Suggestion for a college basketball Champions League (SI)

[RandygoCuse]

I'm not sure where our bid is in the example - It's possible we got hosed this year becuase or realignment, but interesting nonetheless.

http://college-basketball.si.com/2013/05/08/college-basketball-schedule/

discuss

 

[orangefog]

Sounds like a good idea, but I have to ask my girlfriend and see if she thinks it is a good idea before I decide.

 

[RandygoCuse]

Sounds like a good idea, but I have to ask my girlfriend and see if she thinks it is a good idea before I decide.

Instead of asking, just go ahead and do it. She may like the surprise.

 

[TexanMark]

He left Cuse out of the list of teams...but yet mentions them in the body.

I think this article needs some work.

C-

 

[HoustonCuse]

Syracuse got left out because they didn't finish top 3 in any conference. The problem with the concept is basing it on last year's results in an era where teams have 60% to 90% turnover from season to season. Clearly, you'd want SU in as the #3 team from the ACC instead of Miami, but Miami had a better conference record last year.

 

[Alsacs]

No chance this would be successful without the Champions League type games not counting towards the NCAA mandated limit. Syracuse, Duke, Louisville, Kentucky et. al. wouldn't give up home games to play home/homes in a mythical first round like they do in the UEFA Champions League. The Champions League is something for the game of soccer because they don't just play regular season games during their seasons. The NBA doesn't have a Stern Cup during the season, MLB won't shut down once every 4 years for the WBC to played when everyone would be in proper shape, and hockey has just the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

If the NCAA said the Champions League games would be exempt each year and the conferences got the TV money from whomever bought the rights to the NCAA basketball Champions League then it could work. There are 32 conferences you give each conference 1 bid and then the more successful conferences would get more of the 32 other slots like the UEFA Champions League which cap 4 slots for the best league La Liga, BPL, Bundesliga.
So you would get 32 teams, then each of these conferences would get an additional ACC-3 B1G-3, PAC-3, Big XII-3, MWC-3, SEC-3, AAC-2, A-10-2, Big East-2, Missouri Valley-1, and give out the remaining 7 slots to the lower conferences.

You draw the 64 teams into 16 regions. You seed them 1-64 regardless of conferences and keep the top 16 apart. Play the 3 teams you are drawn into home/home. The group winner goes on, tiebreakers are head to head/if that doesn't decide the higher seed advances.

From there you get the 16 remaining teams and draw matchups, the highest 8 get home-court. Then your down to 8 and so-on.

Again, these games would have to be sprinkled in during the regular season from November till before March and the conference tournaments. It would affect 64 of the 320+ NCAA teams each year, but it would generate a crapload of money and would get fun matchups. The winning team would play 9 additional games during the season, and participating teams would play only a minimum of 6 more games under my format.

 

[realorange]

Just another money grab mainly for the networks. Basing it on the previous year is silly. Anyway you cut it, you won't have the best teams because nobody can predict what incoming freshmen will do let alone players coming back.

Why do we need this when we still have the most exciting tournament in all sports?

 

[DeGrozz]

The reason the Champions League, Europa, etc is played is because people wanted a chance to see AC Milan play Barca, or Munich play Liverpool and to have the best team in Europe be crowned. Without those tournaments, it wouldn't have happened.

In the NCAA, you get those match-ups. Pre-season tournaments, out-of-conference games, plus, their is a consolidated tournament championship; UNC plays UCLA, Kentucky plays Kansas, Georgetown plays Florida Gulf Coast/Davidson/VCU/Ohio/etc.

You get all the great match-ups people want to see.

 

[Orangezoo]

The reason the Champions League, Europa, etc is played is because people wanted a chance to see AC Milan play Barca, or Munich play Liverpool and to have the best team in Europe be crowned. Without those tournaments, it wouldn't have happened.

In the NCAA, you get those match-ups. Pre-season tournaments, out-of-conference games, plus, their is a consolidated tournament championship; UNC plays UCLA, Kentucky plays Kansas, Georgetown plays Florida Gulf Coast/Davidson/VCU/Ohio/etc.

You get all the great match-ups people want to see.

exactly- even the concacaf champs league is nothing compared to the primary champs league- that needs to include conmebol ..

if there is a forum for using the football system its the pros- having more teams allowing smaller markets to compete you could open up the major sports even more but it just doesnt work at the collegiate level where good matchups occur with regularity including mid major vs high major.

 

[Knicks411]

I think this would be really cool

 

[All4SU]

Oregon? Ole Miss? New Mexico? I stopped reading when I saw the list of teams and Syracuse and Louisville were not there. Obviously someone doesn't know the subject he is writing about.

 

[All4SU]

And let me add, I wish people would stop trying so hard to professionalize college sports. They are going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

 

[Knicks411]

I don't think we would necessarily get hosed on realignment.

We finished 5th in the conference last year. Maybe the old BE would be considered a 5 bid league, but if it was 4, then we'd be out of luck.

Oregon? Ole Miss? New Mexico? I stopped reading when I saw the list of teams and Syracuse and Louisville were not there. Obviously someone doesn't know the subject he is writing about.

Louisville is there

 

[Alsacs]

If they wanted to cut this down to 48 teams and have the previous season 32 conference tournament champions, and then the other 16 teams would come from the more successful leagues with a Cap of 3 from each conference that would work. It has to be a Champions League.
(Insert sponsor) Men's College Basketball Champions League automatic qualifiers

1. America East Albany
2. Atlantic 10 Saint Louis
3. AAC Louisville
4. ACC Miami
5. Atlantic Sun Florida Gulf Coast
6. Big XII Kansas
7. Big East Georgetown
8. Big Sky Montana
9. Big South Liberty
10. Big Ten Ohio State
11. Big West Pacific
12. Colonial James Madison
13. C-USA Memphis
14. Horizon Valparaiso
15. Ivy League Harvard
16. MAAC Iona
17. MAC Akron
18. MEAC North Carolina A&T
19. MVC Creighton
20. MWC New Mexico
21. NEC Long Island
22. OVC Belmont
23. Pac-12 Oregon
24. Patriot Bucknell
25. SEC Ole Miss
26. Southern Davidson
27. Southland Northwestern State
28. SWAC Southern
29. Summit South Dakota State
30. Sun Belt Western Kentucky
31. WCC Gonzaga
32. WAC New Mexico State

There are your automatic qualifers then the other 16 would go the most successful conferences with a Cap of 2 additional teams and no teams from the same conference can meet before the knockout stage after the first round.
AAC-1(Connecticut)
A-10-1 (VCU)
ACC-2 (Duke, Syracuse)
B1G-2 (Michigan, Indiana)
Big XII-2(Kansas State, Oklahoma State)
Big East-2(Marquette, Villanova)
MVC-1 (Wichita State)
MWC-1 (San Diego State)
Pac-12-2(Arizona,UCLA)
SEC-2 (Florida, Kentucky)
This way you reward teams from their previous season like Miami which takes a slot from North Carolina, and you spread the wealth around the country. Draw the 48 teams into 12 groups and play 6 games and the smaller teams get rewarded with atleast 1 if not 2 premiere home games the following year. The group winners and the top 4 runner ups advance to knockout games on the higher seeded teams home floors. Somebody please seed this for me as I can't do it now. I am looking at you @Knicks411 you know your stuff really well.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I'm not sure where our bid is in the example - It's possible we got hosed this year becuase or realignment, but interesting nonetheless.

http://college-basketball.si.com/2013/05/08/college-basketball-schedule/

discuss

They already have a champions league for college hoops - it's called the NCAA tournament.

 

[General20]

I like this idea, but it needs to be tweaked. Essentially the NCAA tournament is the same thing as the European Champions league. The champion of every league gathers for a grand tournament where the bigger and better leagues get multiple teams participating and the weaker leagues get fewer or only one.

A college champions league would have to offer something different. Personally, I'd like to see a very exclusive, small tournament that plays series. The champions of the 5 big conferences, then 3 at large teams that can come from any of the 5 majors or any of the mid-majors. Have those 8 teams play in a tournament where the team that wins a best of 5 series advances.

This way you can keep the NCAA tournament and all its excitement and upsets, but also have a tournament designed to crown the "best" team. Something the NCAA tournament is not really set up to do.

The only downside is the winner would play a potential 15 extra games which is a lot. The regular season would probably have to be shortened to accommodate for it. I doubt its realistic, but it would be a lot of fun, and also give a point to the conference tournaments - winning makes you able to play in the "champions league."

 

[Quazzum69]

Why not just have a 16-team tournament each December that includes all the high-profile teams (Duke, SU, Louisville, UK, UNC, Kansas, Florida, Ohio St., etc) and a few lesser but popular/pretty good teams (Gonzaga, UCLA, Texas, etc.)? Pre-conference tourneys are awesome but there needs to be a better effort to group the best teams into one that everyone wants to see. It could rotate cities each year and be billed as THE pre-season NCAA tournament with teams people want to watch.

 

[Alsacs]

Champions League could be added easily, and done the way I recommended above have the teams participating start their seasons off with the 6 round-robin group stage games during November and December. Then sprinkle in the round of 16, round of 8, round of 4, Championship game during the season in December, January, and February.
ESPN or FOX would probably pay big bucks for these games as they don't have the NCAA tournament like CBS/Turner and would create more revenue which is all these conferences care about.

 

[PoppyHart]

The beauty of the Champions League (as well as the domestic cup competitions in soccer) is the blind draw. You never know who you'll draw (subject to certain slotting rules) or where you'll play. Seeding teams ruins this, and should be kept to a minimum, so as to ensure some sort of competitive balance in the group stage.

 

[Alsacs]

The beauty of the Champions League (as well as the domestic cup competitions in soccer) is the blind draw. You never know who you'll draw (subject to certain slotting rules) or where you'll play. Seeding teams ruins this, and should be kept to a minimum, so as to ensure some sort of competitive balance in the group stage.

What I mean by seeding them is that even in the UEFA Champions League the top seeds are put in their own container so they don't get too many of the top teams grouped into the same first round group. The seeds are for balance and the fact you couldn't play home/homes after the first round or their would be too many games. You would still have the smaller schools playing the big boys, but I wouldn't want some groups like this Duke, Indiana, UCLA, Florida and then some like this Akron, Long Island, New Mexico, and Harvard. By seeding the teams and putting them in a different containers you could do a blind draw and create a competition that is balanced and have the teams grouped by 12 and have a blind drawing.

 

[pfister1]

Why not just sell the TV rights to games and then allow the TV executives to set the matchups based on what they believe would draw the most advertising revenue and greatest number of eyeballs. Oh wait, I guess they are already doing that.

 

[SU2NASA]

Georgetown plays Florida Gulf Coast/Davidson/VCU/Ohio/etc.

But they only get one of those games every March.