Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

Anyone else like this idea. Preseason basketball tournament of the 12 major Ohio colleges played in November.

http://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-stat ... -look-like" target="_blank

It's brilliant. Should have been done for years. I think I promoted something similar before but took out OSU, X and UC.

I think maybe just having an 8 team tournament and rotating the MAC schools and Horizon schools every year. Which means Bowling Green, Toledo, excetera would play every 3 years. OSU, Cincinnati, Dayton and Xavier would be in the field every year. This would also help the RPI and strength of schedule of the mid-majors

gmartin wrote:I think maybe just having an 8 team tournament and rotating the MAC schools and Horizon schools every year. Which means Bowling Green, Toledo, excetera would play every 3 years. OSU, Cincinnati, Dayton and Xavier would be in the field every year. This would also help the RPI and strength of schedule of the mid-majors

I dont think OSU, X or Cinci would do it. I would just go forward with the other 10

It's beyond Brilliant, it'd be some of the best basketball we get to see all year...up until the MAC tournament. Of course, like Globe said, I don't think you'll get OSU, X, or Cincy to buy in, but still I'd love it.

I'd even settle for something more like the Big10/ACC classic or whatever. Where it's not even really a tournament, just a guaranteed high quality OOC game. But I've been saying the MAC should be shopping for a conference to match up with like the Big10/ACC thing forever. Of course the MAC largely treats basketball like the red-headed stepchild compared to bending over backwards for the mediocre football, so I don't expect anything like that to gain traction either.

hammb wrote:It's beyond Brilliant, it'd be some of the best basketball we get to see all year...up until the MAC tournament. Of course, like Globe said, I don't think you'll get OSU, X, or Cincy to buy in, but still I'd love it.

I'd even settle for something more like the Big10/ACC classic or whatever. Where it's not even really a tournament, just a guaranteed high quality OOC game. But I've been saying the MAC should be shopping for a conference to match up with like the Big10/ACC thing forever. Of course the MAC largely treats basketball like the red-headed stepchild compared to bending over backwards for the mediocre football, so I don't expect anything like that to gain traction either.

It's a great idea, but what conference could we even shoot for? The American? They probably wouldn't see the benefit of matching up with us, the "lesser conference."

I guess we would probably get the Horizon League, Conference USA, or Atlantic 10.

mbenecke wrote:

hammb wrote:It's beyond Brilliant, it'd be some of the best basketball we get to see all year...up until the MAC tournament. Of course, like Globe said, I don't think you'll get OSU, X, or Cincy to buy in, but still I'd love it.

I'd even settle for something more like the Big10/ACC classic or whatever. Where it's not even really a tournament, just a guaranteed high quality OOC game. But I've been saying the MAC should be shopping for a conference to match up with like the Big10/ACC thing forever. Of course the MAC largely treats basketball like the red-headed stepchild compared to bending over backwards for the mediocre football, so I don't expect anything like that to gain traction either.

It's a great idea, but what conference could we even shoot for? The American? They probably wouldn't see the benefit of matching up with us, the "lesser conference."

I guess we would probably get the Horizon League, Conference USA, or Atlantic 10.

And I think any of those would be a worthwhile conference challenge opponent from the MAC point of view. The A10 is probably quite a bit better than us right now, so they may be a tough get. Horizon and CUSA are not any better than the MAC nowadays though. I guess I don't know if those conference schools struggle as mightily as we do, but we're in a world where we have a hard time filling out our OOC schedules with legit D1 opponents, especially with the MAC's lofty requirements on # of home games. A tournament/challenge could help by filling in one slot on the schedule. Of course, it could actually work against us as the MAC probably already plays a lot of those teams OOC and you might lose that (not likely to play multiple Horizon league teams OOC anymore if you're playing them in a "challenge").

I dunno, I just wish the MAC could figure out a way to improve the OOC schedules. When I watch the basketball played in this conference and realize that every team came into the conference play with a winning record it tells me that we, as a whole, are scheduling like crap OOC. That's a problem.

I miss the days of seeing future NBA guys every week in the MAC. Days of having a legit beef if we didn't get a 2nd team in the dance. I wish the schools/conference would focus on improving the basketball scheduling, which in turn, should help improve the basketball product. It really frustrates me that over the past 15 years we've seen teams like Gonzaga, VCU, FGCU, Butler, Wichita, etc become household names and sustain varying levels of success on a national level while the MAC keeps fading further and further into basketball obscurity.

As Hammb stated, I miss the days of seeing future NBA guys every week in the MAC. Days of having a legit beef if we didn't get a 2nd team in the dance. I wish the schools/conference would focus on improving the basketball scheduling, which in turn, should help improve the basketball product. It really frustrates me that over the past 15 years we've seen teams like Gonzaga, VCU, FGCU, Butler, Wichita, etc become household names and sustain varying levels of success on a national level while the MAC keeps fading further and further into basketball obscurity.

And unfortunately what do all five of those schools have in common. They do not have a D1 football program or a D1 hockey program. They put all of their eggs into one basket, basketball.

I believe OSU, Cincinnati, Xavier and Dayton are already planning on creating a 4-team tournament amongst themselves. None of those four are going to risk losing to a hyped up Cleveland State and dipping their RPIs. It's just like how Dayton has refused to play Wright State for the last 20 years because they've straight out admitted it has no benefit for them if they win, and it hurts them if they lose.

I think it'd be more realistic if the MAC did a challenge with the Horizon League every year, like BIG/ACC. We basically play half of the Horizon League anyway. Might as well make it something fun.

Isn't the Big 10 adding more conference games next year? That would make it even less likely to see O$U be a part of it.

Redwingtom wrote:Isn't the Big 10 adding more conference games next year? That would make it even less likely to see O$U be a part of it.

No, they added more conference games this year. Sticking with the same number of conference games next year. Where some schools will play 4 conference games in the month of December.

gmartin wrote:

Redwingtom wrote:Isn't the Big 10 adding more conference games next year? That would make it even less likely to see O$U be a part of it.

No, they added more conference games this year. Sticking with the same number of conference games next year. Where some schools will play 4 conference games in the month of December.

Not according to this

The Big Ten announced Thursday morning that men's basketball will go to a 20-game schedule beginning in 2018-19. The vote was made official last week by the conference's administrators council and was revealed in advance of its league media day at Madison Square Garden.

The Big Ten will be the first conference to play 20 conference games in the history of Division I basketball, a season earlier than the ACC, which will play 20 league games in 2018-19 [sic - typo, should be 2019-20]. We might only be halfway to more leagues doing the same as coaches in the SEC and Pac-12 have told CBS Sports that their leagues are also mulling going to a 20-game conference docket.

The Big Ten's change of currently playing 18 conference games will prompt an earlier start to the conference season, pushing intra-league dates up to December. The Big Ten gets a dress rehearsal of sorts with that this season as a handful of Big Ten games will be played in early December. The reason? The league will hold its tournament at Madison Square Garden for the first time and because the Big East is contractually locked in to play its league tournament in the days leading up to Selection Sunday, the Big Ten will play at MSG a week prior to the Big East.

Big Ten adds two games for a 20-game conference schedule starting in 2018-19

Wow. I stand corrected. I thought they were sticking with 18 games from 16 they had in previous years. I guess that would explain the four conference games in December rather than the two they played this year.

And I am not a fan of holding the tournament one week ahead of the other conferences. I never like the tournament ending on Sunday only 15 minutes before selection Sunday. I just think ending a whole week earlier may actually hurt them even more. I think ending the tournament on Saturday like most tournaments are is the way to go

I have recently thought of something like this happening over time in the Greater Cincinnati area with: N. Kentucky, Wright St, Purdue, Cincinnati, X, Dayton, Miami, Ohio and Ball St. --- nine teams and one play - in game.