BY RODERICK BOONE
We interrupt the Brett-Favre-O-Thon and the Brett Favre Love Fest to bring you this special public service announcement.
Flash, we are weeks away from the start of the tournament. No, not the NCAA Tournament silly. I'm talking about the inaugural College Basketball Invitational. Don't act like you haven't heard about it. Ok, so I'm sure many of you haven't.
The College Basketball Invitational will compete with the NIT for teams and will field a 16-team tournament. The bracket will be announced on March 16 and teams are going to be invited based upon their performance and their finish to the regular season. It's going to be a single-elimination style tourney until the championship series, and the games will be played at various campus sites.
Before the semifinals start, the four remaining teams will be re-seeded and the championship series will be contested as a best of three series (home/away/home) with the higher seed getting the first and last (if the game is necessary) home games.
Below is a tentative scheduled they've laid out. Fox College Sports will broadcast most of the games. It will be interesting to see if this flops. If you include the 65 NCAA Tournament teams and 32 in the NIT, we are talking about 111 teams here. What is this college football, where if you have a mediocre 6-5 record you are eligible for a bowl?
Anyway, here is the sked.
March 18th and 19th
- Eight opening round games at campus sites
March 24th
- Four quarterfinal games at campus sites
March 26th
- Two semifinal games at campus sites
- Both games broadcast on Fox College Sports
College Basketball Invitational Championship Series (March 31st, April 2nd & April 4th)