BE vs. SEC Invitational

[goodgreatgrand]

Apparently, this is the last year of the event. Thank god. ACC vs. B10 is the best conference battle (only because the ACC and old BE stopped their showdown).

This year's riveting match-ups:

Arkansas vs. Seton Hall
Kentucky vs. Notre Dame
Auburn vs. Rutgers
Tennessee vs. Pittsburgh

[bilsu]

Why would you not want this to continue? My only complaint is that it included only 4 teams a year.

[KipsBayEagle]

Your forgetting the marquee matchup, Marquette vs. Vanderbilt

[Blackhat]

ACC vs. Big Ten is a battle?

More like a slaughter.

[goodgreatgrand]

Your forgetting the marquee matchup, Marquette vs. Vanderbilt

That's not part of the Invitational.

[Litehouse]

Apparently, this is the last year of the event. Thank god. ACC vs. B10 is the best conference battle (only because the ACC and old BE stopped their showdown).
This year's riveting match-ups:
Arkansas vs. Seton Hall
Kentucky vs. Notre Dame
Auburn vs. Rutgers
Tennessee vs. Pittsburgh

I guess I don't understand this at all.  Tenn vs. Pitt is a pretty damn good game.  UK vs. ND is a nice match up also and has the added Indiana/Kentucky state border battle angle.  The other 2 are nothing special, but they're just as interesting to me as any of these riveting match-ups from the Big Tweleven/ACC (outside of UNC/Illinois and MSU/Duke):

Virginia @ Minnesota
Ohio State @ Florida State
Michigan @ Clemson
Georgia Tech @ Northwestern
Iowa @ Wake Forest
Purdue @ Virginia Tech
North Carolina State @ Wisconsin
Indiana @ Boston College
Maryland @ Penn State

[Nukem2]

Why would you not want this to continue? My only complaint is that it included only 4 teams a year.

Agreed.  Why not expand the "event"?

[Mr. Nielsen]

Apparently, this is the last year of the event. Thank god. ACC vs. B10 is the best conference battle (only because the ACC and old BE stopped their showdown).

This year's riveting match-ups:

Arkansas vs. Seton Hall
Kentucky vs. Notre Dame
Auburn vs. Rutgers
Tennessee vs. Pittsburgh

Where are they playing the games at?

[TJ]

Count me in as another that doesn't understand why we would want the event to end.  It was silly that they made it only 4 games a year, but expand it to 8 or 12 and it could have been a great thing.  You only think the ACC/Big 10/1/2 thing is good because it's got history behind it.  It's certainly not because of the "riveting" games it produces each year.

[MUBurrow]

I'm glad to see it end because the conferences don't matchup numbers wise.  What makes the ACC/Big 10 cool is that the conferences line up, and the best gets to play the best and on down the line.  The symmetry makes it easy and appropriate to keep score and determine a conference winner and makes for a unique little event.

The BE is just too big however, and if you matchup from the top, the depth of the conference could/would overwhelm the smaller conferences, so it doesn't mean much.  The four team idea is even worse.  It just doesn't have the same appeal for me.

[brewcity77]

I'm glad to see it end because the conferences don't matchup numbers wise.  What makes the ACC/Big 10 cool is that the conferences line up, and the best gets to play the best and on down the line.  The symmetry makes it easy and appropriate to keep score and determine a conference winner and makes for a unique little event.

The BE is just too big however, and if you matchup from the top, the depth of the conference could/would overwhelm the smaller conferences, so it doesn't mean much.  The four team idea is even worse.  It just doesn't have the same appeal for me.

It doesn't work with the SEC not just because the numbers don't match up, but simply because they're not as good a basketball conference the past couple years. Three NCAA teams in 2009, four in 2010, whereas the Big East is consistently sending around eight teams. If they want a real challenge type atmosphere, line us up with the Big 12 (or whatever they're calling it now) because they seem to be able to consistently send close to as many teams to the Big Dance as we do.

Of course, if the SEC can return to their old standards of sending 5-6 teams a year, it really wouldn't be that unbalanced even if you did an 8 team challenge.

[dgies9156]

Marquette vs. Vanderbilt is a home and home with this year's game at Memorial Gym in Nashville (a tough place to win).

I don't think that's part of the invitational. Marquette played Tennessee in Nashville as part of it two years ago.