Four Big Sky Teams in Post-Season

[PBP]

Interesting. I'll do some checking and see if I can find anything out about this.

Thanks for mentioning it.

PBP

 

[PBP]

Another thing that I find curious is that Sacramento State is suddenly able to come up with the bid money needed to be hosting all these post season tournament games.

Given the financial situation in the state of California and specifically with the higher education area, I'm surprised they were able to do it.

Wonder where the money is coming from.

Because as I understand it, you not only have to pay x amount of dollars to the WNIT themselves in order to host but you also have to give a certain amount of money to the visiting team. That can run into a decent amount.

PBP

 

[SLCBengal]

•Everyone wants home games, and the WNIT makes hosting affordable for all teams. Teams can host in the first round for a guarantee of $6,500 a game. They can host in the second round for $7,500 a game.

•The WNIT helps offset those costs and assumes all risk for high-cost travel. Teams pay no more than $10,000 combined for all of their road games in the Postseason WNIT. This allows teams to budget for their postseason play and doesn’t penalize them for winning.

•Early-round pairings are regionalized as much as possible in order to minimize missed class time and travel costs.

Women's NIT Event Info

 

[PBP]

SLC:

Thanks for the info. Given though that it's women's basketball, to me, that's still a good chunk of money for a school in a state with financial hardships. Especially a program that hasn't drawn very well.

I mean ISU, which I think, is in better financial shape as a school overall than the university's in California wasn't able to host any games.

And I wonder like with the NCAA FCS playoffs, if the numbers you listed are a minimum bid. Schools can be outbid in essence from a hosting standpoint for football as I understand it. Don't know if that applies to the WNIT or not.

PBP

 

[sacstateman]

PBP, maybe it's not just the financial ability of a school to host but the administrations desire to host....I worked for 30 years in a publically financed institution and it always seemed that if the administration wanted to do something they could find the money no matter what amount it entailed. "If there is a will, there is a way"

 

[SDHornet]

I’m curious as to what the costs have been. The reality is Sac State has almost 30k students, so we are literally talking about a dollar or two (if that) from one semester of every students athletic fees being used for this. I am encouraged that Hornet admin made an effort to reward our programs with some post season home games. I hope that this is a sign of more good things to come.

 

[Spudhead]

It's really not that much, PBP. No reason to be green eyed.

Didn't I read somewhere that Sac got a bunch of support to help in the cost of converting their rec center into the Big Sky tournament site? The budget to convert was something like $40,000 or $50,000? Hosting games will do wonders for their recruiting, so they could probably justify using some recruiting money. I think it's a great thing for the Big Sky as a whole. I wish ISU could get in the position to host ANYthing post season in basketball!

 

[mvem]

The women's Big Sky season ended tonight. NoCo lost in Pauley 74-60; they had way too many costly turnovers late in wasting a monster performance by Stephanie Lee. Sac State looked unusually tired late in losing to St. Mary's at home 77-69.

 

[PBP]

It's really not that much, PBP. No reason to be green eyed.

Didn't I read somewhere that Sac got a bunch of support to help in the cost of converting their rec center into the Big Sky tournament site? The budget to convert was something like $40,000 or $50,000? Hosting games will do wonders for their recruiting, so they could probably justify using some recruiting money. I think it's a great thing for the Big Sky as a whole. I wish ISU could get in the position to host ANYthing post season in basketball!

Sin:

Not green-eyed...simply curious how a financial institution in a state that's bankrupt (or close to it) is able to come up with the money to do this, regardless of the amount. All you hear is how California higher educational institutions don't have any money. Sounds like someone isn't telling the truth.

 

[PBP]

The women's Big Sky season ended tonight. NoCo lost in Pauley 74-60; they had way too many costly turnovers late in wasting a monster performance by Stephanie Lee. Sac State looked unusually tired late in losing to St. Mary's at home 77-69.

Overall a good year again for the conference. Probably the third best women's conference west of the Mississippi behind the Pac-12 and the Mountain West.

PBP

 

[mvem]

The women's Big Sky season ended tonight. NoCo lost in Pauley 74-60; they had way too many costly turnovers late in wasting a monster performance by Stephanie Lee. Sac State looked unusually tired late in losing to St. Mary's at home 77-69.

Overall a good year again for the conference. Probably the third best women's conference west of the Mississippi behind the Pac-12 and the Mountain West.

PBP

According to realtimerpi, the Big Sky was one spot higher than the Mountain West this year (21st. vs. 22nd.). That doesn't include postseason games. The Big West & WCC (as well as the Pac-12) were both higher than the BSC, though.

In fact, the Big Sky has ranked higher than the MWC each of the last 4 seasons.

 

[Spudhead]

NAU is in the final four of the CIT. What are the excuses again for why we can't be like them in basketball, since we both play on a football field?

 

[PBP]

Can't say I know a lot about the men's side of the coin but from what I remember about No. Arizona over the years they've always had two or three guys on the team who could shoot lights out, especially from three point range.

Like my partner Brad always says, the Big Sky is a guards league and you better have some who can shoot the ball.

In fairness though the CIT isn't much of a tournament to brag about though, I mean the teams they are getting aren't good enough to get into the 68 team NCAA field or the 32 team NIT field.

PBP

 

[SLCBengal]

In fairness though the CIT isn't much of a tournament to brag about though, I mean the teams they are getting aren't good enough to get into the 68 team NCAA field or the 32 team NIT field.

PBP

Sorry, I disagree. Is it as high profile as the NCAA or NIT? Of course not. But the CIT was created specifically for mid-major leagues like the Big Sky. No Power-5 teams are invited. Since the NCAA took over the NIT, the Big Sky's appearances in that tournament are far and few in between. The Big Sky has had 4 appearances in the NIT over the last 11 tournaments (since the NCAA took it over).

Whether it's intentional or not, I don't think NAU or the CIT deserves the belittlement. I'd trade NAU's place in a heartbeat -- they get to play on nationwide TV Tuesday night on the CBS Sports Network. No better recruiting tool than that...

 

[PBP]

SLC:

Fair enough...we'll just have to agree to disagree. I actually know of teams in the Big Sky that have turned down invites to that tournament for whatever that may be worth to you.

PBP

 

[mvem]

In fairness though the CIT isn't much of a tournament to brag about though, I mean the teams they are getting aren't good enough to get into the 68 team NCAA field or the 32 team NIT field.

PBP

Sorry, I disagree. Is it as high profile as the NCAA or NIT? Of course not. But the CIT was created specifically for mid-major leagues like the Big Sky. No Power-5 teams are invited. Since the NCAA took over the NIT, the Big Sky's appearances in that tournament are far and few in between. The Big Sky has had 4 appearances in the NIT over the last 11 tournaments (since the NCAA took it over).

Whether it's intentional or not, I don't think NAU or the CIT deserves the belittlement. I'd trade NAU's place in a heartbeat -- they get to play on nationwide TV Tuesday night on the CBS Sports Network. No better recruiting tool than that...

I don't think the CIT quite deserves belittlement (& certainly NAU doesn't), but a lot of teams have rejected CBI & CIT bids the last couple years. Many of the participants were barely over .500, some were below average in the RPI, and no-one has anywhere near the 30 wins Weber had going into the CIT title game two years ago.

 

[Spudhead]

SLC:

Fair enough...we'll just have to agree to disagree. I actually know of teams in the Big Sky that have turned down invites to that tournament for whatever that may be worth to you.

PBP

What teams and when?

It's a 3rd tier tournament, no question. But really, who cares? There have been teams in the past who have turned down the NIT. But it seems to have energized the fan base in Flagstaff. They had almost 3,700 for the game against Kent State. When was the last time ISU drew that many to a game? Did we even draw over 2,000 to a single game this year? Both the ISU men's and women's teams are suffering attendance declines. Fact. Like I said before, I wish ISU could get into the position to host ANYthing, be it the WNIT, NIT, CIT, or whatever else there is.

 

[biobengal]

Both the ISU men's and women's teams are suffering attendance declines. Fact. Like I said before, I wish ISU could get into the position to host ANYthing, be it the WNIT, NIT, CIT, or whatever else there is.

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

 

[PBP]

Sin:

With respect, I'm sorry, I can't specifically tell you which ones and why. I hope that you know me well enough to understand that I'm not simply throwing that out there. The specific information was private and I have to keep it that way.

There are apparently a lot of factors that go into hosting and it varies from school to school in some cases. I know this isn't much consolation but in this case, you'll have to take my word on this.

Sorry again that I can't offer more to you.

Regarding men's attendance, as Brad pointed out a few times this past year, BSC men's attendance was down to its lowest levels since they started keeping records in the mid 70's. Outside of say Montana and Weber State most if not all the other programs on the men's side are in the same boat to various degrees. I think that needs to be kept in mind.

Women's attendance (again in general terms) has always been Montana-Montana State drawing very well. Then comes ISU and now No. Dakota (when they joined the league) and everybody else. ISU women's attendance has been off the past two seasons but it's not significant especially when you compare it to the majority of the other schools in the conference. I don't think that's something to be overly concerned about at this point.

No question attendance for ISU men's basketball is dramatically down, not winning does that, but it's not just in Pocatello apparently as shown again by Brad's research.

One final point to keep in mind when talking about attendance, I've seen numerous games where an attendance is announced but the reality is that the number of fans in the seats appears to be far less than what is said. I don't know if there is a "standard" that all schools must follow when getting into attendance issues. (Maybe Brad knows if there is or not...) I'm just saying I think you have to take with a grain of salt figures that are released regardless of whatever school you are looking at. Who knows for sure what the real, actual attendance is at a game or a season.

PBP

 

[sacstateman]

I know there are quite a few teams who turn down a CBI offer but I don't know of any CIT turn downs.....CBI demands payment upfront to play in their tourney....I like the CIT because it focuses on mid majors only....until the NCAA requires teams to play home and home in the non-conference season, no mid majors will be able to get a RPI high enough to get an at large bid to the NCAA tourney....the big conferences actually guarantee themselves more shares of the NCAA pie by not playing mid majors home and home.....I kinda think there may be a reason to have different level tournaments sorta like football but I haven't spent much time figuring how that would work...