Another postseason tournament to compete with CBI

[Da Coach]

CollegeInsider.com plans to host a postseason tournament involving 16 teams not named to the NCAA or NIT. Very little details have been released, but it sounds like it may be similar to the CBI (College Basketball Invitational) tournament that Bradley was a finalist for last year.
The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/about.html

Here is the selection Committee-

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/committee.html

Schedule of games-

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/schedule.html

And a comment from the New York Times-
Do we really need a fourth postseason college basketball tournament?

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/college-basketball-gets-another-postseason-tournament/

[Jack Bauer]

Wow...it appears as if college basketball may be going the way of college football. Essentially, college bowl games make up your 'NIT' and 'CBI', with the BCS games and BCS Championship being the only truly meaningful games. The NCAA Tournament is essentially the 'BCS', with the NIT, CBI, and now this tournament being your postseason consolation prizes for an average season (i.e. your 6-6 'bowl eligible' teams). My hope is that these tournaments truly reward teams for good seasons, and don't lower themselves to taking 'names' that might get a slightly bigger following (i.e. Cincinnati last year in the CBI).

While part of me wants to believe this is a good thing, another part of me thinks the NCAA is going to use this vehicle to basically eliminate any non-BCS teams from the field of 65.

[TheAsianSensation]

You'd think it's one too many, but tornado posted the key quote. They're targeting the small conferences. I applaud that.

[Murph]

Wow...it appears as if college basketball may be going the way of college football. Essentially, college bowl games make up your 'NIT' and 'CBI', with the BCS games and BCS Championship being the only truly meaningful games. The NCAA Tournament is essentially the 'BCS', with the NIT, CBI, and now this tournament being your postseason consolation prizes for an average season (i.e. your 6-6 'bowl eligible' teams). My hope is that these tournaments truly reward teams for good seasons, and don't lower themselves to taking 'names' that might get a slightly bigger following (i.e. Cincinnati last year in the CBI).

While part of me wants to believe this is a good thing, another part of me thinks the NCAA is going to use this vehicle to basically eliminate any non-BCS teams from the field of 65.

Well said, it's turning into a joke.

[RedbirdFan21]

I like how they say- Lou Henson- "Illinois University"

[dogsrus]

Hey...it gives isu something to shoot for.....

[squirrel]

The catch 22 here is that yes, there is a need. . .every year there are about 2 dozen teams that have winning seasons and don't have a prayer of postseason and would love an opportunity such as this. Chicago State could win 18 or more games this year. I would've argued 20 if they won last night.

The problem is the event still needs to make money. The problem the CBI ran into was some schools not wanting to go on the road. With smaller schools, they would likely sell out or close to it.

The CBI proved to be profitable enough for the organizers and participants that schools that said no last year are saying "give us a call" this year.

[Da Coach]

Well said, it's turning into a joke.

Think of these tournaments as similar to the Coaches vs. Cancer, Las Vegas Classic, or the South Padre Island tournaments.

They are not meant to compete with the NCAA or even the NIT tournaments, and nobody is suggesting that the winner of the CBI or this CollegeInsider.com tournament has any claim to national prominence.

It is simply a means for programs from smaller conferences to play games against other opponents, maybe some from big conferences, and get recognized a little.

Bradley would otherwise never be given a chance to play a Big East school like Cincinnati at home, or have a chance to play an ACC school like Virginia at all. As long as midmajor schools are willing to risk losing money, it is a good thing for them. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see conference like the Big East and the ACC tell their members to stay out of them, for fear of being embarrassed by a Bradley.

[Lakeview Brave]

Think of these tournaments as similar to the Coaches vs. Cancer, Las Vegas Classic, or the South Padre Island tournaments.

They are not meant to compete with the NCAA or even the NIT tournaments, and nobody is suggesting that the winner of the CBI or this CollegeInsider.com tournament has any claim to national prominence.

It is simply a means for programs from smaller conferences to play games against other opponents, maybe some from big conferences, and get recognized a little.

Bradley would otherwise never be given a chance to play a Big East school like Cincinnati at home, or have a chance to play an ACC school like Virginia at all. As long as midmajor schools are willing to risk losing money, it is a good thing for them. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see conference like the Big East and the ACC tell their members to stay out of them, for fear of being embarrassed by a Bradley.

The Big East has DePaul that's all the embarrassment one conference can handle

[Guinness]

Why are we complaining? We'd get to play more...against non-conference teams. It would hold us all over until baseball season starts to heat up.

[Bravesfan]

Wow...it appears as if college basketball may be going the way of college football. Essentially, college bowl games make up your 'NIT' and 'CBI', with the BCS games and BCS Championship being the only truly meaningful games. The NCAA Tournament is essentially the 'BCS', with the NIT, CBI, and now this tournament being your postseason consolation prizes for an average season (i.e. your 6-6 'bowl eligible' teams). My hope is that these tournaments truly reward teams for good seasons, and don't lower themselves to taking 'names' that might get a slightly bigger following (i.e. Cincinnati last year in the CBI).

While part of me wants to believe this is a good thing, another part of me thinks the NCAA is going to use this vehicle to basically eliminate any non-BCS teams from the field of 65.

Welcome to the boards Jack!

I don't see the NCAA elimnating the non-BCS teams from the NCAA Tournament as this would really set off a lot of outrage if that happened. As long as the NCAA Tournament allows the conference champion from each conference in and the NIT allows any regular season champions that don't make the NCAA's, there will always be at least a minimum number of non-BCS teams in each tournament. And that's what gives each tournament their flavor. Eliminate the non-BCS teams and each tourney will lose some luster.

I don't have a problem with more tourneys. Let's hope though that we don't have so many that an 8-20 team is still playing in the middle of March!

That was a good point that IUPUI was left out of postseason play with 26 wins, though I do believe that they passed up the CBI last year due to lack of funding from the school. Apparently the CollegeInsider tournament will be funded by sponsors, so schools don't have to worry about forking over $60,000 to participate and then losing more money due to small crowds.

Nonetheless, I'd say if you are a .500 team in the Valley, your chances of making the postseason have gone up dramatically! I think Evansville and Wichita St might still have a shot at one of these two newer tournaments!

[Bravesfan]

Think of these tournaments as similar to the Coaches vs. Cancer, Las Vegas Classic, or the South Padre Island tournaments.

They are not meant to compete with the NCAA or even the NIT tournaments, and nobody is suggesting that the winner of the CBI or this CollegeInsider.com tournament has any claim to national prominence.

It is simply a means for programs from smaller conferences to play games against other opponents, maybe some from big conferences, and get recognized a little.

Bradley would otherwise never be given a chance to play a Big East school like Cincinnati at home, or have a chance to play an ACC school like Virginia at all. As long as midmajor schools are willing to risk losing money, it is a good thing for them. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see conference like the Big East and the ACC tell their members to stay out of them, for fear of being embarrassed by a Bradley.

Good points. Maybe these BCS teams can go play in the CollegeInsider.com tournament so they can get embarrassed by the likes of IUPUI or Middle Tennessee State!

[Jack Bauer]

Welcome to the boards Jack!

I don't see the NCAA elimnating the non-BCS teams from the NCAA Tournament as this would really set off a lot of outrage if that happened. As long as the NCAA Tournament allows the conference champion from each conference in and the NIT allows any regular season champions that don't make the NCAA's, there will always be at least a minimum number of non-BCS teams in each tournament. And that's what gives each tournament their flavor. Eliminate the non-BCS teams and each tourney will lose some luster.

I don't have a problem with more tourneys. Let's hope though that we don't have so many that an 8-20 team is still playing in the middle of March!

That was a good point that IUPUI was left out of postseason play with 26 wins, though I do believe that they passed up the CBI last year due to lack of funding from the school. Apparently the CollegeInsider tournament will be funded by sponsors, so schools don't have to worry about forking over $60,000 to participate and then losing more money due to small crowds.

Nonetheless, I'd say if you are a .500 team in the Valley, your chances of making the postseason have gone up dramatically! I think Evansville and Wichita St might still have a shot at one of these two newer tournaments!

Thanks for the kind welcome. It's a pleasure to use the computer for other things besides scrambling security cameras and pinpointing terror cell locations. That being said, in spirit and in theory, there is a place for more postseason basketball. But with the NCAA being what they are, I fear that the tournaments will never be run for the right reasons or run the right way. The mighty giant is too self-concious and paranoid, and the BCS is too married to the giant to ever make those fields legit. The NCAA already bought out one non-competitor in the NIT, it's only a matter of time before they buy out these other tourneys if they become successful. It's kind of like us rolling the tanks over the border. We maintain it's for rights and freedom, but often times those motives are blurred.

[Bravesfan]

Thanks for the kind welcome. It's a pleasure to use the computer for other things besides scrambling security cameras and pinpointing terror cell locations. That being said, in spirit and in theory, there is a place for more postseason basketball. But with the NCAA being what they are, I fear that the tournaments will never be run for the right reasons or run the right way. The mighty giant is too self-concious and paranoid, and the BCS is too married to the giant to ever make those fields legit. The NCAA already bought out one non-competitor in the NIT, it's only a matter of time before they buy out these other tourneys if they become successful. It's kind of like us rolling the tanks over the border. We maintain it's for rights and freedom, but often times those motives are blurred.

No problem. Oh btw, you are doing a great job this season! Keep the U.S. safe from all of those terrorists!

Seriously though, I hope that the NCAA does not start buying up every new tournament that pops up. Hopefully the CBI and the CI.com tournaments make enough money on their own so that they don't need to be bought out by a money machine that is so jealous by even a hint of competition! Sounds like the NCAA does not want to play by the rules of a free market society. Thank god for these other tourneys, and that non-BCS conference can still get some games in exempt tournaments against BCS teams that would normally not play them during the regular season!

So it says you live in Baku? How did you hear of this board? Were you a Bradley student?

[Jack Bauer]

No problem. Oh btw, you are doing a great job this season! Keep the U.S. safe from all of those terrorists!

Seriously though, I hope that the NCAA does not start buying up every new tournament that pops up. Hopefully the CBI and the CI.com tournaments make enough money on their own so that they don't need to be bought out by a money machine that is so jealous by even a hint of competition! Sounds like the NCAA does not want to play by the rules of a free market society. Thank god for these other tourneys, and that non-BCS conference can still get some games in exempt tournaments against BCS teams that would normally not play them during the regular season!

So it says you live in Baku? How did you hear of this board? Were you a Bradley student?

The NCAA could be in trouble. There are several scenarios out there where they could be sued under anti-trust laws and they may be forced to open the books, which would bring down the whole show. My only hope for the organization being run on the up-and-up is for someone with integrity taking over for Myles Brand. Unfortunately, I fear the organization is run now similar to the way the country is run, by money and special interests. I can hope, but as Red said in Shawshank 'Hope is a dangerous thing'.

I don't live in Baku, it's just where my current engagement has taken me. The last 72 hours have taken me to Washington DC, London, Frankfurt, and now Baku. I won't be here much longer, right now my future location is still classified. However, I can say that I have some 'Redemption' on my mind starting next week...