How to Fix the A10 Tournament

I am of the opinion that the current format of the A10 tournament is imperfect and does more harm than good for the league. This article captures my feelings on it fairly well. Therefore, I would like to suggest some changes to the tournament.

A quick reminder on the format of the A10 tourney this year:

The one thing I like about the current format is that the final game of the college basketball season is the A10 title game right before the Selection Show. That’s a neat feature that puts the conference in a spotlight it wouldn’t otherwise be in. I’m all for it.

That’s really it though. Let’s go through the problems with this format and then offer up a couple tournament formats as solutions. First I’ll list small realistic changes and then more unlikely ones.

Problem 1: Playing X games in X Days is Bad for Players and Basketball.

Playing three (potentially four or five) straight games on consecutive days leads to tired players. Tired players leads to bad basketball, injuries, and is unhealthy for players. There is a reason NBA teams never play three times in three days. The A10 mandates their champion do at least that. At one of the few times random college basketball fans are watching our conference we are serving up tired teams who can’t possibly be at their best. It makes the conference look bad.

Problem 2: NCAA Bubble Teams Might Get Screwed.

A10 teams are pretty consistently on the bubble. This means there is a good chance they will have to play in the First Four on a Tuesday or Wednesday after the A10 final. This happened to UD in 2015. They lost the A10 final and played the next Wednesday, luckily at UD Arena. Other A10 teams would be even more screwed having to travel to Dayton. By the time UD played Oklahoma in the Round of 32 they were playing their 6th game in 10 days. In the last ten minutes of that game they were outscored 23–10 and lost. I don’t think it was a coincidence.

Problem 3: NCAA Tourney Locks Are Conflicted

This is more for fans than anybody, because I know coaches and players want to win every game they can. However, if I’m a fan of a team that has an NCAA tourney bid locked up (like Dayton this year) I’m almost tempted to root for a loss in our second game so we don’t have to play three games in three days. That is a stupid feeling to have, and I will obviously be rooting for a win every game, but if we lose I won’t even care that much. I hate that feeling, but the format of this tournament makes it not entirely unreasonable.

Problem 4: The Bottom 4 A10 Teams Suck.

Raise your hand if you’re excited for UMass-St. Joes? Or how about SLU-Duquesne? (RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAY) These games are an affront to the basketball gods. I have no desire to watch them and I absolutely won’t. They’re also unlikely to go anywhere. Since the A10 went to this format in 2014 (they had one less team but it was generally the same) a team that had to play on Wednesday has never won a Thursday game. Last year the bottom four had a combined 0.672% (not 67.2%, less than 1%) chance to win the title according to kenpom. Look at the bottom four this year. Can you see any of them winning 5 games in 5 days? They are unnecessary.

Problem 5: Neutral Site Games aren’t Fun.

Neutral site games are very difficult for the A10 due to how widespread the conference is. Somebody will always be getting screwed (most notably Davidson every year) no matter where you have it. Also, non-NCAA tournament neutral site games (mostly) suck. The Northwestern game in Chicago was one of the worst game experiences I’ve ever had (though the way that game went may have had something to do with it). I’m sure the A10 final and semi-final games get decent crowds, but it seems very team-dependent and there are always massive swaths of empty seats throughout the arena. It’s not the best look on national television.

Solution 1 (Easy Just Do It): Move the tourney start date back one day and rest Friday.

This one is pretty simple: just shift the start date back one day, take a break on Friday, and play the semifinals on Saturday like normal. Easy:

The only reason not to do this is because you won’t have Friday night games (so basically for monetary reasons). I think the health benefits are worth losing about 1000 tickets per session. This is more of a player health issue than anything and it solves issues 1–3.

Solution 2 (Probably Not): Drop the bottom four teams

Just bump SBU and GW up to the next round. We could then start games on Wednesday like before and still take a break Friday:

This has solved Problem 4. Even though there is precedent for this (just in 2013 the bottom three A10 teams didn’t make the tourney) it’s very unlikely to happen, again for monetary reasons. You need more games for more TV money, and everything in college sports is about money. Glad to see that money going to Pittsburgh Paints Arena instead of the players. GREAT.

Solution 3 (Very Doubtful): Play quarterfinal games at home arenas.

To solve Problem 5 we’re going a bit off the rails. There’s precedent for this as well, as the A10 used to let the higher seed host a first round game in the A10 tourney, again as recently as 2013. We’re taking that one step further. Since the last four seeds are out we can shift the tourney back a day further and start on Tuesday with the 7/10 and 8/9 games at the home arenas of the top two seeds. Wednesday will see the top four seeds play at their home arenas. Thursday is off now, and we can use that as a travel day from home arenas to Pittsburgh or DC or Brooklyn or wherever the A10 wants to hold the semifinals. Friday will be a practice day and then the semifinals will go off Saturday without a hitch. Instead of empty arenas you’d see packed buildings for UD, VCU, Richmond and URI, all at night.

This isn’t perfect, as the 8/9 and 7/10 game would have to be played on the 1/2 seeds home floor, but I would for sure shell out $25-$30 to go watch La Salle-Davidson here in Dayton. I’m definitely not going to see that in Pittsburgh, DC or Brooklyn.

I would honestly love to take this one step further and just play every game at the conference champion’s arena. Otherwise what is the regular season conference championship for other than bragging rights? At least you’re guaranteed a NCAA tourney spot with a tournament championship. Give the regular season champ more of an advantage than just a higher seed.

So that’s it. The first change is the simplest of them all and is absolutely the best thing for STUDENT-ATHLETES. If you even pretend to care about their well-being just do it. The other two are mostly just fun ideas unlikely to come to fruition but would undoubtedly make for a more enjoyable affair. Let me know what you think in comments or on twitter.