Up For Debate: College Basketball Invitational Tournament

Everyone’s heard of the NCAA Tournament, and most have heard of – even if they don’t follow – the older and smaller National Invitational Tournament (NIT). But have you heard of the College Basketball Invitational Tournament? No, well this week’s debate looks at the CBI and whether or not a tournament such as this – with teams that don’t even have winning records – should even be played.

Amanda Fox:
As someone that was in both big and small college athletic programs I appreciate the opportunity for schools on the fringe to get some tournament time. With that said...The CBI?!? Are you kidding me? The NCAA tourney is the senior prom. The NIT the junior prom. This looks like a 6th grade dance. How big a joke is this? They can't even get quality proofreaders at their "official site" to catch errors like the 119-12 Boise State Broncos. They don't even know where the championship game is going to be played!

Do we need a tournament which features teams like the 13-17 Oregon State Beavers who finished 8th in their conference? What the hell is going on the woozy skull jelly that organized this thing? What was the qualifying criteria for this- failure to meet real tournament standards and a wealth of unused frequent flyer miles? Matching uniforms?

I don't want to come off like I'm downing the young men on these teams or their programs, but enough is enough. The bottom line is they couldn't make it to the consolation round because they just weren't that good or they played cupcake schedules that made them look passable. As a player, you would almost be embarrassed to be in the CBI aside from the travel opportunity. Who doesn't want to spend a few days off in Laramie, Wyoming?

Giving these young men opportunities to compete and expand their horizons is nice, but they get plenty of that in the regular season. Seeing as most of America has no idea this thing even exists you can't really call it a cash cow for the schools involved. If anything this is a waste of student athletes time, a waste of school money, and a waste of time to watch. The only people interested in this thing are the people playing it.

Slap a binky in it's mouth and put it to bed. We do not need this cluttering up the landscape.

Joe Moag:
The College Basketball Invitational. The bottom of the post-season barrel, right? Well, I say let’em play! Bring em’ on! The more the merrier! Any other stock phrases I am missing here?

Yeah, I know, it’s a bit like giving every kid a medal for “participation” instead of awarding winners. But, so what? The CBI keeps college teams playing basketball, keeps college fans of those teams watching their teams, keeps field houses and stadiums full, keeps vendors working, keeps donations flowing to colleges, etc., etc., throughout March for those teams that get invited to play.

So, if it is less-than excellent, top-shelf b-ball, so the hell what?

If I were a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix fan or student, I would have been happy to go to a CBI game last week, on campus, to watch the UW-Green Bay Phoenix play in their first post-season tournament since 1998. Why the hell wouldn’t I? It doesn’t stop me from also going home after that game and watching what is happening in the NCAA tourney? It does, however, keep up the excitement, reward the team for a hard year, and make some money for the program.

All things that are at the heart of the BIG DANCE – the NCAA Tournament – as well. If you think that the NCAA is simply about some purist idea of winning and rewarding winning, and not about TV revenue, team revenue, stadium and vendor revenue, etc., then you have simply not been paying attention to how this country works.

So, as I said before, let’em play. Let’em all play. If you don’t like the CBI, don’t watch it. (If you can even find it on your satellite to begin with!)

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Comments

[Chase Parker]

If people are attending, sure, why not? I mean, look at all the meaningless bowl games they play in football with 6-6 teams. Stanford has the chance to be the first team with a national title, a NIT title, and a CBI title. Shoot for the stars.

[JD]

I agree with Joe, what does it hurt. Many schools from the non-BCS conferences have a hard time even making the NIT due to everyone wanting the BCS schools. It does seem like a third world tourney but it is post season play and for some programs...it could make a big difference for a young team to get that experience while continuing to play. Let's see how many of these teams make it to the big dance next year. Several teams that played in the CBI the last year made it to the big dance, including my Utes.