CAA Drops out of Bracketbusters effective 2012-13 season

[TheAsianSensation]

Actually, on second thought, the challenge conference needs to be the WCC. They're back up to 10 now with Pacific.

The CAA really is in flux right now. I know that some combination of Old Dominion, Delaware, William & Mary, Towson, and James Madison have loosely talked about going to FBS, and going together in some form. Georgia St is already gone. We all heard about VCU and Mason and the A-10, and Hofstra's AD has been very public on record in the past about wanting in there too.

Either way, here's a very possible image of the college basketball landscape in 2-3 years:
-The Big 6 typical conferences
-An A-10 megaconference and CUSA/MWC megaconference
-The MVC and WCC
-About 20 small-major conferences. With the WAC imploded and the CAA dissolving as described above....Horizon without Butler....does the MAC, Sun Belt, and revised WAC leap up here? Quite possibly actually, but too early to say.

If we stay in BracketBusters, we associate with all the conferences below us and none above us. Bad news. Basketball could soon be the case of the haves and have nots, and we need to associate with the haves.

[BirdmanBB]

Supposedly the problem with hosting any type of challenge is that it needs to involve tv. It worked with the mountain west because of their network. It is my understanding that tv deals made by conferences are for conference games only. Anything outside of that is up to the individual schools to contract.

In the not too distant past, Elgin was quoted as saying he was working on a new challenge and it could actually involve multiple conferences. My guess is that the multiple conference challenge will likely be the next thing we will attempt to try because it needs to have enough value to pitch to TV networks. Hopefully by throwing enough mid major teams into a pool (like the bracketbuster), they will be able to come up with enough exciting matchups that the networks will bite on. I can't imagine how much work needs to be done to make something like this happen. First you have to get commissioners to agree and then you have to get schools to vote and agree. The problem with these types of deals are that many of the less desirable teams could be left out of tv games for the duration of the challenge if the networks only want to show matchups involving the butlers and gonzagas. The other thing to take into account is the cost to the schools. Many schools count on guarantee games to fund their athletics programs. If you take away one more game they will have to find that money somewhere else. In reality, you are only looking at a few of the best mid major conferences that could feasibly do this. Those are the WCC, MAC(maybe), Horizon(maybe), A10, CUSA, MWC, CAA, MVC and CAA. Out of those, how many would agree to such an event? Who knows, but if these conferences want to get stonger in the basketball world, it might be time to create an event that only involves these better mid-major conferences. A newer, better bracketbuster if you will. The next problem is how many of those conferences I mentioned above feel they are above playing in an event like this because it makes them sound "mid-major" or they don't want to be lumped in with the CAA , MVC or what have you because they feel association would bring down their rep.

[Red]

This is a pretty simple situation. If Elgin wants to hold teams accountable for their non-con SoS, he needs to hold himself accountable and bail on BB.

This is the best statement I have seen on the topic and I never considered it before.

[kochhead22]

I follow Paul Suellentrop (the Wichita Eagle sports writer on WSU) on Twitter and he just had a post stating that he talked/interviewed Doug Elgin about the MVC's future with BracketBusters without the CAA. Also stated that it will be his Sunday story for the newspaper, when that article comes out i'll make sure i get the link posted over here.

EDIT - Not for sure if this is news to anyone or just me, but ESPN meets with the MVC and other conferences in June. . . MVC is also tied to BB with our ESPN deal. Also stated that BB is reviewed each year and if its not working ESPN can cancel it. Also Elgin stressed that its been a good event for the MVC.

[Village Jay]

Creighton's history in the bracketbuster and my opinion on the schedule not counting results:

2003 Fresno State W 67-66 (H) W 70-62 OT (R) - GOOD - Fresno was a decent name back then
2004 Kent State L 55-70 (R) L 58-67 (H) - GOOD - just blown opportunities both years
2005 Chattanooga W 100-68 (H) L 64-69 (R) - BAD - even though the 100 pt game a mojo setter
2006 Fresno State W 67-62 (H) L 54-69 (R) - BAD - Fresno had fallen off and rematch was too soon
2007 Drexel L 58-64 (H) W 72-48 (R) - GOOD/BAD - Drexel was good one year, bad the next
2008 Oral Roberts W 65-64 (R) W 87-65 (H) - GOOD/BAD - Oral Robers good one year, bad the next
2009 George Mason W 76-63 (H) L 72-75 (R) - GOOD - George Mason under Lorrinaga was respectable
2010 Loyola Chicago W 78-58 (H) 2012-13 (R) - BAD - aweful-worst of the bunch, nothing to gain at all
2011 Akron L 67-76 (R) 2012-13 (H) -GOOD - up and coming team hopeful they'll still be good
2012 Long Beach State Feb. 18 2013-14 (R) -GOOD/UNKOWN

My snapshot review of the bracketbuster schedule was actually favorable. Overall I would have been happy if it was our coaches who did the schedule and didn't know the opportunity cost of opponents. The problem is like this year we wanted to be matched up with St Mary's but drew LBST instead. That leaves a bad taste in our mouths about the event. Also as a jays fan - none of our games have been the marquee game of the event. The Drake vs Butler game, SIU vs Butler, UNI vs Bucknell games were epic. We haven't had one of those games to get warm and fuzzy over the event where the build up matched the game. None of these games were resume builders. Even though some were good in my mind, a talking head basketball analyst wouldn't have cared boo about any of the games the Jays played in this event.

The biggest thing I would want to do to fix the event is to end the mandatory return game. Too often low-majors and mid-majors that are good are senior heavy and aren't as sexy the next season.

[Jet915]

From a Creighton standpoint, I don't think Bracketbusters has done anything for us other than a TV game. I don't think any loss costed us an at-large that we were going to get otherwise and any win didn't get us an at-large. Based on our seeding this year, if we lost to LBSU, we might have received a better matchup (10/11 seed instead of 8). Bracketbusters has certainly helped CAA teams VCU and George Mason get in the tourney (at WSU's expense).

[BirdmanBB]

http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/13/2296815/valley-espn-have-to-ponder-future.html

“If it doesn’t continue to work well for everyone, chances are it will go away,” he [Elgin] said. “If people feel it still meets their expectations … it will continue to be a fixture.”