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View Full Version : I Didn't Think Preseason Tourneys Could be Stripped Further



SCMatt33
11-08-2010, 05:18 PM
I don't know how much people know about this because I haven't seen it talked about on message boards, blogs, or in the media, but I just discovered the Global Sports Invitational. I have been able to find very little official information on this "tournament" as it doesn't even have an official website as far as I can tell. It appears as if it took place last year between a few mid and low major teams (most notably Marshall and Ohio U). It appears to be nothing more that a 5-team regular season round robin agreement with all games taking place on campus sites. I have found nothing about an official champion and every single game is scheduled in advance. I have found a few references to last year's event including this blog post listing the results of the games (http://dcindex-choop.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-sports-invitational.html) and this press release in advance of the last game (http://herdzone.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/112709aac.html) between Marshall and Ohio. Please note that despite having a match-up of teams who had both beaten the other three involved, this was not billed as a "championship."

I first noticed this because I was exploring Ken Pom's team reports to see how the schedules of other top teams stack up to Duke's in terms of top-50, top-100, top-150 games, etc. Ken Pom doesn't list games that are not set in stone, for example, Duke vs. KState/Gonzaga is absent. When I looked at Ohio State's schedule, I noticed that they already had 31 games listed. In order for a team to legally schedule 31 games, 4 of them have to take place in a tournament, which would collectively count as a single game against the official 28 game limit. I looked further to Ohio State's official schedule (http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17300&KEY=&SPID=10421&SPSID=87805) and discovered that four games, including a marquee game against Florida, are listed as being in the "Global Sports Invitational."

I investigated further and found this press release from a Florida NBC affiliate (http://www.nbc-2.com/global/story.asp?s=12918829) that states Florida will play the same three mid and low major teams as Ohio State as part of the event. I further discovered on Ken Pom's site that each of the five teams involved play the other four in November, hence the round robin format. None of these games are on neutral courts and all are set in stone. At least in the automatic advance tourneys, there are still a few games that rely on results and a championship is awarded. Because it is a "tournament" I would assume that no guarantees are paid out to the smaller schools. If that's true than this is just a way for Ohio State and Florida to schedule extra guarantee games without having to guarantee payment for the games. Although it's not as if the small schools get nothing out of the deal as they still get to bump their schedules from 28 to 31 games and some even get an extra home game or two, but it's still a pretty bad deal compared to those who get to compete at neutral sites in 8-team tourneys.

As a fan of a top tier school I don't mind the auto advance format (though I totally understand why fans of mid-majors hate it) because we still get to see Duke play top tier teams for a chance at a championship, but I would hate to see this format catch on. The good news is that with ESPN controlling so many of these tourney's, It would not be in their best interest to see them go away and hopefully television's ridiculous power can be used for good here.