UPDATE: Some information in this article, previously reported by the Las Vegas Sun and other media outlets, has been challenged as mischaracterizing the practices of the CBI and CIT. In the spirit of transparency, this article has been left unedited, with only this message added. An updated primer on postseason basketball tournaments, specifically the CBI, CIT and Vegas 16 can be found here.
College football’s 41 bowl games, possibly 43 if groups in Austin, Texas, and Charleston, S.C., are granted their wish by the NCAA in May, makes it an easy target for ridicule.
That equates to more than 80 teams in the postseason out of 128 at the FBS level, or about 65 percent of the teams, some of them with losing records. That’s more watered down than skim milk.
When the recent news broke of another postseason college basketball tournament – the Vegas 16 – nobody batted an eye. Those 16 teams are now added to postseason with the 68-team NCAA tournament field, 32-team NIT, 32-team CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) and 16-team College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
A total of 164 teams are slated to continue their seasons beyond the regular season and conference tournaments. With 351 teams playing at the Division I level, the 164 teams in the postseason amounts to only 46.7 percent. Nothing wrong with that. The tournaments should consist mostly of winning teams who have a backing, a far cry from a 5-7 San Jose State football team that played Georgia State in front of only 18,536 fans at the 70,000-seat Orlando Citrus Bowl.
Imagine if the percentage of participants in postseason hoops was the same as college football. At 65 percent, that would be roughly 228 teams. That would turn March Madness into March Maddening.
Eight seasons ago, following the 2006-07 season, only 96 teams played in the postseason – 64 in the NCAA tournament and 32 in the NIT. The CBI added 16 teams to the mix for the first time following the 2007-08 season. The CIT followed a year later. Seven years after that comes the Vegas 16, an event organized by former Arizona and UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood. (pictured left)
In contrast to the CBI and CIT, the Vegas 16 will not charge teams to host games on short notice in front of half-empty arenas. The single-elimination tournament is to be played March 26-30 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. What fan would not want to come to Las Vegas to cheer on his or her team?
“It’s kind of a win on all fronts,” Livengood told the Las Vegas Sun. “This first year is really important to make sure things go really smooth for the teams, they have a really good experience and Vegas embraces it.”
Livengood has stated that many Power 5 conference schools have inquired about his tournament. The event is credible inasmuch as Livengood is a former NCAA tournament selection committee director and he is revered among college athletics administrators nationwide. Popular former coach George Raveling is part of the selection committee as well.
Depending on how the first year of the Vegas 16 goes in terms of attendance and fan involvement from teams participating, it may blossom to the point of making it hard for the CBI or CIT to field captivating tournaments.
This saturation of college basketball in the postseason is a far cry from when the NCAA instituted the National Commissioner’s Invitational Tournament in 1974 to minimize the NIT. The eight-team field was a collection of teams that finished second in their respective conferences. The NCAA tournament consisted of only league champions until after the 1975 season, when it expanded to 32 teams to allow for at-large teams.
Whereas the NCAA wanted to eliminate the NIT back then, the governing body is not so cutthroat these days. It actually purchased the NIT in 2005 for $65 million after the former ownership group threatened to sue the NCAA for illegal use of its powers trying to invite teams to the Big Dance although some teams were interested in the NIT. Rather than disband the NIT after buying it, the NCAA placed another influential administrator, C.M. Newton, in charge of its selection committee.
The CIT and CBI are the most obscure of the postseason tournaments but the NCAA has not made it difficult for them to exist. This is just a hunch but with Livengood’s clout, if the Vegas 16 thrives at Mandalay Bay, the field could expand to 32 teams by overtaking the CIT and CBI. It can outgrow even the NIT despite the lure of that tournament of playing the semifinals and finals in New York City. The Vegas tournament can outgrow that because of the ability of fans and media to stay in one place all week throughout the tournament, much like a convention.
The development of the Vegas 16 along with these other postseason tournaments indicates an acceptance of allowing teams the opportunity for more practice time and game competition. The athletes benefit the most, the way it should be.
Few speak of oversaturation, a stark contrast to the outcry of more than 40 bowl games in college football. Credible figures lead the postseason college basketball tournaments. The word mediocrity does not come to mind in the same manner as college football’s free-for-all.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.