The South Florida rule - BET at 16 for 2009

[theexorcist]

guhoyas.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/110707aag.html

A massively complicated playoff bracket. Short version - finish in the top four.

[CO_Hoya]

The new format will have the teams seeded 9 through 16 meet on the first day of competition.

The winners of those four games will meet seeds 5 through 8 on the second day of play

Those four winners will advance to play the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round. Thus, the top four seeded teams still will not play until the quarterfinals, which occurs in the current 12-team format.

I like . . .

Edited to add: . . . so long as G'town is at least an 8 seed, or better a 4 seed. Should be nearly impossible to win the BET for a 9+ seed.

[RusskyHoya]

I wonder what could have po$$ibly motivated the Big Ea$t to make $uch a deci$ion.

[sbgorms]

I think this pretty much guarantees that a 9+ seed will struggle to make the championship game ever again let alone win it--4 wins in 4 days just to make it to the championship game...and your third game in three days is against a fully rested squad. Ouch.

a 9-seed's path to the Big East Championship game:
Round 1 vs. 16 seed
Round 2 vs. rested 8 seed
Quarters vs. rested 1 seed (and you're playing 3rd game in 3 days)
Semis vs. 4 seed (you're playing 4th game in 4 days)

The plus side: this structure still rewards teams in the BET for finishing in the top 4 (and now also the top 8)

Negative: This is kind of pointless, because USF is going to be making a lot of 1-day trips to NY

And finally a question: is the Championship moved to Sunday, or does the BET now start on Tuesday? Hopefully the latter.

[Hoyaholic]

Yikes - what a freakin mess. Can't wait to see how they allocate 18,000 tickets to 16 schools.

They would be much better served having a traditional 16-team bracket with the higher seeds hosting the opening games. (And yes I understand there will be arena issues, but I am sure they can be solved. Think about a first-round BET game at McDonough!!).

[MCIGuy]

I liied the fact that there was a battle within the season for the bottom schools to make the tourney. It made games that were otherwise meaningless into more relevant games.

[theexorcist]

Money from what, Russky? The four extra games?

Very very few conferences - and none of the major ones save us - require you to qualify for the conference tournament. This is really bad, because when you get eliminated from the conference tournament, your season is basically over. There's no "maybe we'll get lucky and win the tourney". Nothing like ending your season with a desultory loss to Seton Hall in front of 2,400 fans on the road. Coaches get fired quickly if they can't make the conference tourney.

[NickSixers]

I thought that seats are allocated to all 16 schools in the current set-up, even if your team doesn't make it. Gives all schools tickets to sell to boosters. Makes boosters give more $$$.

[theexorcist]

Hoyaholic:

They already allocate the tickets to the schools that don't make the tournament. USF's athletic department bounty for one of their tickets was a $1,000 donation to their booster club, if I recall correctly. Some USF fans will probably go to all games, but this mainly means that there will be more traffic in nearby hotels at the end of games.

EDIT - also forgot that Georgetown is a primo example of why a first-round game isn't an option - Verizon won't hold a date as a "maybe", and hosting a BET game - to make the NCAAs - in McDonough doesn't have a prayer. In addition, there's something about MSG that would annoy a lot of people if they didn't participate at the Garden.

[Grandpa]

hoyaholic said:

Yikes - what a freakin mess. Can't wait to see how they allocate 18,000 tickets to 16 schools.

They would be much better served having a traditional 16-team bracket with the higher seeds hosting the opening games. (And yes I understand there will be arena issues, but I am sure they can be solved. Think about a first-round BET game at McDonough!!).

Problem with full 16-team bracket is that you require your top seeds have to play and win 4-games in order to win the conference, which could likely have deleterious impact to those top teams' ability to perform in the NCAA Tournament. More games played does bring with it increased fatigue and injury risk. I think there needs to be a reward for finishing towards the top of the league.

[DFW HOYA]

Another problem: arena availability. MSG has to basically book five days for the BE tournament, knocking out NBA and NHL schedules.

Personally, it's a big minus. The potential of a six day trip to NYC does not work well on the amount of days allowable for vacation from work.

Oh, for the days of a three day tournament starting on Friday afternoon and ending two hours before the pairings....

[Hoyaholic]

grandpa said:

hoyaholic said:

Yikes - what a freakin mess. Can't wait to see how they allocate 18,000 tickets to 16 schools.

They would be much better served having a traditional 16-team bracket with the higher seeds hosting the opening games. (And yes I understand there will be arena issues, but I am sure they can be solved. Think about a first-round BET game at McDonough!!).

Problem with full 16-team bracket is that you require your top seeds have to play and win 4-games in order to win the conference, which could likely have deleterious impact to those top teams' ability to perform in the NCAA Tournament. More games played does bring with it increased fatigue and injury risk. I think there needs to be a reward for finishing towards the top of the league.

Not necessarily. The regular season season ends Sunday. First-round games could be played on campuses on Tuesday, then start the quarters Thursday in MSG. Actually, this could prevent anyone form having to play four straight days.

Besides, nobody will travel to those first round games. They will be played in an empty MSG in front of perhaps 5000 fans.

I personally think this is an awful decision by the conference that ignores the best interest of every constituency except for the coaches/ADs of lousy teams.

[JimmyHoya]

HOR

RIB

BLE

[vcjack]

Actually I think this should be called the "holy UConn almost didn't make the BET" rule

or maybe the,

"By hell or high water there will be a NYC area team in the BET" rule

[hoyaboy1]

So games will start Tuesday now? I assume they aren't moving the Saturday night final, but I haven't seen confirmation

[youngjeezy]

guess that means our women's team gets a trip to the BET in 2009 finally...

[FLHoya]

This is what the BET Tuesday Quadrupleheader would have looked like this past season under the new format:

noon: Nova vs. Cincinnati

2:30: UConn vs. Seton Hall

7:00: St. Johns vs. USF

9:30: Providence vs. Rutgers

Ummmm...yeah...I'll pass.

[prhoya]

russkyhoya said:

I wonder what could have po$$ibly motivated the Big Ea$t to make $uch a deci$ion.

;D

[AustinHoya03]

flhoya said:

This is what the BET Tuesday Quadrupleheader would have looked like this past season under the new format:

noon: Nova vs. Cincinnati

2:30: UConn vs. Seton Hall

7:00: St. Johns vs. USF

9:30: Providence vs. Rutgers

Ummmm...yeah...I'll pass.

Wow. I wonder how the boys in Bristol feel about this. I would certainly think twice about televising Day One of the BET with that kind of slate.

[royski]

I like it. I think that every team should get a shot, no matter how long that shot might be. And it will be nice for SJU and Rutgers to play in the BET perennially. It might also help their recruiting.