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Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Scheduling could become major headache for teams
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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The NCAA management council likely destroyed marquee non-conference
games in November with its recommendation Tuesday for a 29-game
regular season for 2002-03, without any exemptions for tournaments such as the
Maui Invitational, Great Alaska Shootout and Preseason NIT.
The legislation, which is expected to be passed by the NCAA's Board
of Directors on April 26, would lead to the eventual end of the high-profile, neutral-court tournaments that create interest in college basketball before
New Year's. The legislation also called for the end of exhibition games as
they stand now. The only games allowed will be scrimmages against another
Division I team or an exhibition against a non-Division I team.
|  | | Syracuse's Jim Boeheim says the move by the NCAA management council will not benefit college basketball teams or players. |
"I can't imagine a worse decision for college basketball," Syracuse
coach Jim Boeheim said. "Those tournaments were the greatest thing about
November and December. I have yet to speak to someone who actually supports
this. The whole month of November had big games, but they won't be there
now."
The vote for the legislation was 27½ to 21½ with one abstention
and one not present. The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference, Pacific-10 and Conference
USA were all expected to vote for the proposal and each of them had three
votes. The Big East was the only major conference with three votes that
wasn't expected to vote for the proposal.
The old schedule, which will
continue for the 2001-02 season, allowed for 28 regular-season games, which
included one game for a conference tournament. Lawsuits pending by a number
of these tournaments cite the unfair practice that conference tournaments
are exempted but non-conference tournaments won't be under these rules. A
team could play up to four games in a conference tournament but it only
counts as one on its schedule.
NCAA president Cedric Dempsey and management council chair Charles
Harris, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, said the
tournaments can exist, but all the games will have to count against the 29,
rather than the entire tournament counting as just one game on the schedule. But officials for the tournaments all say they won't be able to exist under those
conditions because high-profile teams won't give up three, or at the very
least, two home games to go to a neutral site for three.
"You can't do that," Boeheim said. "You'll lose $100,000 by going
to Maui vs. staying home and playing two or three home games where you
can make $800,000. You can't do that in today's world. You can't give up
that kind of money. That's why those tournaments exist, so they don't count
against your schedule."
Maui Invitational advisor Wayne Duke, the former Big Ten
commissioner, said he couldn't foresee a tournament in Maui without the
marquee teams. The 16-team single elimination Preseason NIT couldn't exist
under its present format. Teams wouldn't give up four games on their
schedule if there were a chance they would play only one. That would mean
some teams would only have 25 games scheduled. NIT executive director Jack
Powers said earlier in the year that if the Preseason NIT was eliminated, then the 32-team postseason NIT wouldn't have the funds to survive.
Four-team, two-day tournaments like the Coaches vs. Cancer have a
chance to survive. The Coaches vs. Cancer event has a 10-year contract with
Madison Square Garden. The lure of playing in the Garden could help attract
teams to play on a neutral site, especially if ESPN continues televising the
event. Syracuse is supposed to play in the 2002 event, but that could be in
jeopardy. The consensus from a number of high-profile commissioners is teams will play home-and-home series in November and December.
|
“ |
We
would have never had a chance to play
Providence on a neutral court. Exempted
tournaments give the smaller schools an
opportunity to play the bigger teams on a neutral
floor. By adding an extra game in the season,
well, all that does is give the power schools
another chance to buy a home game and it makes
it even harder for us to
schedule. ” |
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— Creighton coach Dana Altman |
But that might not be as easy to do. Boeheim echoed the thoughts of
a number of coaches who told ESPN.com over the past few months that they
wouldn't play road games in November against a high-profile team.
"We'll play Missouri in Alaska, like we did this year, but we won't
go there in November," Boeheim said. "We won't do it. A lot of coaches
won't play games like that, that early on the road. They gave us an extra
game, but all everyone will do with it is play another home game."
Dempsey and Harris said the reasoning for the legislation was to
bring competitive equity to scheduling. The NCAA instituted a rule that was
supposed to alleviate that problem by allowing schools to participate in an exempted tournament only twice in four years. That rule went
into effect last year. The management council disputed the National
Association of Basketball Coaches contention that nearly 140 teams
participated in exempted events over the past few seasons. One of those
teams was within Harris' conference.
South Carolina State played in exempted tournaments in consecutive
seasons. Cy Alexander's squad played in the Bi-Lo tournament at Clemson last
season and in a round-robin tournament in Nashville this past season where
they played a neutral-site game against St. Joseph's.
"These tournaments have been good for us," Alexander said. "We
played St. Joe's within 11 and Vanderbilt within five. It's highly unlikely
we would play them somewhere else on a neutral floor and it wouldn't happen
at our place. The year before we played Oregon State and they're not coming
here."
Alexander said lower-profile teams will have a harder time pulling
off an upset if it's not on a neutral court.
Creighton was on the bubble to get into the NCAA Tournament. Beating
Providence in Kansas City in an exempted tournament in November helped its
cause.
"We would have never had a chance to play Providence on a neutral
court," Creighton coach Dana Altman said. "Exempted tournaments give the
smaller schools an opportunity to play the bigger teams on a neutral floor.
By adding an extra game in the season, well, all that does is give the power
schools another chance to buy a home game and it makes it even harder for us to schedule."
The NCAA selection committee made a point this season of telling the non-major schools that they have to upgrade schedules and go on the road if they
want to get into the NCAA Tournament. Taking away any chances of playing
neutral court games makes it even harder.
"We average 7,000 fans a game and our folks want home games, too,"
Altman said. "We've been to Puerto Rico, Hawaii twice and the tournament in
Kansas City this past season and that's just in my seven years at Creighton.
How can the NCAA say schools like us aren't getting in these tournaments?
They mandated us to go out and play games like that and we did. I'd rather
go play on a neutral floor twice every four years and have one less game on
the schedule."
The legislation also will hit hard for non-Division I schools like
Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks which use the tournaments and money from ESPN to help fund their programs. The University of Hawaii, the most consistent Division I host of exempted tournaments, wasn't given an
exemption for teams to come to the Island. That could crush the Warriors
financially as it tries to find teams for its non-conference schedule. All
but one or two games on Hawaii's schedule is usually in a tournament at the
school. A Big Ten amendment of 30 regular-season games was withdrawn. The Hawaii amendment lost by one vote and the Western Athletic Conference will resubmit the proposal
over the summer.
"Ask the kids what they want to do and 100 percent of them will want
to play in these tournaments," Boeheim said. "This is a horrible
decision."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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