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NCAA Bubble

dukedevilz

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2002
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NCAA President, Mark Emmert, discussed yesterday the realistic possibility of modeling the NBA and having an NCAA Tournament in a bubble. Regarding the number of teams that would qualify in this potential scenario, he said, "Starting with 64 teams is tough.Thirty-two, OK, maybe that's a more manageable number."

Emmert believes 32 teams is more manageable. Interesting enough, there are 32 conferences. If basketball starts up in January, and the OOC season is nixed, it seems plausible that only automatic-bids would be eligible for the tournament. How crazy would that be? Big 12 and Big Ten are stacked with multiple FF contenders. ACC has a few upper echelon teams, as well. Would be crazy to have a 32-team tournament and potentially see Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina all miss out. Could make for an incredibly unique season. Thoughts?
 
I know everyone loves the Cinderella story, but it would be ludicrous imo to put the Ivy League and Patriot League etc etc winner in and potentially leave out top ten teams.

It would make the conf tourneys hella exciting though.

And I’m for anything that means we get a season and a champion so whatever.
 
I know everyone loves the Cinderella story, but it would be ludicrous imo to put the Ivy League and Patriot League etc etc winner in and potentially leave out top ten teams.

It would make the conf tourneys hella exciting though.

And I’m for anything that means we get a season and a champion so whatever.

Would love to have a normal season - and a normal tournament. But, if you're going to shrink the tournament to 32 teams, going with automatic qualifiers might be the most sensible thing. And yes, the conference tournaments would be unbelievably exciting. I would be okay with simply having 32 at-large bids. However, how would the committee realistically differentiate one resume from another without an out-of-conference season?

The problem with the automatic-bid only format, of course, is it becomes VERY diluted. You're likely to have a team like Northern Iowa or Richmond reach the Final Four... or someone completely out of the blue. 32 teams, and probably half of those schools can't stay within single digits of a top 5 team. The competitive aspect of that format is not overly compelling.

FWIW, the Ivy League has actually done okay for itself. They won 5 NCAA Tournament games in the previous decade - and lost several nail-biters along the way.
 
Yea man I wasn’t intentionally taking a shot at the Ivy League, just can’t even name some of the smaller conferences and I don’t feel too bad knowing there are like 25 of them.
 
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I would hate that format. Why not do regional bubbles? Does the NCAA not realize how much money they would lose keeping out the blue bloods? In a format like this, its very likely half the top programs don't even make the tournament.

As much as I love the underdog story, it would really water down the tournament having all the mid major winners. 27 of the 32 teams wouldn't be power 5. No way.
 
I would hate that format. Why not do regional bubbles? Does the NCAA not realize how much money they would lose keeping out the blue bloods? In a format like this, its very likely half the top programs don't even make the tournament.

As much as I love the underdog story, it would really water down the tournament having all the mid major winners. 27 of the 32 teams wouldn't be power 5. No way.

Hopefully it doesn't come down to that. If classes are almost exclusively done online, players could travel extensively throughout the season... perhaps multiple "bubble tournaments." I don't know. I hope somehow we can have a semi-normal season. But, at this point, I'm willing to take anything.
 
If this is indeed how it’s gonna be, I dunno if I could count it the same as a “normal” championship.

Like dude said, 27 out of the 32 teams would be from mid majors? Might as well say 25/32 bc of the big East and Gonzaga. Whoever did make the tourney from the P5 teams would have multiple games with mid majors until it gets whittled down to the elite 8. Not a fan. I’d be more interested in a P6 only 32 team tourney including the big East. Maybe make some kind of exception for Gonzaga and the AAC and A10 winner.

The rest of the conferences, although good for an upset or Cinderella run now and then, just don’t measure up imo. The conference tourneys would be amazing, but I don’t much like the premise. But I’m for anything that means college basketball is being played.

If they can do 32 in a bubble they need to do 32 in two different bubbles.
 
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If they can do 32 in a bubble they need to do 32 in two different bubbles.
This...

Put the two regions that would pair up in the FF in the same bubble. So you would have for example the East and SOutheast in one bubble...The West and Midwest in another...You test the four teams prior to the FF.

Seems very plausible to me..
 
NCAA President, Mark Emmert, discussed yesterday the realistic possibility of modeling the NBA and having an NCAA Tournament in a bubble. Regarding the number of teams that would qualify in this potential scenario, he said, "Starting with 64 teams is tough.Thirty-two, OK, maybe that's a more manageable number."

Emmert believes 32 teams is more manageable. Interesting enough, there are 32 conferences. If basketball starts up in January, and the OOC season is nixed, it seems plausible that only automatic-bids would be eligible for the tournament. How crazy would that be? Big 12 and Big Ten are stacked with multiple FF contenders. ACC has a few upper echelon teams, as well. Would be crazy to have a 32-team tournament and potentially see Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina all miss out. Could make for an incredibly unique season. Thoughts?

My guess would be some of the smaller conferences don’t have enough money to pay for the testing protocols needed. So it might be just 15 or so conferences participating.

As an aside, I’d love to see conferences try some “pods” of games in a bubble. 6 teams could play a round robin of games over 2 weeks in Greensboro, then quarantine for a week or two and then do another round robin.
 
My guess would be some of the smaller conferences don’t have enough money to pay for the testing protocols needed. So it might be just 15 or so conferences participating.

As an aside, I’d love to see conferences try some “pods” of games in a bubble. 6 teams could play a round robin of games over 2 weeks in Greensboro, then quarantine for a week or two and then do another round robin.
They can't afford it. I heard that the weekly testing for my local college's football team was going to cost $10k a week. Obviously that's for over 100 people, but still.
 
Want to see some basketball. With fans without fans it doesn't matter.

Hopefully we have some schools with balls in CBB like we do football.

Reports from what people are seeing and hearing is that this Texas team is legit.

Every player is bringing up their game. Interested in seeing this on the court
 
Want to see some basketball. With fans without fans it doesn't matter.

Hopefully we have some schools with balls in CBB like we do football.

Reports from what people are seeing and hearing is that this Texas team is legit.

Every player is bringing up their game. Interested in seeing this on the court

32 team tournament and Texas still won’t make the Sweet 16 lol.
 
32 team tournament and Texas still won’t make the Sweet 16 lol.

Shaka acting like that job is still his. Especially considering he is bringing high upside guys in with his 2021 class.

For whatever reason he is confident if there is a season his team is going to make some noise.

We will find out. If that is the case I believe you would owe Shaka an apology. You are probably his #1 critic on here.
 
Shaka acting like that job is still his. Especially considering he is bringing high upside guys in with his 2021 class.

For whatever reason he is confident if there is a season his team is going to make some noise.

We will find out. If that is the case I believe you would owe Shaka an apology. You are probably his #1 critic on here.

Haha, so if Shaka takes a team that has top 10 talent and manages to win a game in the NCAAT, I owe him an apology?

Texas should be a Final Four favorite with the talent y’all have. Only winning a game in the NCAAT would be a big underachievement.
 
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Haha, so if Shaka takes a team that has top 10 talent and manages to win a game in the NCAAT, I owe him an apology?

Texas should be a Final Four favorite with the talent y’all have. Only winning a game in the NCAAT would be a big underachievement.


The guard play could be better.
But I don't think any team has the amount of bigs who could run the floor like Texas does.

Whatever happen it should be a fun team to watch.
Hopefully they can figure something out to allow a season to happen

Been hearing they may use the bubble setting for conference games as well.
 
Haha, so if Shaka takes a team that has top 10 talent and manages to win a game in the NCAAT, I owe him an apology?

Texas should be a Final Four favorite with the talent y’all have. Only winning a game in the NCAAT would be a big underachievement.

It is pretty funny how underwhelming they've been. Two NCAA Tournament wins in the past decade; haven't been to the Sweet 16 since 2008; they were a bubble team last season with ten top 100 recruits. They always have the talent... but, for whatever reason, they consistently fall short.
 
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Have a pre tourney for the bottom 16 conference Champs. The final four qualify for the main 32 team tourney.

16 auto bids, 12 at large, 4 from the pre tourney.
 
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