Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Final Word on MAC Basketball Tournament

The final word is in on the MAC Basketball tournament. Here is what the Council of Presidents decided.

  • Two more years for the men's and women's tournaments at the Q.
  • However, only eight teams will advance.
  • Studies will begin to determine how separate sites might work starting in 2012.
This has been discussed already. I don't have any problem with this approach, and I hope that separate sites can be part of the long-term future.

Also, the MAC took some cost cutting measures:

  • No conference printed media guides (although the guides will be available on line)
  • no men’s and women’s basketball media days and luncheon
  • a minimum one-year moratorium on student-athlete gifts at the 23 sponsored MAC championships.
I don't really understand the third one, but the first bullet is a trend that is spreading through college sports, and in the interests of fairness, I like the idea of the entire conference taking that step at once.

As for the media days for basketball, I guess I am surprised there was enough cost in there to make it worth cutting, but certainly if something had to go, there was not a huge benefit out of it.

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