So you’ve probably heard by now that there will be a third national postseason (after the NCAA and NIT) tournament called the College Basketball Invitational starting in March 2008 (um, great name, guys). The Gazelle Group, the people who are bringing us all these lively preseason tourneys such as the Coaches v. Cancer and the CBE Classic have somehow paid off convinced the NCAA that giving another sixteen crappy overlooked teams more games to play is a good idea.
Selection Process:
The 16 team field will consist of teams that are not selected for the 65 team NCAA Tournament. Teams will be invited based upon their performance during their conference and non-conference schedule, as well as how well the team is playing at the end of the regular season.Format:
The College Basketball Invitational will be a single-elimination tournament, up until the Championship Series, with all games being played at campus sites. The Championship Series will be a best of three series, home-away-home, in which the higher seed will get the first and last (if necessary) home games.
Ohhhh, so that’s how it will work, huh? So considering 2007, what kinds of teams would have been invited to this thing? 25-8 Appalachian St.? 22-9 Bucknell? Teams that had really good seasons from smaller conferences? Or the same tired ninth and tenth place teams from the major conferences? Well, we can actually answer that question. Here’s a sample bracket based on last year’s season results provided by the Gazelle Group.
Oh. 16-15 Oklahoma. 17-15 LSU. 17-14 UConn. 17-14 Nebraska. These teams were simply not very good last year – didn’t we see enough of them already?
Sounds thrilling. Can’t wait.