It was reported on May 9th that Liberty will join FAU and College of Charleston to be among schools of a "68 Tip-Off" basketball teams beginning in 2023. The report is from Sea of Red, the non-affiliated and independent website and podcast about Liberty athletics. https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-includ...harleston/

LU should take action to create a similar initiative beginning in 2026 when the current "Field of 68" event has concluded. The report states that FAU will host in 2023, Charleston in 2024 and LU in 2025. The Field of 68 creation being to counter the difficulty that strong mid-major programs have in scheduling P5 schools.

LU is positioned to create such an event to benefit the C-USA. With two arenas, the field could be even expanded with a East/West or North/South regional affiliation. KenPom ratings could be used for the selection process rewarding high mid major teams on performance rather than solely as an invitation.

The key is for LU to create an event that benefits itself and the conference rather than only itself. With the resources LU has, it's actions like this that can help garner support for the conference. The major perk for LU being as host, they are guaranteed as being a representing team.

(05-10-2023 08:40 AM)NewTimes Wrote:  It was reported on May 9th that Liberty will join FAU and College of Charleston to be among schools of a "68 Tip-Off" basketball teams beginning in 2023. The report is from Sea of Red, the non-affiliated and independent website and podcast about Liberty athletics. https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-includ...harleston/

LU should take action to create a similar initiative beginning in 2026 when the current "Field of 68" event has concluded. The report states that FAU will host in 2023, Charleston in 2024 and LU in 2025. The Field of 68 creation being to counter the difficulty that strong mid-major programs have in scheduling P5 schools.

LU is positioned to create such an event to benefit the C-USA. With two arenas, the field could be even expanded with a East/West or North/South regional affiliation. KenPom ratings could be used for the selection process rewarding high mid major teams on performance rather than solely as an invitation.

The key is for LU to create an event that benefits itself and the conference rather than only itself. With the resources LU has, it's actions like this that can help garner support for the conference. The major perk for LU being as host, they are guaranteed as being a representing team.

I can’t imagine a lot of teams would want to do it yearly. There are a ton of mid major tournaments in destination places (we’re playing one in the Bahamas this season).

(05-10-2023 08:59 AM)Ewglenn Wrote:  

(05-10-2023 08:40 AM)NewTimes Wrote:  It was reported on May 9th that Liberty will join FAU and College of Charleston to be among schools of a "68 Tip-Off" basketball teams beginning in 2023. The report is from Sea of Red, the non-affiliated and independent website and podcast about Liberty athletics. https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-includ...harleston/

LU should take action to create a similar initiative beginning in 2026 when the current "Field of 68" event has concluded. The report states that FAU will host in 2023, Charleston in 2024 and LU in 2025. The Field of 68 creation being to counter the difficulty that strong mid-major programs have in scheduling P5 schools.

LU is positioned to create such an event to benefit the C-USA. With two arenas, the field could be even expanded with a East/West or North/South regional affiliation. KenPom ratings could be used for the selection process rewarding high mid major teams on performance rather than solely as an invitation.

The key is for LU to create an event that benefits itself and the conference rather than only itself. With the resources LU has, it's actions like this that can help garner support for the conference. The major perk for LU being as host, they are guaranteed as being a representing team.

I can’t imagine a lot of teams would want to do it yearly. There are a ton of mid major tournaments in destination places (we’re playing one in the Bahamas this season).

The reason this may be different is because it would be merit based rather than by invite. One could say the multitudes of tourneys are slanted to benefit the host team, are the problem rather than the solution. Many tourneys are destination driven in attempt to generate interest. A merit based, Mid Major tourney, awarding the more successful mid major programs, could be popular. LU could start with say a 3 year deal, then rotate to other locations, but keeping the merit based factor. LU, with it's success has a very difficult time scheduling P5 programs, and very few P5 programs want to play aways at FAU, LU, and other top tier G5s. As G5s become better the P5 invites diminish, for even home games. A slew of existing tourneys actually validates the idea due to their existence.

The media/espn and the p5 do enough already to try and separate us from them....

why would you want your school to do that? We already had something like that with espn backing it and the only thing it did was to maybe knock a "mid major" out of getting a bid. Other wise losing to "one of us" in a showcase, is a lot worse than you gain by winning.

Western only took part in one of those "mid major" showcase games and one too many. After that Western refused to be a part of it. Of course Western was actually winning conference championships back then.

Trust me, we got turned down by Vandy this year because of the year we had the year before last. Even knowing that I’m not for this type of tournament. WKUYG is right, it will only hurt us. Now if half the teams were P5 and they matched up mid majors with P5 teams in the first round I’d go for it.

Agree with the last two posts.

The premise was stated to stimulate dialogue. The higher perspective is to create something (I only mentioned Liberty as they have the funds and resources to start this, and any C-USA school able to accomplish it would be beneficial) that allows the better Mid Major programs the opportunity to better their RP!.

Having P5 and G5 schools compete in a tourney, with schools selected by their rankings (KenPom) would be much better than the current tourneys. Seems most of the tourneys now are created for purposes different than to advance the participating schools. If someone has specifics about how most tourneys are organized that contradict my thought I welcome the clarification. It seems to me to be the good ole boy network and back room politics to support others rather than the participating schools. Correct me if my premise is false.

Have a year or two of success and try to get a P5 to play your team in a home/home schedule. The best will be an away game and the better the G5, the less the P5 want anything to do with your team. Most P5 don't want to take the risk of getting upset by a strong G5. The current system sucks for G5 teams trying to schedule better OOC games. Especially the chicken P5s.

Losing a close game to a top 50 ranked team is much better on one’s resume than a blowout win over a 350 something ranked team.

(05-10-2023 05:13 PM)NewTimes Wrote:  The premise was stated to stimulate dialogue. The higher perspective is to create something (I only mentioned Liberty as they have the funds and resources to start this, and any C-USA school able to accomplish it would be beneficial) that allows the better Mid Major programs the opportunity to better their RP!.

Having P5 and G5 schools compete in a tourney, with schools selected by their rankings (KenPom) would be much better than the current tourneys.

I love the idea behind the idea... I just don't know that a tourney would be the answer here.

The problem is, this year's #28 powerhouse might be next year's #128 mid-tier nobody. There's no way to know which power teams are going to come through the Portal unscathed and retain their strength year to year.

And for scheduling reasons, a tourney would need to have its teams lined up *at least* a season in advance. You couldn't have all mid-major teams take a week off just in case they get a bid to the Mid-Major Invitational.

What you perhaps COULD do, though, is expand the idea of an interconference challenge.

Right now, it's not at all uncommon to see (for example) CUSA and the WAC schedule a series of games between league members based on current RPI/NET/KenPom, in order to boost the strength of schedule of both leagues.

What if you took this same idea and added a third, or even a fourth, conference to the interconference lineup?

Make sure all member teams have a game or two. (One home, one away would be great.) Then schedule those games based on current rankings maybe a month or two before the series (or as close to the actual games as travel logistics would allow).

It wouldn't be a tournament at all. But it would accomplish the stated goal of giving the top teams a schedule boost. It could conceivably also reward some high-performing mid-majors with an excellent home opponent they might not otherwise be able to land.

(05-11-2023 10:56 AM)whupemall Wrote:  

(05-10-2023 05:13 PM)NewTimes Wrote:  The premise was stated to stimulate dialogue. The higher perspective is to create something (I only mentioned Liberty as they have the funds and resources to start this, and any C-USA school able to accomplish it would be beneficial) that allows the better Mid Major programs the opportunity to better their RP!.

Having P5 and G5 schools compete in a tourney, with schools selected by their rankings (KenPom) would be much better than the current tourneys.

I love the idea behind the idea... I just don't know that a tourney would be the answer here.

The problem is, this year's #28 powerhouse might be next year's #128 mid-tier nobody. There's no way to know which power teams are going to come through the Portal unscathed and retain their strength year to year.

And for scheduling reasons, a tourney would need to have its teams lined up *at least* a season in advance. You couldn't have all mid-major teams take a week off just in case they get a bid to the Mid-Major Invitational.

What you perhaps COULD do, though, is expand the idea of an interconference challenge.

Right now, it's not at all uncommon to see (for example) CUSA and the WAC schedule a series of games between league members based on current RPI/NET/KenPom, in order to boost the strength of schedule of both leagues.

What if you took this same idea and added a third, or even a fourth, conference to the interconference lineup?

Make sure all member teams have a game or two. (One home, one away would be great.) Then schedule those games based on current rankings maybe a month or two before the series (or as close to the actual games as travel logistics would allow).

It wouldn't be a tournament at all. But it would accomplish the stated goal of giving the top teams a schedule boost. It could conceivably also reward some high-performing mid-majors with an excellent home opponent they might not otherwise be able to land.

In what ever way the idea is sliced and diced, a grouping of G5 schools, with high rankings, could play against each other in a lead in to the season. The idea of multi conference involvement has merit. Those G5 teams that have achieved higher KenPom rankings are struggling to get a p5 game, and if granted one, it most always is an away game only for the G5.