A Proposed Commonwealth of Virginia Men’s College Basketball Holiday Classic Tournament

Good afternoon, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sports fans.

I thinking today about how National Collegiate Athletics Association teams are going to have to be creative and save money in a lot of different ways because many are footing the entire bill for their athletes in all sports (which is good).  This, however, also means that institutions will need to find ways to creatively save money, as I said earlier.  That’s going to mean more matchups between teams in a specific state, for example, because it’s a major way to realize some travel cost savings.

Towards that end, with the help of @ACCBR1 and @TheSportsJD who both helped me seed, I have created a 12 team tournament, which includes a pod concept, two semifinal games, a consolation game (e.g. third and 4th place game), and a tournament championship game.  Let’s take a look at the pods and the seeding structure (Note:  I left out Liberty and VMI – but they be part of this tournament in future years – probably would have moved the Hokies to the four seed – but didn’t want to see them play UVA in the semis due to conference play – that was a suggestion of @TheSportsJD):

Here are the rules:

1. In each specific pod, every team plays every team at the  top seed’s gym.  So, for example, the University of Virginia would host these games:  a.) Virginia vs. James Madison, b.) Virginia vs. Longwood, c.) James Madison vs. Longwood.  This could happen over a series of three days. The ACC Network and ESPNU could televise the entire first week of this pod concept of the holiday tournament. Best record in the pod advances to the semi-final round in Hampton, VA (If there are tie records in the pod, the top seed in the pod advances).
2. The semifinal round in Hampton, VA includes two games.  Specifically, the winner of Pod A plays the winner of Pod D – and the winner of Pod B plays the winner of Pod C.  This could be televised simultaneously on ESPN2 and the ACC Network. 
3. The consolation game will be between the two semi final losers – and the championship will be the winners of the semifinal round.  This could be televised simultaneously on ESPN and the ACC Network. 

What are your thoughts?  This actually could be a money making holiday tournament – might be one of those ESPN made for television extra cash for schools type of tournament. 

Update:  The prospect of leaving out Virginia Tech or Virginia in alternating years was brought up after I posted this – this could be a good idea as they play twice in the ACC conference season.

I’m going to add a caveat I though about (and thanks for the shout out). You could possibly sit out UVA and Va Tech alternate years if they’d balk at the possibility of a non-conference matchup in such a tournament.

— Patrick Madden (@TheSportsJD) May 24, 2020

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