Championship Formats Announced

[Skippy]

The Big Sky formally announced its post-season tournament formats today. If you don't get a top five seed, you'll have to win three games in three days to reach the finals in both the men's and women's brackets. The women play Monday-Wednesday, with the championship Friday. The men will play Wednesday through Saturday.

http://www.bigskyconf.com/news/2018/7/30/mens-basketball-big-sky-reveals-2019-basketball-championship-schedule-and-bracket.aspx

Another interesting aspect of the format--they are not re-seeding after the first-round, so theoretically the top-seeded team could play a higher seed in the first-round than the No. 3 seed.

 

[PBP]

Don't understand a lot of things about the new schedule both from a regular season and post season standpoint myself.

You are possibly increasing the risk of serious injury trying to play so many games in so few days. Plus playing Monday games in the regular season means more school missed by the kids.

PBP

 

[Hank42]

I agree 100% these are STUDENT athletes, which means school should be the first priority. The NCAA can’t hold the athletes accountable for academics if they allow these conferences to schedule games three times a week. I love the game BUT these students athletes need more time to study.

 

[sasquatch]

New presidents. New commissioner. Must be getting close to "experimenting" with Friday/Saturday schedules again. :twisted:

 

[Skippy]

New presidents. New commissioner. Must be getting close to "experimenting" with Friday/Saturday schedules again. :twisted:

No, the issue was going to a full, round-robin schedule with an uneven number of teams. I'm told the Big Sky literally looked at about 50 different schedule arrangements, rejected the one they finally accepted, and then came back to the final version. No easy solutions to that conundrum.

Playing Monday games is not ideal for travel, fans or students, but the league decided it was the least problematic approach. I like the fact they are playing a round-robin schedule -- gives you a true champion, puts everybody on a level playing field and reduces the number of non-conference slots you have to fill. But there is a price to pay for that.

 

[Hank42]

That’s a high price to pay, students athletes missing more class room and study time not to mention the rough travel schedule. I’m not sure how to fix the problem BUT this sure doesn’t seem to be the answer. Again I enjoy college sports especially Basketball BUT that’s making it really hard when they’re spending so much time on the road away from school. Lets talk about injuries all these young men are in great shape BUT again the body needs time to recover, playing so many games in a short period of time we’re going to see more injuries. I really think the conference got this one wrong, normally I don’t speak out of turn BUT this is NUTS.

 

[votb]

I agree. I don't necessarily get excited about the new travel schedule, but with the regular season schedule I don't see them missing more school. With the Thursday/Saturday schedule we've had for years we'll leave town early Wednesday morning (unless it's to Bozeman, Missoula or Ogden) and come back usually late Sunday. The kids miss school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. With Saturday/ Monday you leave Friday and come home Tuesday, still missing three days of class.

Yes, the tournament schedule will be grueling, but other conferences have done this, too. Change is hard.

 

[PBP]

New presidents. New commissioner. Must be getting close to "experimenting" with Friday/Saturday schedules again. :twisted:

No, the issue was going to a full, round-robin schedule with an uneven number of teams. I'm told the Big Sky literally looked at about 50 different schedule arrangements, rejected the one they finally accepted, and then came back to the final version. No easy solutions to that conundrum.

Playing Monday games is not ideal for travel, fans or students, but the league decided it was the least problematic approach. I like the fact they are playing a round-robin schedule -- gives you a true champion, puts everybody on a level playing field and reduces the number of non-conference slots you have to fill. But there is a price to pay for that.

The version that was accepted was #52 out of 82 that were submitted.

I had a coach tell me the issue is the fact that in their opinion the league was using a schedule basically designed and used by bigger conferences. Power-5 type. That was wrong they said because, "those schools all have chartered flights. The don't go commercial or have long bus trips."

Valid point. Travel is tough in the Big Sky particularly for schools like ISU and So. Utah.

PBP

 

[Skippy]

New presidents. New commissioner. Must be getting close to "experimenting" with Friday/Saturday schedules again. :twisted:

No, the issue was going to a full, round-robin schedule with an uneven number of teams. I'm told the Big Sky literally looked at about 50 different schedule arrangements, rejected the one they finally accepted, and then came back to the final version. No easy solutions to that conundrum.

Playing Monday games is not ideal for travel, fans or students, but the league decided it was the least problematic approach. I like the fact they are playing a round-robin schedule -- gives you a true champion, puts everybody on a level playing field and reduces the number of non-conference slots you have to fill. But there is a price to pay for that.

The version that was accepted was #52 out of 82 that were submitted.

I had a coach tell me the issue is the fact that in their opinion the league was using a schedule basically designed and used by bigger conferences. Power-5 type. That was wrong they said because, "those schools all have chartered flights. The don't go commercial or have long bus trips."

Valid point. Travel is tough in the Big Sky particularly for schools like ISU and So. Utah.

PBP

I don’t have a scheduling algorithm to run all the possibilities through a computer but I’m pretty sure the league looked at all the possibilities to make the schedule as fair and simple as possible. But it doesn’t really matter if you’re playing Thursday-Saturday or Saturday-Monday, if you have to travel you have to travel. ISU’s travel is particularly difficult because usually they have to bus to SLC or Boise to start trips. But that is life in an athletic department that has to squeeze every penny.

 

[B40]

The problem with the schedule is that it is unbalanced to the point that some teams will potentially have an unfair advantage. And it may be more difficult for a lower seed to make a run to the final as the ISU women did in 2016 and 2017.

On the women's side, seven out of eleven teams play four games in 8 days from Dec. 29 to Jan. 5 to begin the season. The teams that don't are EWU, NoCo, PSU, and Sac St.

After that opening flurry, NoCo, ISU, NAU, MSU, NoCo (again), and Idaho all have to play additional sets of four games in eight days. Then, Montana, MSU and Weber play 4 games in eight days to end the season.

The teams that never play four games in eight days are EWU, PSU, and Sac.

It's Interesting to note that PSU - one of the early favorites for the women - play only one Monday game all season. It's on Dec. 31. After that, they play a traditional Thursday & Saturday schedule with one week having a single game on Saturday.

To end the regular season, four teams play 3 games from Monday, March 4 to Saturday, March 9 before the playing in the tournament on Monday, March 11 or Tuesday, March 12. Those four teams are ISU, Montana, Montana State, and Weber. So unless those teams get one of the first round byes in Boise, they'll have to play on March 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 15 in order make it to the final. That's seven games in 12 days. (MT, MSU, and Weber all play on Saturday, March 2 so their runs will be even more difficult.) I wouldn't be surprised to see some teams (those who have clinched byes or can't possibly earn a bye) hold out starters to rest them for their first tournament games in Boise.

To make matters even more unbalanced, the ISU women have to play three road games (Weber, EWU, and Idaho) the week of March 4-9 before heading to Boise. Weber hosts ISU before the Idaho EWU trip and the Montana schools each finish with two home games (PSU and Sac). Southern Utah is the only team to benefit from not playing on March 9, so they'll get two extra days of rest before the tournament starts.

In all, teams will have decidedly different levels of difficulty on their road to Boise in 2019.

 

[Skippy]

So is there an alternative schedule that treats every school exactly the same?

 

[B40]

So is there an alternative schedule that treats every school exactly the same?

With the odd number of teams, there won't be a perfect schedule that treats everyone exactly the same. But with the large number of games leading into the tournament (especially on Monday, March 4, I worry that we'll see some tired teams get blown out on Monday and Tuesday of championship week.

As an off-the-cuff suggestion, why not move the Montana at NoCo game from Monday, Feb. 25 to Thursday, Feb. 21. This makes Feb. 25 an open date for all teams. Then, swap the schedule for Feb 25 - March 2 with the week of March 4 - 9. Since the open date from Feb. 25 would move to March 4, then Thursday and Saturday games could be moved up to Wednesday and Friday as they have for the last several years.

Since I have no idea about venue availability, I can't say that this change would even be possible. But the idea of having all teams play only two games in the week leading to the tournament with an extra day of rest and preparation might well lead to better games in Boise.

 

[PBP]

So is there an alternative schedule that treats every school exactly the same?

With the odd number of teams, there won't be a perfect schedule that treats everyone exactly the same. But with the large number of games leading into the tournament (especially on Monday, March 4, I worry that we'll see some tired teams get blown out on Monday and Tuesday of championship week.

As an off-the-cuff suggestion, why not move the Montana at NoCo game from Monday, Feb. 25 to Thursday, Feb. 21. This makes Feb. 25 an open date for all teams. Then, swap the schedule for Feb 25 - March 2 with the week of March 4 - 9. Since the open date from Feb. 25 would move to March 4, then Thursday and Saturday games could be moved up to Wednesday and Friday as they have for the last several years.

Since I have no idea about venue availability, I can't say that this change would even be possible. But the idea of having all teams play only two games in the week leading to the tournament with an extra day of rest and preparation might well lead to better games in Boise.

Agreed. Playing Thursday-Saturday then having one day to travel then potentially playing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is flat out nuts and unnecessary. They could have continued the last week to keep the games on Wednesday-Friday for the women. I mean it's not like it is a major encumberment, if it was they wouldn't have done it the two previous years.

Like I posted when the regular season schedule came out you better get the bye or you better have a really deep team. That will be interesting to watch during the season, if coaches deliberately try to extend their bench to get the depth needed for the tournament.

Let's put it this way I seriously doubt a team can win it even with a bye only playing six-seven kids.

PBP

 

[sasquatch]

New presidents. New commissioner. Must be getting close to "experimenting" with Friday/Saturday schedules again. :twisted:

No, the issue was going to a full, round-robin schedule with an uneven number of teams. I'm told the Big Sky literally looked at about 50 different schedule arrangements, rejected the one they finally accepted, and then came back to the final version. No easy solutions to that conundrum.

Playing Monday games is not ideal for travel, fans or students, but the league decided it was the least problematic approach. I like the fact they are playing a round-robin schedule -- gives you a true champion, puts everybody on a level playing field and reduces the number of non-conference slots you have to fill. But there is a price to pay for that.

Sorry, I forgot to put this in my sarcasm font. :?

 

[notabengalalum]

Let’s not get all worked up and stressed out about the tournament format.
These are young student athletes in good condition (or they should be) playing a game that hopefully, they love.
Last time I checked they weren’t preparing to storm the beaches at Normandy or Iwo Jima under heavy enemy fire.
Perspective, fellow Bengal fans. Perspective.
Let the firestorm commence!