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With Big 12 Basketball schedules set to release within the next week or so, I was tickled to see the following idea proposed by @DrKen_sportsmed on Twitter.
College basketball schedule released yet?
— K.J. Kenneth-Nwosa, MD (@DrKen_sportsmed) October 21, 2020
Under COVID times, they may need to go AAU-style.
4 team conference round robin every weekend. This provides enough time to test throughout the week and you can still manage to play games if/when teams are quarantined. What y'all think?
Under any other circumstances, the Big 12 would never make any decisions to remove gate revenue from their schools. I truly don’t think they will in this circumstance either, but if there is anything 2020 has taught us, anything is in play.
The idea from a scheduling standpoint serves multiple purposes, Kenneth goes on to explain in the thread.
- 8-week schedule
- Each team plays 24 games
- 3 groups every weekend
Weekend 1:
— K.J. Kenneth-Nwosa, MD (@DrKen_sportsmed) October 21, 2020
Group A - BU, OU, UT, ISU
Group B - KU, KSU, OSU
Group C - WVU, TTU, TCU
Weekend 2:
A - BU, KSU, TCU
B - OU, KU, WVU
C - UT, ISU, OSU, TCU
Etc.. etc..
By the end of two weekends, Baylor has already played 5 different conference opponents once.
I love this. Starting in January, the Big 12 could turn every weekend into the Big 12 Basketball show.
“Mini-Bubbles” would allow for arrival, on say Wednesday to a rotating schedule of bubble sites. Depending on if your bubble has 3 or 4 teams, you would begin play on Wednesday or Thursday.
One of the few places where this proposal breaks down is the potential back-to-back-to-back or “3 in 4” situations. Coaches and players just wouldn’t be thrilled about being worn out for a potentially conference-deciding game that happens to be scheduled at the end of the weekend.
But the idea of having multiple teams compete in weekend “bubbles” with a psedo-tournament feel is an incredible idea. I would dedicate the entire weekend to see other teams watching each other and reacting. It could be assumed that fans would get a more authentic basketball audio experience. And it’s just plain fun to have a novel all-day sporting event.
Plus, it would include that small benefit of reducing exposure to the non-bubble public while traveling. Reduce the possibility for missed games and damaged tournament resumes.
And again, if it is at all possible, Big 12 athletic directors and conference leadership will make on-campus games work, but I’ll take fun ideas anywhere I can find them.