CLK wrote:

https://triblive.com/sports/a-10-commissioner-discusses-trimming-hoops-tourneys/

I've been an avid Dukes fan since 1958.   However, the more the negative talk i hear maybe i need to direct my interest & efforts to the golf courses here in Pittsburgh and down at our condo at the beach....  The golf courses are opening up on Friday!!

Hers is a pretty pessimistic outlook. We can hope that the unprecedented mobilization in research can produce results in a shorter time than what she expects.  

Somehow realistic is pessimistic.   She is Commissioner of the conference and planning for contingencies is her job.  She may have been asked “What are your plans if this continues?”

She has done a great job with the conference.   Including calling off the tournament minutes before it began and not looking silly like the Big East did. 

No one is factoring in the financial hardships this is going to put on schools.  Maybe the schools don’t want to pay to send a 7th seed to a tournament and spending that money next year.   Enrollment is going to be down and athletic budgets slashed.

From Zach Weiss article, McGlade said.

“We’re not rushing to make any decisions, but we have several pathways and contingency plans to cover all of the bases,” she said. “We don’t want to be in a crisis mode. When decisions are made, we want to have A, B and C still in play and take some off the table that are no longer relevant.”

Last edited by A83 (4/29/2020 1:59 pm)

applecorps wrote:

A83 wrote:

Somehow realistic is pessimistic. She is Commissioner of the conference and planning for contingencies is her job. She may have been asked “What are your plans if this continues?”

She has done a great job with the conference. Including calling off of the tournament minutes before it began and not looking silly like the Big East did.

No one is factoring in the financial hardships this is going to put on schools. Maybe the schools don’t want to pay to send a 7th seed to a tournament and spending that money next year. Enrollment is going to be down and athletic budgets slashed.

From Zach Weiss article, McGlade said.

“We’re not rushing to make any decisions, but we have several pathways and contingency plans to cover all of the bases,” she said. “We don’t want to be in a crisis mode. When decisions are made, we want to have A, B and C still in play and take some off the table that are no longer relevant.”

Contingency planning is good. The particulars of her scenarios are questionable. I believe there will be a season. Schools will as always send their teams to road games during the regular season. If your team is not doing well, the team will not stop playing road games. Why would the schools balk at the cost of traveling to the A-10 Tournament?

Is the A10 Tourney a money maker, or do the schools lose money on it? How are schools travel expenses for regular season league games covered? Does it come out of their budget, or do they get some sort of payment from the home team? Not at the level of a buy game of course, but a payment that covers travel expenses. I don't know, which is why I'm asking if anyone knows, not an opinion, but does someone definitely know the answers.

applecorps wrote:

A83 wrote:

Somehow realistic is pessimistic. She is Commissioner of the conference and planning for contingencies is her job. She may have been asked “What are your plans if this continues?”

She has done a great job with the conference. Including calling off of the tournament minutes before it began and not looking silly like the Big East did.

No one is factoring in the financial hardships this is going to put on schools. Maybe the schools don’t want to pay to send a 7th seed to a tournament and spending that money next year. Enrollment is going to be down and athletic budgets slashed.

From Zach Weiss article, McGlade said.

“We’re not rushing to make any decisions, but we have several pathways and contingency plans to cover all of the bases,” she said. “We don’t want to be in a crisis mode. When decisions are made, we want to have A, B and C still in play and take some off the table that are no longer relevant.”

Contingency planning is good. The particulars of her scenarios are questionable. I believe there will be a season. Schools will as always send their teams to road games during the regular season. If your team is not doing well, the team will not stop playing road games. Why would the schools balk at the cost of traveling to the A-10 Tournament?

Zac’s article talks about a possible shortened conference regular season as well.   If the regular season is shortened, why play the full tournament?   

I hope this all magically goes away, but the likelihood is that it will not. If schools are playing in In empty gyms with no fans playing the full season would be questionable at best.

Last edited by A83 (4/29/2020 2:00 pm)

I agree with applecorps, I'm confused at the reason why if there was any season played at all we have an idea to not even have the A10 tournament, that is supposed to be the highlight of the season, and its a 5 day event if you're lucky. Duq81 made a good point about what money schools are making off of it... if they are making more on regular season games than a postseason tournament that would be an issue. Simply, in my opinion the conference tournament is the highlight of the year, I don't think we should already have a plan to shut that down if there are regular season games played instead of finding a way.

Last edited by BluffHunter (4/29/2020 7:16 pm)