[BJWilliams]

And a really bad impression to a national audience...

[VAGolf]

You're never going to have a true neutral site. Even the ACC tournament is played next door to Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake. That puts teams like Miami and Boston College at a disadvantage. These tournaments are all about publicity and attendance. It's easy to convince people to travel to Myrtle for a week in March. The food is terrible but USUALLY the weather is nice and you can't possibly play enough golf.

Point being, winning these conference tournaments means very little. Congrats to Coastal but they're going to be a 16 seed and get their butts handed to them by UVA or Duke. No team from the Big South is ever going to make a serious run at the National Championship. If you want to do it the fair way, copy the IVY league and just forgo a conference tournament altogether.

[thepostman]

Well that brings us to the another debate. Shouldn't there be a minimum size for a men's basketball arena that plays in Division I?

[ballcoach15]

Yes there should be. I think football has one.

[BJWilliams]

You're never going to have a true neutral site. Even the ACC tournament is played next door to Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake. That puts teams like Miami and Boston College at a disadvantage. These tournaments are all about publicity and attendance. It's easy to convince people to travel to Myrtle for a week in March. The food is terrible but USUALLY the weather is nice and you can't possibly play enough golf.

Point being, winning these conference tournaments means very little. Congrats to Coastal but they're going to be a 16 seed and get their butts handed to them by UVA or Duke. No team from the Big South is ever going to make a serious run at the National Championship. If you want to do it the fair way, copy the IVY league and just forgo a conference tournament altogether.

This...regardless, someone is going to have an advantage of some sort. have it in South Carolina, it favors Winthrop, CCU and CSU. Have it in North Carolina, It favors Campbell, High Point, UNCA...you get the gist.

[thepostman]

Hey stat kings out there, how often does the host team win the conference tournament? I am too busy to research that but it would be interesting to see.

The regular season already is completely meaningless in college basketball as it is as a whole, especially in low level D1 conferences, the least these low level conferences could do was reward the regular season champ.

[ATrain]

Hey stat kings out there, how often does the host team win the conference tournament? I am too busy to research that but it would be interesting to see.

The regular season already is completely meaningless in college basketball as it is as a whole, especially in low level D1 conferences, the least these low level conferences could do was reward the regular season champ.

Doesn't the regular season champ now get an automatic berth into the NIT?

[ballcoach15]

Yes regular season champ gets NIT berth.

[jack_sparrow81]

It's tough having it at one neutral site, especially for our conference. I remember going to watch the games when they were in the Roanoke Civic Center and you could literally hear a pen drop for most of the games. Winthrop and Radford were really the only schools where the fans traveled well, and that wasn't saying much. For the games that were televised, fans were forced to sit on one side of the court and it still looked empty. I love the idea of tournaments with neutral sites like the ACC/Big East, but it just doesn't work with the smaller conferences. How would a sponsor see a Longwood/High Point championship game on a Sunday afternoon in Conway, SC?

[JakeP50]

The Big East is far from neutral court, St Johns uses MSG for big games and 'Cuse fans would dominate every year before they left for Tobacco Road. The ACC is the same way, a league that has members from FL to MA and is already accused of having a bias towards NC schools, holds it's conference tournament in a small town right in the middle of the triangle that is allegedly the focus of their NC bias. I'd hardly call Greensboro Coliseum a neutral court for UNC- Miami, Duke-FSU or NCSU-BC.

[adam42381]

The Big East is far from neutral court, St Johns uses MSG for big games and 'Cuse fans would dominate every year before they left for Tobacco Road. The ACC is the same way, a league that has members from FL to MA and is already accused of having a bias towards NC schools, holds it's conference tournament in a small town right in the middle of the triangle that is allegedly the focus of their NC bias. I'd hardly call Greensboro Coliseum a neutral court for UNC- Miami, Duke-FSU or NCSU-BC.

The ACC Tournament isn't always in Greebsboro. It's in DC next year, Brooklyn in 2017 and 2018 then Charlotte in 2019. It has been held in Georgia several times. It was held in Tampa in 2007. Yes, Greensboro has hosted the most times, but it's not like the ACC has a permanent venue for their conference tournament.

[ballcoach15]

The ACC tournament should always be in Greensboro . Center of conference . neutral court. Those northern schools should have never been invited to join ACC. BC.Syracuse .Pittsburgh .Notre Dame and Louisville .

[thepostman]

So they are in the acc and have never been invited? That's pretty cool.

[ballcoach15]

They are in ACC, but should not be in my opinion. The ACC sold out to get Syracuse in. Drooled over moving tournament to New York, counting on Syracuse to fill the stands up there. Now the ACC is sweating over the NCAA violations Syracuse got hit with. Syracuse in ACC makes about as much sense as LU joining the Western Athletic Conference. None.

[adam42381]

Ok, now we're completely .

[BJWilliams]

The ACC tournament should always be in Greensboro . Center of conference . neutral court. Those northern schools should have never been invited to join ACC. BC.Syracuse .Pittsburgh .Notre Dame and Louisville .

its only neutral if both schools are non-NC. Wake, NC State, Duke and UNC (and anyone I may have forgotten) are always going to have an advantage when the tournament is in the Tar Heel State.

[ballcoach15]

If there is an advantage to be had, it's better to give it to NC schools than other schools. Just my opinion.

[BJWilliams]

point is, in smaller conferences (or at least, with smaller geographic footprints) like the Big South, you have to go with whatever can maximize exposure and revenue. The only sensible places to have the basketball tournament are Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. You aren't going to have a 100% neutral court in any of those locales, though. Same goes for the Atlantic Sun and OVC for example

[ballcoach15]

From what I know about BSC, the only 2 schools with suitable facilities for tournament are LU and CCU. Might as well rotate between the 2 each year.

[Cider Jim]

Doesn't Kyle Kallander think that the Vines Center is "too big" to host the Big South tournament?

[BJWilliams]

Frankly I would say 5: LU, CCU, UNCA, HPU and Winthrop could all handle both tournaments and offer a good TV representation

[VAGolf]

Why do we need a conference tournament?

[BJWilliams]

Ask ballcoach. he's been around in more circles than a sugared up Jack Russell chasing his tail

[ballcoach15]

We need a conference tournament to decide conference champion, and get NCAA bid. Post season tournaments are the high-light of the season. It's where champions are decided.

[VAGolf]

I would rather reward a team for going 12-4 versus rewarding a team that went 6-10 and then won four straight games. These conference tournaments are stupid. IVY does it right.