NCAA wanted to save March Madness with 16 team tournament but scrapped it

[Alsacs]

Why can’t they do this in 2 months?

 

[Jasoncuse]

Why couldn't they just postpone the tourney and revisit it in mid-April - perhaps playing in May?

I suppose it's because numerous schools have gone online temporarily or for the semester, with kids being asked to head home. Can't have the hoops teams sticking around for a potential tourney...

 

[Marty McFly]

should have been suspended, and revisit the idea later. Can always cancel.

 

[UpstateSM]

I don’t think postponing and playing a full tournament would have worked logistically. It wouldn’t have been the same anyways

 

[texascpa]

Why couldn't they just postpone the tourney and revisit it in mid-April - perhaps playing in May?

I suppose it's because numerous schools have gone online temporarily or for the semester, with kids being asked to head home. Can't have the hoops teams sticking around for a potential tourney...

that and all of the facilities, logistics, transportation, vendors, support, and everything else that goes into it.

 

[miamicuse]

By May many colleges are already ending their semesters.

Now the schools are debating if graduation ceremonies are going to be a problem.

Japan is now worrying about what to do with the summer Olympics.

 

[DomeStranger]

From what I heard they had to cancel to get out of their contracts with all the venues and vendors involved. Right now, cancelling due to a pandemic while the country is under a national emergency should allow those contracts to be cancelled somewhat easily. If you suspend it, and still profit, it makes everything cloudy and turns into a tougher litigation battle.

 

[Madbiker]

The NCAA could always just award the title to blue blood Kansas or Kentucky. You know they want to. Maybe flip a coin. I'm surprised they didn't execute something really dumb. Any added stress just exhibits how poorly the NCAA is run.

 

[SBU72]

Why couldn't they just postpone the tourney and revisit it in mid-April - perhaps playing in May?

I suppose it's because numerous schools have gone online temporarily or for the semester, with kids being asked to head home. Can't have the hoops teams sticking around for a potential tourney...

Yup way to many schools sending kids home. You going to suspend practice up until 1 or 2 weeks before? What about seniors and 1 n dones? Do they get to be able to play after declaring to go pro and/or hiring agents?

 

[Chris02M]

the 16 team thing would be not march madness as only the top 16 teams would make it better off cancelling. if they wanted to do a mini tournament the only thing to do would be only autobids for tournament(32 team)

 

[OrangeXtreme]

the 16 team thing would be not march madness as only the top 16 teams would make it better off cancelling. if they wanted to do a mini tournament the only thing to do would be only autobids for tournament(32 team)

It might not have even been the top 16 teams. If a team declined to participate, they would invite #17 or #18 and go down the list until they filled out the bracket.

 

[Chris02M]

It might not have even been the top 16 teams. If a team declined to participate, they would invite #17 or #18 and go down the list until they filled out the bracket.

not worth it for just 16 teams

 

[jncuse]

16 teams is not march madness but it is better than nothing. I would have certainly watched if the logistics could have worked

 

[jncuse]

Some more details on this that I heard.

The tournament would have started Thursday March 19th (next week) and ended on Monday. 4 rounds in 5 days all at one site. They wanted to get the tournament over quickly before any real spread. The committee would have seeded about 40 teams, and the top 16 to say yes would have been invited. But it seems the Gobert case just brought too much risk.

All 16 teams were "at-large"... no auto selections.

May was never a real consideration. The fear was that many players would have left by that point preparing for the the pros.

 

[Briancuse]

Why can’t they do this in 2 months?

What are the guys with nba futures going to do? Not hire agents and go through the draft process with the slim possibility of playing in the tournament?

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

It’s actually a great idea to have a 16 team tournament in a closed gym. The double digit seeds haven’t done much recently and yeah you lose the first weekend duh.

1-4 seed deathmatch.

Would be better than any NBA best of 7 bore fest vs college single elimination. Honestly would probably be too good of a thing if it happened cause it would be that good.

 

[texascpa]

16 teams is not march madness but it is better than nothing. I would have certainly watched if the logistics could have worked

Does that mean the NCAA tournaments from 1939-1952 don't count?

 

[Cusefan0307]

The NCAA could always just award the title to blue blood Kansas or Kentucky. You know they want to. Maybe flip a coin. I'm surprised they didn't execute something really dumb. Any added stress just exhibits how poorly the NCAA is run.

Kansas would win if they did that. Problem is I don’t think the NCAA wants Kansas to win.

 

[miamicuse]

The 2019-2020 NCAA BB champion has been vacated.