Redbirdfan.com Sports Forum

I say we work on getting one of two things to happen, and it's been mentioned before:

1. Set up an annual 3-day, 8-team all-Illinois D1 bracketed tourney, with teams rolling on/off based on a 3-yr schedule. Teams would include ISU, UIUC, NIU, SIU, BU, DePaul, Loyola, Northwestern, WIU, EIU, UIC, Chicago St., and SIU-E. Am I missing somebody? Set it up so that the Valley teams are unlikely to play each other, and NU and UIUC don't play each other.

2. Get the legislature to pass a law requiring a mandatory 3-day, 8-team bracketed tourney involving State-sponsored schools (ISU, UIUC, NIU, SIU, WIU, EIU, UIC, Chicago St. or SIU-E). All teams play 3 games (winners bracket and consolation bracket).

Hold either tourney in Chicago. All proceeds split equally among schools (big boon for the smaller schools . . . maybe), save that year's host school would get all hosting costs returned first.

haha Illinois would never go for that. They could play 3 teams from the valley that they would like to avoid at all costs. Also, they would be strongly against revenue sharing since they will bring the largest fanbase.

I like the idea, but I don't think conferences would go for it either. There would be too much potential for teams to play each other.

Isn't there a rule in the NCAA that states only one team from each conference can be represented in a season tourney? I could be wrong. But I thought that was the case. So you could only have Northwestern or Illinois represented from the Big Ten, and ISU, SIU, or Bradley represented.

Not unless it's a newer rule. We played UNI in a tournament in Hawaii a few years back. I think it's more of a coaches rule. An "I'm not going to chance having to play these guys 4 times in a year" rule.

It might be more possible to do your idea, but with a rotating group of teams from the ones you mentioned above.

One of these days, the commissioners of the non-BCS conferences will realize they need to get together and call collective BS on the programs from BCS conferences when it comes to scheduling and demand some kind of action by the NCAA. We are already within shouting distance of the time when the only road games any BCS program will have to play will be their conference games, neutral site pre-conference tournaments in which they choose to play, and maybe one "special" game against another BCS conference program, such as the Big 10-ACC Challenge.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks within the next few years the NCAA will quietly sit back and allow the BCS conferences to separate themselves into their own "super division" for men's basketball playoffs, just like they did for football. They already have something like that informally in operation, called the NCAA tournament selection committee process.

Until that day dawns, I'll have to be content knowing that the Illwhini really are the cheat-'em-if-you-can wusses many people think they are (including, every once in a while, an NCAA investigating committee), and we all still retain the right to make fun of their wussiness each season when discussing them with friends and foes alike.

Here's what I say to this whole discussion:

Simple Solution but hard to execute. If you are a non-BCS school, don't schedule games with teams that don't offer return games. BCS schools will not want to play all bcs schools in their non-conference schedule. They will be forced to schedule home/home with non-bcs schools.

Why doesn't ISU play more games against Illinois schools. If you're going to play a bunch of mediocre 7 win teams why don't we play in-state teams which will provide more interest to fans of both parties since most of the players on both teams played high school ball in Illinois?

Huh?

I think he is saying instead of playing Grambling, N.Florida, and the tournament play Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, Northern Il etc.

You mean like playing SIU-E and UIC... they are two Illinois schools.

The difference in playing the WIU's and EIU's of the state vs. playing the Ohio's and Central Michigan's is at least those schools have a chance to be half way decent. EIU and WIU havent been respectable in forever... Also- I am sure Jank likes to get the team on a few decently long bus rides/flights in the non-conference to get them used to it a little for the UNI and Mo State trips, amongst others...

I understand the Central Michigan and Ohio games and trust me I much prefer those to the state schools, but why North Florida or Grambling State? As bad as EIU and WIU are I'd rather watch those games than the above mentioned.

Also, I selfishly like the SIUE game because it's a short trip from St Louis

One of the problems, in my opinion, is that there are not enough Barry Hinsons who are coaching or administrating at the non-BCS schools/conferences. Hinson wasn't ashamed of his school or of his conference; he wasn't afraid to call out the media whenever the media discounted Valley schools or the league; and he wasn't afraid to rock the boat when discussing the arrogance or the insecurity of BCS schools when it came to the scheduling process. I think that there are a lot of coaches, athletic directors, presidents, etc. who either came up through the ranks as assistants at BCS schools or who aspire to be running a BCS program some day, and they don't want to throw rocks, burn bridges, (insert some other cliche' here), etc. at the programs that once employed them or that may soon be providing them with a larger paycheck than the one they are getting today.

Because my nature is to be a smartass, I would be tempted each year to have a press conference at which I calmly point out that we have offered the illini a contract for a home-and-home series, and we made the same offer to [name any 25 BCS schools that are perrenial NCAA tournament entries and that you would like to see at Redbird Arena], and each of those offers has either been rejected or we got no response whatsoever.....so please don't tell me at the end of the season that we are not tournament worthy because we don't play any strong non-conference opponents on our schedule. Of course, the response would be that we COULD HAVE (maybe) scheduled a couple of those games if we had agreed to a one-and-done road game, but I think that the point should be constantly driven home that we are willing to play those guys on equal footing.....and if they are too concerned about their revenue or their "nothing-to-gain-and-everything-to-lose" scheduling philosophy, then so be it but don't penalize us for pursuing non-conference games against them on fair terms.

Does any one have proof that Weber said he'd play SIU when his recruits were gone?