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So I was listening to ESPN radio for a few seconds today and they interviewed the coach from Purdue. They were talking about conference tourney and of course mentioned MSG in 2 years...

Got me wondering. If the Big Ten in 2 years has a great NCAA tournament after doing the tourney at MSG a week early, could we see the bigger tournaments moved up a week, giving teams a week between the conference tourney and the NCAA tourney? I could see a week break there being a very good thing.

I could see B1G schools scheduling a non-conference home game after the Big Ten Tourney.

MVC has ended on that weekend for a long time now. Never liked it, too long of a break between games for NCAA teams.

MUPanther wrote:I could see B1G schools scheduling a non-conference home game after the Big Ten Tourney.

yeah and no. for one, isn't this week for some schools spring break? Also if you are barely on the bubble, do you want a game that could kill you?

One question I have. Say you are a Michigan and you are really close to being in. You have your tournament and see you are barely out. Could you dial up say a Hofstra or another team who has played only 12 OOC games, and schedule a game for that Saturday on the fly? You would know that if you win, you would probably get in.

Isn't the Big Ten well known for finishing their championship game like a half hour before the Selection Show?

If I was the Big Ten commissioner, I would keep the current format. It's a neat tradition, and it adds to the excitement on Selection Sunday.

I'm guessing the reference to another OOC game was tongue in cheek. No one is going to play them during that week.

I would not want the 11 or 12 day lay-off from championship game to tournament game - which also means that for all teams except the ones in the championship it is essentially a two week lay-off. As CU can attest by the eggs it laid against Seton Hall and Marquette this year coming off of 8 game lay-offs, it is difficult to maintain focus and intensity over that long period of time. I think you see more teams come out of such a layoff more rusty than the number of teams that manage to hit the ground running after that long of a layoff.

milksteak wrote:Isn't the Big Ten well known for finishing their championship game like a half hour before the Selection Show?

If I was the Big Ten commissioner, I would keep the current format. It's a neat tradition, and it adds to the excitement on Selection Sunday.

But they are already moving it up a week in 2 years to play at MSG.

stever20 wrote:

MUPanther wrote:I could see B1G schools scheduling a non-conference home game after the Big Ten Tourney.

yeah and no. for one, isn't this week for some schools spring break? Also if you are barely on the bubble, do you want a game that could kill you?

One question I have. Say you are a Michigan and you are really close to being in. You have your tournament and see you are barely out. Could you dial up say a Hofstra or another team who has played only 12 OOC games, and schedule a game for that Saturday on the fly? You would know that if you win, you would probably get in.

This would be really interesting if it was allowed to be done. I'm assuming it isn't though because otherwise why wouldn't mid majors already do this? Monmouth and Valpo are both likely out right now (at least clearly on the bubble) because of a lack of big wins and weak schedule. Well if they played one another this Saturday afternoon it could serve as a de facto play in game for the tournament and give the winner a huge chip it didn't previously have.

The more I think about it the more I love the idea. Post conference tourney pre NCAA tourney bracket busters would be a lot of fun.

XtoDC wrote:

stever20 wrote:

MUPanther wrote:I could see B1G schools scheduling a non-conference home game after the Big Ten Tourney.

yeah and no. for one, isn't this week for some schools spring break? Also if you are barely on the bubble, do you want a game that could kill you?

One question I have. Say you are a Michigan and you are really close to being in. You have your tournament and see you are barely out. Could you dial up say a Hofstra or another team who has played only 12 OOC games, and schedule a game for that Saturday on the fly? You would know that if you win, you would probably get in.

This would be really interesting if it was allowed to be done. I'm assuming it isn't though because otherwise why wouldn't mid majors already do this? Monmouth and Valpo are both likely out right now (at least clearly on the bubble) because of a lack of big wins and weak schedule. Well if they played one another this Saturday afternoon it could serve as a de facto play in game for the tournament and give the winner a huge chip it didn't previously have.

The more I think about it the more I love the idea. Post conference tourney pre NCAA tourney bracket busters would be a lot of fun.

Those teams though have played their full 31 game regular season....

Hofstra right now though has only 30 games regular season(not counting conference tourney). they could play. Wichita St has only 30. they could play.

stever20 wrote:

XtoDC wrote:

stever20 wrote:yeah and no. for one, isn't this week for some schools spring break? Also if you are barely on the bubble, do you want a game that could kill you?

One question I have. Say you are a Michigan and you are really close to being in. You have your tournament and see you are barely out. Could you dial up say a Hofstra or another team who has played only 12 OOC games, and schedule a game for that Saturday on the fly? You would know that if you win, you would probably get in.

This would be really interesting if it was allowed to be done. I'm assuming it isn't though because otherwise why wouldn't mid majors already do this? Monmouth and Valpo are both likely out right now (at least clearly on the bubble) because of a lack of big wins and weak schedule. Well if they played one another this Saturday afternoon it could serve as a de facto play in game for the tournament and give the winner a huge chip it didn't previously have.

The more I think about it the more I love the idea. Post conference tourney pre NCAA tourney bracket busters would be a lot of fun.

Those teams though have played their full 31 game regular season....

Hofstra right now though has only 30 games regular season(not counting conference tourney). they could play. Wichita St has only 30. they could play.

I think your taking the hypothetical a little too seriously since I was just using Monmouth and Valpo as example teams that could really benefit from this idea. I'm sure there are other reasons I don't know about why this could never happen, but if there weren't and this became a thing that was possible then you could see teams in that mid major range leave a game open on their schedule for this purpose. As of right now even if Valpo and Monmouth had an extra game they could play it wouldn't happen before Sunday.