The Case Against the CBI – Virginia Tech Made the Right Decision to Decline an Invite.

Congratulations are in order for featured AllSportsDiscussion contributer @HokieGuru who just became a member of the FWAA (Football Writers  Association of America) and the USBWA (United States Basketball Writers Association). Here is his latest piece for your reading enjoyment.

Author: @HokieGuru

Featured Segment – All Sports Discussion Blogger on ESPN Blacksburg:  The Case Against the CBI – Virginia Tech Made the Right Decision to Decline an Invite

Good evening folks.  @HokieGuru here.  The e-mail below was the topic of a featured segment on ESPN Blacksburg on Monday.  Enjoy the broadcast and the e-mail (now turned blog post for this site) that I sent to the Sean Bielawski show Monday below:

Virginia Tech absolutely made the right decision for three important reasons.  First, financially, it would be a terrible decision to play in the CBI tournament.  Second, the extra practice or game time element that a team would get in the CBI tournament isn’t worth the cost-benefit.  Third, it would be a bad public relations move to even consider playing in the tournament.

First, the CBI requires institutions to pay to host the tournament.  Last season, the CBI became an unseeded tournament and host institutions were required to pay a $60,000 fee to host said games.  In 2009, the University of Virginia lost $150,000 hosting games in the CBI tournament. In fact, some say they might have lost $200,000, including other operational costs.  All of these same costs, including the guaranteed fee and the operating costs, also apply to Virginia Tech.  Considering that attendance dropped off quite a bit, I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be more than 1500 fans at a CBI game in the Cassell.  We have better ways to spend our athletic donors money (hello, a new sound system in the Cassell is way overdue).

Second, the extra practice or game time element isn’t really worth the cost-benefit.  It is true that we have young players and additional time on the court can help to some degree (and it can help Seth, too, because it’s been a while since he’s coached a young team).  The drama of a potential TCU (where former Virginia Tech player, Hank Thorns is enrolled) – Virginia Tech match up would be absolutely awesome lol
(see the field here).  Maybe – maybe not.  This is the only true favorable element that I can find – and games against any team could provide a small benefit – but I think Virginia Tech would be better served by using its athletic funds to play in an early season tournament (or two) next year to get the younger guys some experience.

Third, I think playing in the CBI tournament would be a bad public relations move in a couple of months from now – it would show that we are settling for less – we would get crashed in the media for accepting a bid (given our short-misses for the NCAA tournament).  Assuredly, we would lose money on the CBI tournament – there is absolutely no way that our gate proceeds would cover the gate fee and the operating costs of the Cassell – and from a public relations standpoint, this looks really bad because Virginia Tech (and most colleges) has had several consecutive years of tuition increases for students.  Students are the reasons that colleges exist (with no students, there are no colleges).  While the athletic and institution funds are in separate coffers, it still looks bad from a public relations standpoint if Virginia Tech raises tuition on its students, but loses money on a third-ring post season hoops tournament.

In short, this is the absolutely right decision to decline a CBI invite.  And that’s my two cents.