Doug Elgin puzzled by NCAA's lack of respect for MVC

[Da Coach]

Comissioner Doug Elgin surprised by a #9 seed for MVC champion

Elgin puzzled by MVC’s ‘lack of respect’

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2010/03/15/sports/local/doc4b9dbc76453fb170744405.txt#vmix_media_id=11566394

Fifteen teams with worse RPIs than Northern Iowa got better seeds than the Panthers in this year’s men’s NCAA Tournament.

Elgin admits it might be time to re-evaluate the dates of his league’s annual tournament in St. Louis.
Elgin admits that he doesn’t like “the rust factor” that can come into play between the end of the Valley’s tournament and the start of the NCAA Tournament — which, this year, is 11 days.
The commissioner also is aware of the added momentum some major-conference “bubble teams” benefit from by gaining media exposure through conference-tournament runs that take place close to Selection Sunday.

[tornado]

so Elgin is just now noticing a lack of respect for the Valley?
this has been going on for years.....anyone recall Missouri State and their 21 RPI being left out?

[BradleyBrave]

I was arguing with my friends down in St. Louis about moving the MVC Tournament to the next weekend. I truly believe we get forgotten about amongst all the hoopla of conference tournament week. There's still room for us that weekend, and still a spot for our title game on a major network. Maybe it will make a big difference, maybe it won't. But I think it's worth a try.

[JMM28]

I was arguing with my friends down in St. Louis about moving the MVC Tournament to the next weekend. I truly believe we get forgotten about amongst all the hoopla of conference tournament week. There's still room for us that weekend, and still a spot for our title game on a major network. Maybe it will make a big difference, maybe it won't. But I think it's worth a try.

There would be plenty of room for the Valley championship that Sunday, whether it be on ESPN or CBS. Even if you move back the dates to Thurs-Sat and play the play-in rounds on campus, or Wednesday. Gotta start acting like big boys.

[squirrelgotdead]

If there are changes to the NCAA Tournament (such as an expansion to 96 teams) you'll see 2 changes:

1) CBS will likely be out of college basketball altogether or the event will be forced to go to premium cable. While they are likely to put together a package to carry the event, their bidding will only be to drive the cost up. They are prepared to lose the event, but they will make whoever picks it up, pay.

2) Change to the competition calendar. Depending on whether or not the Tournament calendar moves up (creates travel chaos for teams having to possibly play in 2 different cities on short notice) or pushes back (CBS conflict with Masters), nearly all the conferences would have to reschedule their tournament schedule. It's entirely possible the smaller leagues discontinue them altogether in that they will calculate better odds to get their best 2 teams in would fare better than an upstart tourney winner and their champ.

[TheAsianSensation]

I was arguing with my friends down in St. Louis about moving the MVC Tournament to the next weekend. I truly believe we get forgotten about amongst all the hoopla of conference tournament week. There's still room for us that weekend, and still a spot for our title game on a major network. Maybe it will make a big difference, maybe it won't. But I think it's worth a try.

I'm not so sure there's room. Our semifinal games would get absolutely buried, and the A-10 took the early Sunday slot on CBS. That's the slot Elgin needed to get into after it was vacated by the Big 12.

[MDCowboy]

TAS - it was the SEC that moved out of that noon slot on CBS. Went to ABC this year. The A-10 did swoop in and take that good time slot.

Regarding the semifinals, the MVC only gets on MVC-TV for those games anyway, so how much more buried are we going to be if we moved to the Saturday? There would actually be less games that day, so we might get our scores shown someplace atleast.

[BradleyBrave]

TAS - it was the SEC that moved out of that noon slot on CBS. Went to ABC this year. The A-10 did swoop in and take that good time slot.

Regarding the semifinals, the MVC only gets on MVC-TV for those games anyway, so how much more buried are we going to be if we moved to the Saturday? There would actually be less games that day, so we might get our scores shown someplace atleast.

We would either be on FSN/Comcast or ESPN.

[TheAsianSensation]

TAS - it was the SEC that moved out of that noon slot on CBS. Went to ABC this year. The A-10 did swoop in and take that good time slot.

Regarding the semifinals, the MVC only gets on MVC-TV for those games anyway, so how much more buried are we going to be if we moved to the Saturday? There would actually be less games that day, so we might get our scores shown someplace atleast.

Well they went to ABC after the Big 12 left that slot and moved to Saturday. So it was a chain reaction thing.

I don't think playing alongside the ACC on Sunday is best case scenario for the MVC.

[MDCowboy]

Big 12 was on ESPN at 2:00pm for a handful of years. They haven't been on CBS in a long time.

[BradleyJD]

Is the coverage on CBS getting us anything now??? We are getting fewer teams in than ever right now.

Move the tournament, put the whole thing on Fox and be done with it. The title game on CBS is nice, but we are still only getting the 1 bid. Its not like the CBS coverage is helping us with bids.

[it's boogie time]

Until the Valley puts some better teams together, it doesn't matter what tv station or dates the Valley tournament is on.

[real fan]

These conf. tournaments and CBS contracts bring in a lot of money, we just needed for UNI to tank the game against Wichita like some of the other conferences appeared to do in order to get 1 more team guaranteed into the tour; and a no.9 seed is completely insane for UNI .

[houstontxbrave]

The Valley tourny has to be remodified to put the finals closer to the Sunday Selection date. Regardless of seeds or teams getting into the tourney. Having to sit for sometimes 12 days is not fair to the team(s) that get invited.

But beyond that it has always felt like the Valley gets forgotten between its game on Sunday and the selection date.

Right now it doesnt really matter when the final is held, even today often the Valley tourney goes against regular season games on Sunday and even on Saturday that have more national interest then the Valley tourney.

Keep the weekend format, play your game on Sunday and I agree keep it all on Fox, do not pimp out like the CUSA and play your championship at 1030am on Saturday. Exposure is one thing fairness is quite another.

BTW CUSA, what were you thinking playing semifinal games at 2:30 and 5 on Friday? Tulsa plays in its own arena and cant draw flies... terrible decision to play semifinals in the middle of a Friday.

[Tulsa Brave]

The Valley tourny has to be remodified to put the finals closer to the Sunday Selection date. Regardless of seeds or teams getting into the tourney. Having to sit for sometimes 12 days is not fair to the team(s) that get invited.

But beyond that it has always felt like the Valley gets forgotten between its game on Sunday and the selection date.

Right now it doesnt really matter when the final is held, even today often the Valley tourney goes against regular season games on Sunday and even on Saturday that have more national interest then the Valley tourney.

Keep the weekend format, play your game on Sunday and I agree keep it all on Fox, do not pimp out like the CUSA and play your championship at 1030am on Saturday. Exposure is one thing fairness is quite another.

BTW CUSA, what were you thinking playing semifinal games at 2:30 and 5 on Friday? Tulsa plays in its own arena and cant draw flies... terrible decision to play semifinals in the middle of a Friday.

Friday had the best attendence of the whole tourney...it would have been even better had Tulsa played the 5:30 game, but they played the first semifinal to give the higher seed more rest before the early morning championship game. They can't play the semis later in the evening due to that early morning championship. Also the tourney was not in Tulsa's arena...it was nowhere near campus, so students couldn't get there anyway. It was in the new BOK Center, which is huge making the crowds look smaller than they were. Probably should have been played on campus in the smaller arena...