Gavitt Games Announced

[David HD]

Hyperbole much? Maybe Nova vs Michigan St would have generated as much interest as the champions classic. But wouldn't say that would generate far more interest than the champions classic- or even the Indiana/Kansas, Arizona/Michigan St double header in Hawaii(another reason why Michigan St isn't playing).

It's tough to call out Michigan St when they play Arizona, Kentucky, Battle 4 Atlantis, and ACC/Big Ten challenge in the first 3 weeks of the season.

I don't think it's hyperbole, nor am I calling out Michigan State. If given the choice, I think they'd jump at the chance to play in this in addition to everything else.

How many top fifteen OOC match ups were there last year?

Nova v Oklahoma
Nova v Virginia
I remember the West Virgina v Virginia game, but don't remember if both were top fifteen at the time, but we'll count it.
Michigan State v Kansas
Louisville was #16 when they played Kentucky, so...close enough I guess
Duke v Kentucky
Maryland v UNC

I think Indiana had fallen out of the rankings by the time they played Duke and got smashed. But, if you want to count that one we can.

That's less than ten, and that's less then ten when you stretch it. Now, how many of those games featured two top ten teams??

I'm not calling out Michigan State, nor am I whining that Xavier got screwed. I'm POINTING out that this event had the chance to create a premier showcase OOC game that would have ranked as one of the biggest OOC games of the college basketball season, and took a pass on it. Why?? Well, because they couldn't fit it in to the four days they wanted to fit it in to.

Ummm....okay. I guess. That's not hyperbole. I also don't intend to make it sound like I'm blaming Michigan State. But, it was a huge missed opportunity for the Gavitt Games, and I'd say for the networks, conferences, and teams as well.

[NJRedman]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Then it's MSU vs either Nova or X every year? No, the point is for good OOC match ups, thats why it's 8 games instead of 2 or 3. If it was about the best match ups then why even have anyone but the top 2-3 teams play?

[scoscox]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Exactly. It is a goal of these challenges to help all the teams get an opportunity at a good non con game, but it's also usually a goal to have a few high-profile marquee matchups that everyone wants to see to spotlight the conferences. This challenge hasn't really done a great job of that so far and from a fan's perspective it's been disappointing. The "point" is to try to prove which conference is the better conference (hence the challenge part) and it's hard to settle that unless you have each team fighting in their own weight class. You're telling me you wouldn't want to see Xavier play Michigan State, so we can send in Depaul to get smacked around in the name of parity and fairness and Xavier can play Rutgers. Sports is a meritocracy. X is "a special snowflake" in the Big East right now, so I suggest you take your own advice and deal with it.

I think this just had more to do with the time constraints and the organizers not communicating to Greg Christopher that they would be problematic to the point where we would not be able to participate and would thus need to schedule another game.

If I'm wrong and this is really not the goal then what is the point of having this entire event? Schools can easily schedule mediocre non conference games on their own without making it a conference vs. conference type of event.

[NJRedman]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Exactly. It is a goal of these challenges to help all the teams get an opportunity at a good non con game, but it's also usually a goal to have a few high-profile marquee matchups that everyone wants to see to spotlight the conferences. This challenge hasn't really done a great job of that so far and from a fan's perspective it's been disappointing. The "point" is to try to prove which conference is the better conference (hence the challenge part) and it's hard to settle that unless you have each team fighting in their own weight class. You're telling me you wouldn't want to see Xavier play Michigan State, so we can send in Depaul to get smacked around in the name of parity and fairness and Xavier can play Rutgers. Sports is a meritocracy. X is "a special snowflake" in the Big East right now, so I suggest you take your own advice and deal with it.

I think this just had more to do with the time constraints and the organizers not communicating to Greg Christopher that they would be problematic to the point where we would not be able to participate and would thus need to schedule another game.

If I'm wrong and this is really not the goal then what is the point of having this entire event? Schools can easily schedule mediocre non conference games on their own without making it a conference vs. conference type of event.

So Maryland/GTown isn't a high profile matchup that put a spotlight on the leagues this past year? There is no "Challenge" part. It's the Gavitt Games not the Big East/B1G challenge. I think a lot of you guys didn't realize that. It's NOT to see who the better conference is because thats a pretty dumb way to determine that since they have 4 more teams than us and only 8 of their 14 play.

We have YEARS left on this deal, stop acting like just because we didn't get what YOU perceive to be the best match up doesn't mean it's a missed opportunity. If we wanted the best match up then it's MSU vs Nova. NOT X.

You're not a snow flake, you're just a bunch of cry babies.

[scoscox]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Then it's MSU vs either Nova or X every year? No, the point is for good OOC match ups, thats why it's 8 games instead of 2 or 3. If it was about the best match ups then why even have anyone but the top 2-3 teams play?

That's assuming that Nova and X and MSU are at the top of the conferences every year. There are other good matchups and teams. Purdue, OSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maryland and Michigan are all perennial top 25 teams and hopefully teams like Marquette, Georgetown, Creighton, etc will be for the Big East will be as well. Those can be rotated yearly. It's just disappointing that Xavier didn't get a game at all this year, especially when the potential was there for a top 10/ top 5 matchup.

Also, you literally say the point is for good OOC matchups and then basically contradict yourself in the next sentence. They obviously want to have good matchups and are trying to help all the teams in the conference out, but want marquee games.

[scoscox]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Exactly. It is a goal of these challenges to help all the teams get an opportunity at a good non con game, but it's also usually a goal to have a few high-profile marquee matchups that everyone wants to see to spotlight the conferences. This challenge hasn't really done a great job of that so far and from a fan's perspective it's been disappointing. The "point" is to try to prove which conference is the better conference (hence the challenge part) and it's hard to settle that unless you have each team fighting in their own weight class. You're telling me you wouldn't want to see Xavier play Michigan State, so we can send in Depaul to get smacked around in the name of parity and fairness and Xavier can play Rutgers. Sports is a meritocracy. X is "a special snowflake" in the Big East right now, so I suggest you take your own advice and deal with it.

I think this just had more to do with the time constraints and the organizers not communicating to Greg Christopher that they would be problematic to the point where we would not be able to participate and would thus need to schedule another game.

If I'm wrong and this is really not the goal then what is the point of having this entire event? Schools can easily schedule mediocre non conference games on their own without making it a conference vs. conference type of event.

So Maryland/GTown isn't a high profile matchup that put a spotlight on the leagues this past year? There is no "Challenge" part. It's the Gavitt Games not the Big East/B1G challenge. I think a lot of you guys didn't realize that. It's NOT to see who the better conference is because thats a pretty dumb way to determine that since they have 4 more teams than us and only 8 of their 14 play.

We have YEARS left on this deal, stop acting like just because we didn't get what YOU perceive to be the best match up doesn't mean it's a missed opportunity. If we wanted the best match up then it's MSU vs Nova. NOT X.

You're not a snow flake, you're just a bunch of cry babies.

I don't think I'm being biased in anyway in saying that since Xavier will most likely be in the preseason top 10 or 15 that it is a missed opportunity for a great early season game. MSU vs. Nova is definitely the best match-up I'm not arguing that at all, but Xavier vs. Indiana would have been good. Or Purdue, or literally anyone. Why are you upset with us? We are complaining because we were told there would be a game, there wasn't, and now we are left holding the proverbial bill. This isn't even basketball related. No one said anything about St. John's mom. What's your deal? Would you not be upset if the same thing happened to St. John's? I just don't get where you're coming from.

[NJRedman]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Once again it's not a challenge. If it was we'd see 10 games a year like with the SEC/XII challenge.

[NJRedman]

totally disagree redman. The goal of it should be to get the best matchups. Every other challenge currently going tries to do that. Why you saw Kansas and Kentucky in the Big 12/SEC challenge last year. You don't see Kansas going to play at a South Carolina.

Then it's MSU vs either Nova or X every year? No, the point is for good OOC match ups, thats why it's 8 games instead of 2 or 3. If it was about the best match ups then why even have anyone but the top 2-3 teams play?

That's assuming that Nova and X and MSU are at the top of the conferences every year. There are other good matchups and teams. Purdue, OSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maryland and Michigan are all perennial top 25 teams and hopefully teams like Marquette, Georgetown, Creighton, etc will be for the Big East will be as well. Those can be rotated yearly. It's just disappointing that Xavier didn't get a game at all this year, especially when the potential was there for a top 10/ top 5 matchup.

Also, you literally say the point is for good OOC matchups and then basically contradict yourself in the next sentence. They obviously want to have good matchups and are trying to help all the teams in the conference out, but want marquee games.

Then you shouldn't have accepted an invite to Puerto Rico.

Good match ups, not the best vs the best. MSU obviously wanted no part of playing X on the road in a tight window they had between the champions classic and Hawaii. MSU doesn't owe you **** so stop crying about it. Every school is going to miss this a few times. This year it was you. Get over it. You want a high seed in the NCAA's? Win the conference title.

[NJRedman]

Exactly. It is a goal of these challenges to help all the teams get an opportunity at a good non con game, but it's also usually a goal to have a few high-profile marquee matchups that everyone wants to see to spotlight the conferences. This challenge hasn't really done a great job of that so far and from a fan's perspective it's been disappointing. The "point" is to try to prove which conference is the better conference (hence the challenge part) and it's hard to settle that unless you have each team fighting in their own weight class. You're telling me you wouldn't want to see Xavier play Michigan State, so we can send in Depaul to get smacked around in the name of parity and fairness and Xavier can play Rutgers. Sports is a meritocracy. X is "a special snowflake" in the Big East right now, so I suggest you take your own advice and deal with it.

I think this just had more to do with the time constraints and the organizers not communicating to Greg Christopher that they would be problematic to the point where we would not be able to participate and would thus need to schedule another game.

If I'm wrong and this is really not the goal then what is the point of having this entire event? Schools can easily schedule mediocre non conference games on their own without making it a conference vs. conference type of event.

So Maryland/GTown isn't a high profile matchup that put a spotlight on the leagues this past year? There is no "Challenge" part. It's the Gavitt Games not the Big East/B1G challenge. I think a lot of you guys didn't realize that. It's NOT to see who the better conference is because thats a pretty dumb way to determine that since they have 4 more teams than us and only 8 of their 14 play.

We have YEARS left on this deal, stop acting like just because we didn't get what YOU perceive to be the best match up doesn't mean it's a missed opportunity. If we wanted the best match up then it's MSU vs Nova. NOT X.

You're not a snow flake, you're just a bunch of cry babies.

I don't think I'm being biased in anyway in saying that since Xavier will most likely be in the preseason top 10 or 15 that it is a missed opportunity for a great early season game. MSU vs. Nova is definitely the best match-up I'm not arguing that at all, but Xavier vs. Indiana would have been good. Or Purdue, or literally anyone. Why are you upset with us? We are complaining because we were told there would be a game, there wasn't, and now we are left holding the proverbial bill. This isn't even basketball related. No one said anything about St. John's mom. What's your deal? Would you not be upset if the same thing happened to St. John's? I just don't get where you're coming from.

Maybe because it was a discussion about the Gavitt games then it became X fans crying how they were "screwed" and this and that. All we have is the word of the X AD that you were promised anything. Seems like it's him trying to take the heat off himself when he ASSUMED he was getting one. No one said anything about X's mom yet here you are crying.

Now i'm done, i'm gonna go play some golf in beautiful SoCal.

[FlyJays]

It seems like many get cynical about the Gavitt matchups.
Not sure why exactly. The Big Ten will have a pretty even distribution of talented teams taking part.

Here's a list of the 14 Big Ten schools...
- first group of teams are playing in the Gavitts this year,
- second group of teams are NOT in the Gavitts.

The schools are shown with numbers ranking them (my opinion) in order of a combination of interest, recent success and exciting buzz:

Those taking part:
2 - Maryland
3 - Ohio State
6 - Wisconsin
- - -
7 - Iowa
8 - Purdue
9 - Minnesota
- - -
12 - Northwestern
13 - Rutgers

Which 6 Big Ten teams are NOT taking part this year?
1 - Michigan State
4 - Indiana
5 - Michigan
- - -
10 - Illinois
- - -
11- Nebraska
14 - Penn State

There are only 6 Big Ten teams that anyone gives a shit about, and half (3) of them are participating.
There are 4 dregs, and half (2) of them are participating.
There are 4 teams in the midrange, and (3) are taking part.

If anything, the Gavitts get a pinch less enthusiasm because half the Big East already plays interesting non-conference games in local rivalries...

How is Wisconsin 6th using the criteria you listed? In the last 3 years they've been to two Final Fours, a national championship game, and a Sweet 16. They are returning virtually their entire team. I'd put them near the top of at list, perhaps only behind MSU.