more desirable locations. In any other industry, the notion that parties should be incurring significantly more expenses to travel to a remote location with bad weather instead of paying less expenses to travel to a location that is inherently more desirable is completely bats**t crazy. We're simply seeing college basketball tournament choices reflect what "normal" people would do. Splurging on expenses to send your team and fans to Maui every once in awhile is one thing because the market demand is there for that particular location, but that simply doesn't exist for traveling to Alaska during Thanksgiving week.

And look - I have a fair a bit of nostalgia watching the Great Alaska Shootout back in the day since I'm a night owl that always enjoyed the late games. However, if I was running an athletic department, I just can't see how I'd willingly choose going to the Great Alaska Shootout over the literally dozens of other tournaments that are less expensive, closer to home and/or in more desirable Thanksgiving week locations (e.g. Hawaii, New York City, Florida, Las Vegas).

Well, PAC 12 and Big 10 do like to play in Hawaii. It was nice to see schools like Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska and Chaminade upset a P5 school in these tournaments. There are talent that do go to these schools to compete.

(08-25-2017 12:48 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Well, PAC 12 and Big 10 do like to play in Hawaii. It was nice to see schools like Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska and Chaminade upset a P5 school in these tournaments. There are talent that do go to these schools to compete.

Of course - *everyone* likes to play in Hawaii. It's an inherently popular travel destination for Thanksgiving week regardless of whether you're there to watch basketball. That's basically always been my standard for a good bowl location (and by that same token, any neutral site sporting event): would I inherently want to travel there during that time of year if I wasn't there to watch the event?

Terrible news. This was always one of the best parts of the regular season when I first started watching college hoops. It was also fun to watch Alaska-Achorage give good D1 teams a run for their money - I recall them beating one of the SIU S16 teams and losing by a bucket to the 31-2 Murray St team.

(08-25-2017 12:37 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The Great Alaska Shootout thrived in an environment when it was part of an oligopoly of a limited number of preseason tournaments with a handful of others like the Preseason NIT and Maui Classic along with the old restriction on schools where they could only play in 2 exempt tournaments in any 4-year period.

Yup. Think of the Great Alaska Shootout as the BlackBerry of preseason college basketball tournaments.

(08-25-2017 12:37 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 10:53 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  Very disappointing news.

And, when you compare it to a newer tournament, like AdvoCare down in WDW, which is basically an ESPN pay-for-play exposure scheme, it's really sad that you have something like the NCAA on the sidelines of this "objectively" looking on while the networks continue to stack the deck and control content.

There's no way in the blazes it costs more to send kids to Alaska than it is down to one of the warm-climate tournaments. I have little heart or concern about programs, major or no, complaining about funding when this kind of stuff happens.

TGAS should be one the sacred NCAA preseason commodities. Preserve that stuff. Of course, the NCAA would rather chase the buck.

???

Say what you will about ESPN running preseason tournaments, but the argument that it wouldn't cost more to send kids to Alaska compared to any location in the continental US or even the Bahamas is patently false. Even Hawaii has more options since it has much more fully-developed travel connections. The cost to send kids to a place like Orlando with a preponderance of direct flights from every decent-sized city in the country is a fraction of sending kids to Anchorage.

Regardless, this is simply the free market exerting natural forces. The Great Alaska Shootout thrived in an environment when it was part of an oligopoly of a limited number of preseason tournaments with a handful of others like the Preseason NIT and Maui Classic along with the old restriction on schools where they could only play in 2 exempt tournaments in any 4-year period. For someone that claims to cheer for the "little guy", that oligopolistic environment provided few opportunities for non-power conference schools to get any preseason tournament access. When the NCAA rightly deregulated both the ability to play in exempt tournaments (where schools can now play in them every year as opposed to only twice every 4 years) and the number of sanctioned ones, it essentially opened up the market where virtually every school in the country could play in a preseason tournament if it wanted to do so.

The upshot is that the Great Alaska Shootout was only really desirable when there weren't many other options for power schools to play in other tournaments closer to home and/or in more desirable locations. In any other industry, the notion that parties should be incurring significantly more expenses to travel to a remote location with bad weather instead of paying less expenses to travel to a location that is inherently more desirable is completely bats**t crazy. We're simply seeing college basketball tournament choices reflect what "normal" people would do. Splurging on expenses to send your team and fans to Maui every once in awhile is one thing because the market demand is there for that particular location, but that simply doesn't exist for traveling to Alaska during Thanksgiving week.

It was also before that when teams could play in as many of those tournaments as they wanted. Kansas once played 37 regular season games in the late 90's.

That sucks, the local school here Utah State gave up a slot in the Diamondhead tourney this year in exchange for a pre season trip trip to Italy this year and the Great Alaska Shootout next year.


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(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.

(08-25-2017 12:44 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  And look - I have a fair a bit of nostalgia watching the Great Alaska Shootout back in the day since I'm a night owl that always enjoyed the late games. However, if I was running an athletic department, I just can't see how I'd willingly choose going to the Great Alaska Shootout over the literally dozens of other tournaments that are less expensive, closer to home and/or in more desirable Thanksgiving week locations (e.g. Hawaii, New York City, Florida, Las Vegas).

Yeah, Alaska in November is just not an ideal destination.