Kolek planning to go pro
wondering about the old ages of GnR but not George Strait?
Y'all understand that opening night is a week from today. Killers paired with Wayne Newton. I'll have to call off my Markus surveillance to attend!We need hockey bad.
I'm not sold on the $50k being the "all-inclusive" cost everyone thinks it is... thankfully, all 8 teams are from public universities, so eight FOIA requests (one request, actually, and seven copies) should tell us the answer a couple months from now.Place your bets.
Wow, I'm very concerned for Benny. Being able to mimic Myron Medcalf's writing so closely implies an oncoming case of dementia.
[In other words, by agreeing to participate in the V16 in advance (with no guarantee of even being selected), a university would have had to decline an NIT bid had they been selected for both the V16 and NIT. I imagine this was the deal breaker for Marquette... MU probably wanted to at least keep its NIT hopes alive wasn't going to commit to the V16 before the NIT bracket was announced.]
That is nuts and pretty much guaranteed this tourney had no major programs or even mid majors. I understand why they did it from a scheduling standpoint but that really insured only small programs, who had no chance for the NIT, would accept.
Playing in the UCSB band in the NCAA tournament was one of my best Marquette memories. They had finals during tournament week so they needed 10-15 to fill out the band. UCSB emailed MU and about 10 MU bandos filled in the rest of Gaucho band. We got to watch two tourney games (for free) and they even paid us a stipend.Oh, and the whole Gaucho band was plastered at game time, which was pretty amusing.
No...and after reading many many psosts from people on this board that do...I have to say I'm MUCH better off, if this is the type of "intelligence" a degree from MU gets you. It sure is on full display I will say that.
Thanks to FOIA, we can finally give this a post mortem (I got lazy and only sent one request out, however). I didn't find anything extremely juicy, but there were a few notable provisions that may shed some light:Vegas 16’s entry fee was $50,000; however, it was reduced to $45,000 because the field was reduced from 16 to 8. [The contract was amended eight days after Selection Sunday with the reduced fee and number of teams, so while it's pretty clear that the tournament promoter couldn't find 16 teams to commit, in taking over a week to amend an existing contract, it's likely that either a) the promoter struggled just to get to 8 and/or b) somewhere between 9-15 teams committed and there was some negotiation between the promoter and the schools as to how the fee would be reduced.]For the entry fee, the tournament promoter provided the following: 14 regular rooms, 1 suite, and meeting space at a hotel selected by promoter 22 R/T tickets on Southwest Airlines (or another carrier selected by promoter) -OR- up to $10,000 reimbursement if university arranged its own transportation. Ground transportation to/from airport, hotel, practice sites and games. 30 complimentary game tickets 22 tickets to tournament’s welcome reception 22 tournament gift packages. Off-site practice facilities the day prior to the university’s first-round game[So I was wrong. $50,000 (or $45,000 as it turned out) was the all-inclusive price; so that doesn't seem so bad, except....]The contract prohibited the university from disclosing their acceptance or participation in the tournament to anyone.[It is unclear as to if any other potential participants were even been disclosed to the university (by the tournament promoter) prior to its acceptance (even then, there was no guarantee that any of such schools being discussed would have been selected)... but what is clear is that AD's & coaches wouldn't have been able to chat up their counterparts at other schools to see who was considering participating in the tourney, and this may have been a non-starter for Marquette and other high-majors to go into the tournament with blinders on... I'm sure under no circumstances did MU want to be the only high-major playing in a tourney with a bunch of mids- and lows-.]The universities executed the contracts the week prior to Selection Sunday, and the contract granted the tournament promoter the option (but not the obligation) to invite the university to the Vegas 16, in which case the university participation in the Vegas 16 was mandatory unless the university was selected for the NCAA Tournament.[In other words, by agreeing to participate in the V16 in advance (with no guarantee of even being selected), a university would have had to decline an NIT bid had they been selected for both the V16 and NIT. I imagine this was the deal breaker for Marquette... MU probably wanted to at least keep its NIT hopes alive wasn't going to commit to the V16 before the NIT bracket was announced.]
I'm just impressed that Benny actually filed a FOIA request to bring us this info. Not that I don't love all you people, but I'm usually only willing to invest, at most, a three-minute google search to advance a Scoop thread...
Was UCSB playing in Milwaukee?
I really thought this tournament was a great idea with great potential, but they clearly dug their own grave. If they hada) encouraged AD's to discuss and mutually acceptb) changed the selection criteria to avoid interference with NIT acceptanceThen a few big schools would have no doubt found it attractive... especially those with young talent who need tournament experience.Now I see the end result is a function of the organizers mistakes. Maybe they try and change the process and have one more run at it. Otherwise, it's dead.