Basketball Semi-OT: Bob Huggins proposes major conferences create own tournament
October 20th, 2021 at 10:40 PM ^
Rich, coming from a guy who made his name at *checks notes* Conference USA member, Cincinnati.
(I did not read the article)
October 21st, 2021 at 12:02 AM ^
I rarely login in to post. That said, when seeing this title, I specifically did to call out the hypocrisy of the guy who made it as a little team head coach, now wanting to box out the little teams.
Screw you Bob!
October 21st, 2021 at 6:23 AM ^
Hmmmm. You might wanna check your notes again. University of Cincinnati has 2 hoops Titles and a half dozen F4’s. That’s 1 more title than we have. They’re nowhere close to a little guy.
October 21st, 2021 at 9:02 AM ^
According to the googles, Cincinnati had a period in history where they were good. Late 50's to early 60's - where they had five final fours and one championship. Back then, it wasn't as big of a deal when a #15 beat a #2 because there weren't many schools from the middle of Tennessee making the tourney.
Cinci had one other final four in 1992. That's a long span of time when they were mostly irrelevant. I would take Michigan's basketball history (1 champion, 6 runner-up, 8 final four) over Cinci as we've been relevant every decade.
October 21st, 2021 at 9:27 AM ^
A #15 beating a #2 back then would have been HUGE considering the tournament didn’t expand to 64 teams until 1985.
October 21st, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Yep - just trying to fit in a Sparty dig!
October 21st, 2021 at 1:59 PM ^
I don't disagree that UC is not as good as UM in hoops but that isn't the issue at hand. The question is whether or not they are a small time school - and they clearly are not.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:40 PM ^
He probably didn’t think this was a good idea when he coached at Akron.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
I understand what he's saying about it from a financial standpoint but it's like taking the best thing about college basketball (the sense that anyone can get in and make a run) and emulating the worst thing about college football (it's rigged for a few teams only)
October 20th, 2021 at 10:45 PM ^
The NCAA tournament is pretty well loved, isn't it? Can't imagine this gaining much traction.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:47 PM ^
Nah, the NCAA tournament is to exciting. Who didn't get a little turned on when Oral Roberts beat Ohio state?
October 21st, 2021 at 1:31 AM ^
Who didn't get a little turned on when Oral Roberts beat Ohio state?
You had me at Oral.
October 21st, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
buckeyes got oral and hated it.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:48 PM ^
And miss opportunities like seeing MSU lose to Middle Tennessee State? Hard pass.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:49 PM ^
He wants this because he thinks it will give him more horsepower in the internal West Virginia Athletic Department debates over how to spend athletics money. He doesn't want it because he thinks that it would be good for basketball as a whole.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
After that he slammed the eighth shot of tequila since he sat down and proclaimed it National Huggy Bear Day.
October 20th, 2021 at 10:59 PM ^
Why do we still get double posts? My bad
October 20th, 2021 at 10:59 PM ^
Run a similar tournament with the only distinction being that the schools get more money and not the NCAA. I
October 20th, 2021 at 11:03 PM ^
Take the madness out of March Madness?
October 20th, 2021 at 11:32 PM ^
nah bobby, we good.
October 20th, 2021 at 11:35 PM ^
I could see it work if they made a similar cutoff like the FCS/FBS level. Don't include conferences who get 1 bid and are automatically a 16 seed.
October 21st, 2021 at 1:56 AM ^
The one thing I like about this idea is that it would effectively destroy the NCAA. But it would also destroy the greatest tournament in American sports. So I'm gonna have to say no.
October 21st, 2021 at 6:25 AM ^
I've never understood the people who want to destroy intercollegiate sports. The NCAA is just a collection of universities. If you destroy it, they'd need to just recreate it or give up intercollegiate sports. Reform it, yes. Destroy it? Absurd.
October 21st, 2021 at 1:49 PM ^
Yeah, you’d just have NCAA 2.0 to replace it. Someone has to oversee athletic competitions between schools.
October 21st, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
I am very much in favor of the concept of a regulatory body that oversees and governs collegiate athletics. That is an essential role. What I oppose is THIS PARTICULAR regulatory body. The NCAA's credibility has been damaged beyond repair. The very fact that Mark Emmert and his ilk say the things they say and do the things they do with a straight face (despite getting bench-slapped by the courts) is a symptom of a deeply flawed culture that has rendered the NCAA's leadership completely oblivious to its own hypocrisy. We're past the point where meaningful reform can fix the NCAA. It needs to be replaced with a new organization made up of outsiders. And Mark Emmert should be forever blacklisted from any job in collegiate athletics.
October 21st, 2021 at 5:43 AM ^
Here I thought fans want something in Football that is similar to basketball. He keeps saying it is about the future. You keep going after money and you are going to lose more and more of your casual fans. People like excitement and underdog stories.
October 21st, 2021 at 6:35 AM ^
“Not gonna do it! Wouldn’t be prudent.”
October 21st, 2021 at 9:20 AM ^
It’s funny that my first thought was Dana Carvey imitating HW instead of the actual HW.
October 21st, 2021 at 7:46 AM ^
Best post-season setup in American sports. Why would you ever change it?
October 21st, 2021 at 7:57 AM ^
Apart from the fact that Bob Huggins, like Bret Bielema, reminds me of a Far Side character (H/T Jason Kirk), he has one point dead wrong. You can’t compare the money side of P5 Football to P5 Basketball. P5 realignment is driven by the individual conferences being able to negotiate their own TV contracts for all their games, specifically regular season games, which I should point out already include basketball broadcast rights to conference games. P5 Basketball has one singularly large income generating event, the Tourney and this greedy slob wants a bigger slab of that cake. I might despise the NCAA, but I prefer it to turning over the March Madness Money Cannon to punk-ass coaches like Bob Huggins.
October 21st, 2021 at 8:25 AM ^
Not all ideas are good ideas, huggy bear.
October 21st, 2021 at 8:36 AM ^
Yeah, how about no?
October 21st, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^
October 21st, 2021 at 9:58 AM ^
I mean he's completely correct that there's a huge financial incentive for those conferences to do something to keep the money for themselves, rather than continuing to let it go to the NCAA. That said, I'm a huge fan of the tournament like almost everyone else here and it'd be sad to see it go.
October 21st, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
Remove Cinderella stories and huge upsets from the tournament? Brilliant!
October 21st, 2021 at 10:01 AM ^
I didn't know Huggins was still around. Dude must be pretty old by now. I vaguely recall that there was always an air of corruption around him, so this suggestion doesn't surprise me. Money is clearly what this guy's life revolves around.
October 21st, 2021 at 1:27 PM ^
money, with a whiskey chaser.... and a few donuts.
October 21st, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
That would ruin the Tournament and the excitement of Cinderella teams.
October 21st, 2021 at 1:32 PM ^
The NCAA tournament is just about the only thing that D1 athletics consistently get right.
Would certainly hate for this idea to happen.
October 21st, 2021 at 3:37 PM ^
Two things:
1. Bad idea
2. We deserve Bob Huggins and Bret Bielema at the same school.