On January 20, 2021 in Post #1 ArmyVet wrote:
Lots of questions about this year's Big East Tournament
By pure coincidence, a day after the four preceding posts were made, CBS Sports published this lengthy article which answers some of those questions, and raises even more. The observations by South Carolina coach Frank Martin are particularly salient. Frank Martin is the only head coach in major American sports at this point believed to have contracted the coronavirus twice.
More than one out of every four coaches surveyed say conference tournaments should not be held this season - Matt Norlander – January 21, 2021
'I don't think there should be conference tournaments this year,' one power-conference coach said. 'There's too much at stake.'
CBS Sports surveyed 41 head coaches -- in conferences big and small, with records great, good and sub-par -- and asked: Should your league stage a conference tournament this season?
The alternative to no league tournament would mean the automatic bid would go to the regular-season champion.
No conference has decided to temporarily do away with its playoff, nor has any league pushed up its championship in an attempt to further separate the conclusion of league play with Selection Sunday.
The calendar and context are important, as the schedule could ultimately give way to NCAA Tournament vulnerabilities and/or opportunities surrendered.
The NCAA is mandating all Tier 1 personnel on NCAA Tournament-selected teams return negative COVID-19 tests for seven consecutive days segueing to a team's departure for Indianapolis.
With different formats, locations and timelines for many of these conference tournaments, both big and small, there's a chance March could get messy before it goes mad.
Teams could wind up not playing in their conference tournaments for two reasons. The first is obvious and unintentional: COVID-19 positives prompt a pause. This possibility is precisely why some coaches are against league tournaments. The very threat of being put on pause could eliminate them from NCAA Tournament participation. Is the reward worth that risk?
The second option opens Pandora's box: teams safely projected into the NCAAs opt out of playing in league tournaments. If that were to happen, what recourse could a conference have? One source familiar with television contracts said if it's a program's decision -- with the push from a coaching staff and/or athletic department -- a conference would have the power to revoke league-tournament payments, essentially eliminating that school's share. Amid a pandemic that's wrecked athletic department budgets, that's a significant action. To get a sense of how much of a financial penalty it could be, the source added this postulation: the American Athletic Conference makes somewhere around $300,000 off its league championship in a normal year, while the Pac-12 would be around $750,000 and the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC vault north of $1 million.
But what if it's not the coaches' decision? What if unpaid amateur athletes on a surefire NCAA Tournament team decide they don't want to put their bodies and health at risk for a less-heralded event and instead choose to sit out a league tournament to better ensure they can play in the tournament that matters (which promises to be much more rigorous in its COVID protocols)? No league could force the players to play, and financially punishing a school under these conditions would be a PR disaster.
"You could even ask in the Big Ten: What's the point?" coach Mark Few said. "If you have a bye in the Big Ten tournament you're probably in."
Gonzaga also makes for an easy hypothetical. If it ends the regular season undefeated, what motivation does it have to play in the WCC championship? Then there's this ramification: If GU opted out but no other WCC team did, that would ethically bring up the issue of bid collusion, just as it would if four projected locks in a multi-bid league all did the same. Whatever the reason might be for good teams potentially choosing not to play in league tournaments, this quandary is on the minds of plenty of coaches -- and the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
"We have discussed it briefly and are aware," NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt told CBS Sports. "But that's as far as I can go to answer at this point. There will be some communication probably made at some point to leagues about just what to do with that situation."
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Ultimately, of course this comes down to the money. Here are the words of two coaches in two different parts of the country, one is in a power conference, the other in one of the lowest-rated leagues in college hoops.
Power-conference coach said: "I think we make too much money in our conference tournament not to do it. That's why I don't think we would have a choice because for the good of the league and the money it generates."
The small-conference coach said: "It's just, 'Get the money and get on to next year.' That's the sad truth."
While the majority of coaches do support keeping on schedule, many of the ones who were against it are coaching in multi-bid leagues with teams currently projected to make the NCAA Tournament. That suggests this issue could become more prominent in the next few weeks.
Related:
NCAA Tournament Plans Getting Rave Reviews - BigEast.com – January 7, 2021
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Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:33 pm