Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994 TAG: 9405310038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The NCAA News last week reported that the NCAA Special Events Committee voted at its late April meeting to recommend to the NCAA Council that postseason competition for members be restricted to NCAA championships and NCAA-certified bowl games.
What the story didn't say is if the recommendation becomes legislation, the National Invitation Tournament is history.
The NIT was college basketball's first postseason tournament, in 1938. It's a year older than the NCAA Tournament and once was more prestigious, too. That's changed since 1976, when the NIT quit playing its whole tournament at Madison Square Garden, and particularly since 1985, when the NCAA field was expanded to 64 teams.
Division I coaches won't be happy with this recommendation. While the NIT has become a consolation event, it has extended seasons and become part of recruiting pitches. The proposal also would end any other team competition outside NCAA play, like the Women's NIT and the volleyball NIT. But it's the original NIT that's going to take the big hit.
The Big East's representative on the committee is Virginia Tech athletic director Dave Braine. Yes, the 18-10 Hokies were maroon about no NIT berth this season, but Braine can hardly be fingered for playing payback. The committee has been studying the postseason matter since August. The April meeting was the first for Braine, new to the group.
The committee cited missed class time by student-athletes as one reason for the recommendation. Also, schools don't reap significant financial rewards from events like the NIT, unless you're talking about the five schools of the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association - St. John's, Fordham, NYU, Wagner and Manhattan - that run the event.
The Special Events Committee's recommendation also would limit participation by teams in basketball tournaments in Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico to once every 12 years instead of once in four years. That decision was based on the same high-profile programs being invited - and returning - to those events too often. The committee also proposed the Hall of Fame's Tipoff Classic game be removed from the exemptions to the 27-game regular-season schedule.
While the NCAA has expressed concerns about the time student-athletes spend at their sports in recent years, the Special Events Committee's recommendation to cut back on competition arrives as an NCAA Special Committee studying whether Division I-A football should institute a playoff. That committee will meet again later this week and perhaps have a playoff recommendation.
If that happens, the NCAA will have one committee proposing a longer season, another proposing less opportunities for competition. Of course, as a 3-inch thick report on a I-A championship from the special committee estimates, an eight-team playoff tied into four of the New Year's Day bowls will generate $62.7 million in new money.
University presidents aren't going to approve a playoff unless there can be some agreement on dividing new revenue, and if much of it doesn't go to women's sports, there will be more Title IX lawsuits than bowl games.
Don't be surprised if the next NIT is the last one. As for a football playoff, it will happen as long as the pre-Jan. 1 bowl system remains in place, because too many schools have gotten too many rewards for too many years from those non-championship events to kill them.
The TV networks have told the NCAA they like an eight-team playoff, with the championship on the NFL's vacant weekend before the Super Bowl. The impending realignment of the bowl coalition after 1994 will pave the way for a playoff, by setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game, if possible, without the Rose Bowl.
The potential death of the NIT and birth of a I-A football playoff have the same roots. They're green.
\ Write to Jack Bogaczyk at the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010.
by CNB