Big Joke
The Big South Conference’s regular season men’s champion hosts the semifinal of the championship tournament. As marvelous as an idea it is to allow the regular season champion host, it is extremely flawed.
Take for example this year. The second round was hosted at Asheville’s Justice Center. The Justice Center holds 1,100 fans. The gym’s court space is small as well. The “press row” was comfortable if you are less than five feet tall and 100 pounds. Not many people fit that description. The game was also broadcasted nationally on ESPNU. Grant it, not many people get the channel.
The Big South is broadcasted to 20 million subscribers that the championship is played at a small gymnasium. It was as if they thought only Liberty or Winthrop would win the conference every year.
The situation gets even worse at the championship game. The final game is played at the highest remaining seed. Example: UNC Asheville loses to Liberty. High Point beats Winthrop. That situation has both lower seeds winning. The final round would be played at High Point.
Liberty then played the opening round at home, the second round at UNCA and the final round at HPU. Five day span leaves them all across creation to win a berth to the most important basketball tournament in the land.
The Big South has a serious problem here. If the one seed loses, the ESPN family of networks is driven to two different venues. If there was one predetermined site, things would work much easier.
Imagine if Charleston Southern won the regular season then Liberty happen to get the championship game via upset. The Big South would be going from Charleston, SC to Lynchburg, VA. That would be a six-hour drive in one day for the teams and tem personnel.
The Big South needs to advert the problem before a problem happens. It is a simple solution; you want the conference to have a larger footprint? Treat it like it is big foot rather than a big joke.
I’ll give a recap of the High Point game versus Winthrop. Game time, if I can fit…
