Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to thank John Feinstein. Preferably, it’d be in person, but for now this will have to do.
The text came through from Colin Dunlap, he of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the 6-10 p.m. Sunday slot on 93.7 The Fan, yesterday afternoon as I was mowing my lawn:
We were part of a small group, a very small group, that witnessed a man change history.
The NCAA yesterday decided it was going to “change” the best thing going by adding three teams to the field of 65. This, as you know, is a dramatic shift from what sure seemed like an unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. And I mean “unstoppable.” We all gathered in Indianapolis April 1 to cover the Final Four and a press conference that afternoon featured Dan Guerrero, chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at UCLA; Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs; and Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president of basketball and business strategies.
The concept was to discuss issues related to men’s basketball and the NCAA Tournament and no issue was of greater significance than this idea of a 96-team field. Shaheen being of business strategies, he was to field many of the questions.
Enter Mr. Feinstein, who embarked on a …. yeah, legendary line of questioning with Shaheen. It was critical, it was combative, it was compelling. I was one of many who sat in a separate room working on a story about something else and then decided to stop what I was doing to go to the other room and witness this confrontation.
Q. Greg, you laid out in great detail the travel schedule for the first week. Just so I’m sure I have it right, you’re going to play the round of 64 Saturday/Sunday, correct?
GREG SHAHEEN: Uh-huh.
Q. So you didn’t lay out the travel schedule for the second week when presumably teams will be playing Monday/Tuesday, then winners would go almost directly to regionals on Thursday/Friday, if that’s the schedule as I think it is.
GREG SHAHEEN: It’s one of several models that exist. But actually it doesn’t necessarily mean that the play continues on Monday/Tuesday. Actually, depending on the structure, there can be a break on Monday so that a team that, for example, is playing Saturday could play Saturday, then Tuesday. So they would have both Sunday and Monday without games.
You also have to keep in mind that on any day of competition, you’re losing half the field. Half of the teams are losing and returning home. So, for example, in the first four days of the championship, whereas right now you go from 65 during that time to 16, here you go from 96 to 32. So the majority of teams by number will be back home at that point in time.
But then for the teams that do advance, they would play — they could play that Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, for example, going into regional week.
Q. To follow up, if you’re going Saturday/Tuesday, Sunday/Tuesday then with the teams that advance if they’re playing Saturday/Sunday games, right?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would play Saturday/Tuesday.
Q. So you’re not going to play any games on Sunday of the first weekend?
GREG SHAHEEN: No. You’d play half the games on Saturday, half the games on Sunday.
Q. The Sunday teams that advance would play on Tuesday or are you saying Wednesday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Wednesday.
Q. Basically they’ll be out of school an entire week the second week?
GREG SHAHEEN: Actually, if you were to look at the window for each individual team, you have to take each team and contemplate the fact right now you have half the field leaving campus on Tuesday, returning on Sunday or Monday.
Q. If they lose. I’m talking about the teams that win in advance. You’re going to advance 16 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: No, actually in the current model you have teams that depart on Tuesday, and even if they win, return on Sunday.
Q. We’re misunderstanding each other. Under the new model that you laid out, you play 64 teams Thursday/Friday. 32 advance to games Saturday/Sunday. Then you are down after those games to 32 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.
Q. You’re saying you play games in the round of 32 Tuesday/Wednesday. They would then advance to regionals when?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would continue into the regional as it’s normally scheduled now.
Q. So they would go Tuesday to Thursday, Wednesday to Friday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.
Q. So they miss an entire week of school. That’s what I’m trying to get.
GREG SHAHEEN: If you listened to my original answer, they leave now on Tuesday.
Q. I’m talking about the second week, not the first week. They play a game Saturday/Sunday, play a game Tuesday or Wednesday, then go directly to the regional. Tell me when in that second week they’re going to be in class.
GREG SHAHEEN: The entire first week, the majority of the teams would be in class.
Q. You’re just not going to answer the question about the second week. You’re going to keep referring back to the first week, right? They’re going to miss the entire second week under this model.
GREG SHAHEEN: So they’re going to go to school the first week, and then they’re —
Q. They’re going to be under the same schedule you said basically the first week, and then they’ll miss the entire second week.
GREG SHAHEEN: I’m clearly missing the nuance of your point.
Q. You and I miss nuances a lot. Thank you
You’d have to be a fool to miss the nuances of yesterday. Clearly something happened that stopped this unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. Just as clearly, something happened that day. Mr. Feinstein had the gumption, to say nothing of the profile, the angle and the composure, to take and maintain a position. That press conference seemed, to me, at least, as a way to line those three up and pat them on the back and congratulate them for the 96-team thing. That didn’t happen. And for now 96 teams won’t happen.
Maybe I’m overstating what happened that day, though I doubt it was a variable isolated from the shift. You’d like to think an entity as big and as powerful as the NCAA can’t be undone by one person, especially when its convictions were once so strong. Still, it’s kind of inspiring and refreshing to see that one person, one voice, one instance can still have a profound effect.
So thank you, John Feinstein.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, pregame!
ccteam said:
WV can’t depend on the ACC or SEC to “save” them from a mid-major future. They can hope that will happen, but Pastilong needs to be pushing the Big East to act in its on self interest proactively before the Big 10 moves ahead. It is at least a possibility, if not a probability that WV will be on the outside looking in when the power conferences realign. WV needs to take the lead in making what is left of the Big East as good as possible. The Big East/Mountain West merger isn’t perfect, but it is the best option left to insure staying in the BCS picture.
I can assure you WVU is being proactive and no one has their head in the sand regarding expansion imminence. Someone in the Coliseum assured me WVU is “conscious of that and weighing options,” but was quick to remind me “weighing options and being invited” are separate things.
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