Could NCAA Basketball exclude non-conference games for next season? Here’s why that would be a problematic idea.
In case you haven’t been actively following news regarding the upcoming NCAA Basketball season, you should know that the idea of a conference only season is slowly starting to become a serious possibility for Division 1 teams. Iona Head Coach, Rick Pitino, voiced his opinion on Twitter two weeks ago, as it pertains to ways to safely start the season, and explained why playing only conference games may be the smartest option.
Suggestion to the NCAA, push the start of the season back to January and only play league games. Buy some more time for a vaccine and to get things under control. Although I can’t wait to be back on the sidelines, the health of my players and staff is what’s really important.
— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) July 1, 2020
In response to Pitino’s tweet, Jeff Goodman, a Stadium College Basketball Insider, stated that the idea of a conference-only season is plausible to many other coaches around the country.
This is an option I am hearing more and more from coaches. Makes sense. https://t.co/D1y72BPkSE
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) July 1, 2020
It seems as though, at least for the time being, many coaches believe that this option could pay dividends later on for them and their teams, and as we get closer to the “projected” November 10th start date, a large number of fans may start to gradually gravitate towards this suggestion as well.
However, while you could argue that the one major benefit of this interesting proposition would be to limit the exposure to COVID-19 for coaches and players, I managed to come up with 5 major problems that a conference only season would present to the Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee. (I will refer to them as the committee throughout this article)
Problem #1: The committee could have a difficult time deciding which teams receive at-large bids.
When power 5 and mid-major teams who are on the brink of being a part of the field of 68 (aka bubble teams) fail to secure the automatic NCAA tournament bid that comes with winning their respective conference tournaments, the only hope they have is getting an at-large bid on Selection Sunday. And a significant portion of that hope is tied to having some impressive non-conference wins on their resume.
If bubble teams are unable to get a chance to rack up key non-conference wins this season, they will have an unbelievably tough time making convincing arguments to be included in March Madness.