This AWESOME Reported 'Bracket Busters' Schedule Needs To Happen ASAP And Could Help Change College Basketball
[CBS] - Twenty-two of Division I's 32 conferences have been receptive to an ambitious scheduling concept that would introduce back-to-back non-league games played just a few weeks prior to Selection Sunday, WAC commissioner Brian Thornton and WAC associate commissioner Drew Speraw told CBS Sports.
Here's how the first-of-its-kind concept would work: For one week in February, a slew of leagues would pause their conference schedules and instead have all their members play two nonconference opponents. The model would have every team involved play one home game and one away game, with the majority of those games happening three days apart — many on Wednesday and Saturday — with the window commencing after Valentine's Day.
The matchups would be decided by an algorithm that would ensure the best teams play the best teams. The games wouldn't be determined until the end of January.
Don't mind me over here. I'm basically a mix of these two gifs while reading this report:
I need this to happen right away. College basketball needs this to happen right away. It's unbelievable and frankly just smart. We all know the debate come late February and March. Is this mid-major with a good record but minimal quad 1 wins deserve to get in over the 8th team in a power conference with an average record. It happens every year and will still happen every year. However, this gives those teams a better chance to solidify their resumes. It's all do to an algorithm and I'm a sucker for a good algorithm.
We'd get to see the best of the best. Gonzaga? Well they'd be paired up with basically the No. 2 team here outside of their conference. Like Norlander says we'd get to see Gonzaga-Houston in February. That helps! That helps both teams, that helps fans, that helps everyone. February is when most people start really tuning into college basketball. Football is over and everyone starts prepping for the NCAA Tournament. Why not get as many good matchups as possible?
Shit even the intrigue of who gets paired up with who would draw more eyes than the diehard fans. I love the idea of the merit-based matchups too. You want to prep for the NCAA Tournament, you need to play a tournament type team. Simple as that. A win, especially on the road, goes a long way. Instead of perhaps getting Murray State-San Francisco as a 7/10 matchup, they'd win these games and we're looking at Murray as a 6 seed and San Francisco up at a 9. All possible with this going on.
I keep thinking about the SEC-Big 12 matchups that happen in January every year. It's a good break from conference play. We get to see interesting big name matchups there. Why not make it for the non major 6 conferences? We'd even get it over the course of days instead of just one day. It's a no-brainer.
It's also not a secret that college basketball is a niche sport. It takes a backseat to football for the majority of the season until the late push. This is the ideal way to get more eyes on the sport and on more teams before March.