MWC begins tourney talks
Coaches want all teams included
The Mountain West’s expansion to 11 basketball members this coming season (thanks to the additions of Utah State and San Jose State) means changes for the conference tournament next March in Las Vegas, Nev.
While the final decision on those changes is still at least a month away when the league’s Board of Directors meet in June, the Mountain West’s coaches earlier this week in Phoenix had their say.
The league’s coaches — men’s and women’s — want to continue to include every league member in the postseason tournament, as the Mountain West has done since the league’s inception in 1999.
The coaches’ all-inclusive recommendation seems to be what the league’s joint council (athletic directors, faculty representatives and senior athletics department administrators) will push forward to the league presidents in June.
That creates quite the logistical predicament, though.
Along with TV broadcast rights, the basketball tournament is the league’s cash cow, but is already a jampacked five-day event each March in Las Vegas, and adding games costs money.
The recommendation from the coaches would require adding a new round to each bracket to accommodate all teams, and likely add another day of use of the Thomas & Mack Center, additional payment to arena employees and league employees running the games, and none of that gets into broadcasting issues.
The current format has one play-in game the league dubs the “opening round,” but the new proposal would push that round from two teams to six for both the men’s and the women’s brackets.
Nevertheless, the league’s coaches want to push forward with an all-inclusive tournament format that would look like this: Round 1: No. 6 seed vs. No. 11 seed; No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed; No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed. Quarterfinals: No. 1 vs. No. 8/9 winner; No. 2 vs. No. 7/10 winner; No. 3 vs. No. 6/11 winner; No. 4 vs. No. 5. The semifinals and championship round would remain the same.
What days the games are
played throughout the week is anybody’s guess, and TV broadcasting could play a role in that decision.
This format proposal would push what this year was a 16-game event (eight games apiece for the men’s and women’s tournaments) to 20 games.
The league will not comment on the recommendation until the Board of Directors votes on the format changes in June, but the Journal has learned the coaches’ recommendation is not the only one being considered.
Other options include one that would keep the tournament at the nine-team format, as in this past season. An eight-team format, which would start with the quarterfinal round but leave three men’s and three women’s team out of the tournament each season, also remains on the table for the league presidents.