https://omny.fm/shows/georgia-southern-e...ll-and-pre

I was listening to a conversation between Ben Moore and a beat writer for Savannah Morning News and they brought up a good point about New Orleans being a terrible place to host our conference tournament. The whole tournament experience is lackluster for everyone involved because no one shows up and it fosters the vibe of glorified scrimmage games front of perhaps a crowd of 100 ppl.

Should the conference tournament move to the home site of #1 seed? This would actually reward a team for winning the regular season and provide an incentive for teams to play hard throughout the season. Increased attendance from fans would boost the image of SunBelt basketball on TV. It would also strengthen the league's case for sending its highest rated team to the NCAA tourney as potential #12-13 seed, thus giving our champion an actual chance to win a game instead of being a first round fodder. Consequently, we all share the millions of dollars of bonus revenue and everyone wins at the end.

People are tired of New Orleans. It should not be at the site of the #1 seed but there are multiple neutral sites that can be had for the same money spent on that venue. I heard lots of good reviews when the Hot Springs Convention Center hosted here in Arkansas for a couple of years.

Yes


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Number 1 seed hosting is nice in theory (especially for a bus league).

However, lets say Texas State (being the western most outlier) were to host, how many eastern schools would show up to the tournament and once the host team is bounced do we still only have 100 people in the stands?


Additionally, I will say having a neutral site location is nice for planning. If I have to buy plane tickets and book a hotel room, it is better for me to know that I am flying to some location a month out rather than watching a race to the finish down the line and then trying to book it inside a week. --- That was always my problem with the FCS playoffs. "Let me find a last minute flight to Missoula MT followed by God knows where next Saturday"

Should be something centralized. I wouldn’t even hate it being at the schools until the last four teams.

Although what would really be awesome is if we dumped the conference tournament altogether and the regular season champion got the auto bid.

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This is a tough call for me.

Conference Tournaments at campus sites just screams small time to me. But so does 100 people in the stands at a neutral site.
As someone pointed out earlier, in games in which the host team isn't playing on a campus site we probably get the double whammy of 100 people in the stands at an on campus site.

In the end to me, it comes down to what does the league have to do to get either,
A. Fans of these teams to travel, or
B. Get locals in the stands

If you can find a way to make this tournament look better on TV for every game, do it.

Would a divisional format be better? With the winners of the 2 divisions playing at the higher "seeds" home court instead of the tournament.

(03-08-2019 11:10 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  Would a divisional format be better? With the winners of the 2 divisions playing at the higher "seeds" home court instead of the tournament.

That would be better, yes.


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Only acceptable site for the conference tourney....




Just end this.

Memphis

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If it could rotate every two year between New Orleans, Little Rock, Birmingham, and Atlanta that would be nice.

(03-08-2019 11:30 AM)panama Wrote:  Memphis

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Memphis is a little further west than New Orleans

For a neutral site I wouldn't mind somewhere along the gulf coast. I wouldn't be in favor of a "neutral" site location in the home town or a 20 minute drive of a member institution. Jackson MS or Birmingham AL would be more centralized from an inland perspective. The only other choice might be a vacation type spot that has plenty of cheap air fare options like maybe Orlando.

I'd be in favor of it being in Memphis, but only because I'm only 3.5 hours away in St Louis haha.

I think Memphis would end up being a similar turnout to New Orleans. I think overall the conference fan bases aren't too interested in travelling to watch the tournament. I'd like to see what kind of money they get out of the conference tourney. Unless they have a really good deal on the arena they have to be losing money.

(03-08-2019 11:33 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(03-08-2019 11:30 AM)panama Wrote:  Memphis

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Memphis is a little further west than New Orleans

It's 5 hours from ATL and a 51 min flight and pretty centrally located for the majority of the conference.

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As long as we don't start doing what CUSA is doing with theirs



what a joke

(03-08-2019 11:58 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  As long as we don't start doing what CUSA is doing with theirs



what a joke

Good location for it. Bad setup though.


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(03-08-2019 11:59 AM)WolfBird Wrote:  

(03-08-2019 11:58 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  As long as we don't start doing what CUSA is doing with theirs



what a joke

Good location for it. Bad setup though.


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Looks like an AAU tournament setup...

I like the idea of playing the initial rounds at the campus of the higher seed. For example #5 would host #10, 6 would host 9, 7 hosts 8. Higher seeded survivors would host the next round. When you get down to a final 4, play the last 3 games at a Neutral Site. I'm assuming we're still giving seeds 1 and 2 a double bye. You could give seeds 3 and 4 a single bye to the second round. You'd pretty much ensure good crowds for the first couple of rounds, as those games would be played at campus sites of the higher seeded contestant. It eliminates the 100 in the stands when the higher seed loses, as the next round is again played on the campus of the higher surviving seed. As previously mentioned it does create travel issues for fans of higher seeded teams having to make travel arrangements on short notice. But I don't know of any arrangement that isn't going to have faults/flaws for somebody.

That's exactly what they're going to next year right?

All games played on campus sites until the final 4 and it's moving from Lakefront to Smoothie King next year. That's off the top of my head so I could be mistaken, but I believe that's what they're doing starting in 2020.