How Fox Sports' new postseason college basketball tournament would impact Gonzaga, WCC
Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau breaks down how a new college basketball postseason tournament would impact mid-major programs across the nation
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00:00 Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Gonzaga Nation podcast.
00:04 Christian Pedersen joined by Dan Dickow, the legend himself.
00:06 Dan, thank you very much for sitting in as we start to talk about the actual school year.
00:12 And in talking about the actual school year, we have talked a fair amount over this summer,
00:19 you know, especially compared to recent summers about conference realignment.
00:23 And I think the lens has all been, we talk about just like, how is that going to affect
00:26 the immediate impact of the upcoming season in terms of like, where is the ACC?
00:31 Who's in the Big East?
00:32 What's in that?
00:33 But we really haven't talked about what's the impact of that on the back end of the
00:36 season because college basketball, more than a lot of other sports across the NCAA spectrum,
00:41 relies on tournament champions to help seed its playoffs, you know, down to the last spot
00:47 because you only get so many at-large bids because you win and you're in, you're punching
00:50 your ticket, whatever the cliche is that you want to go with.
00:53 I'm curious if you have had some time to kind of digest what it sort of seems is going to
01:00 happen if the Pac-12 is gone, if other conferences are becoming super conferences, are there
01:04 going to be more automatic bids from those conferences?
01:07 Does that make the WCC champion more valuable relatively compared to what it used to be?
01:13 I'm just kind of curious your thoughts on how, you know, now that we're able to talk
01:17 about the upcoming years because basketball is almost back, you think this is all going
01:21 to affect the postseason?
01:24 Yeah it's absolutely going to affect the postseason.
01:25 It's going to be, I think it's going to be even more challenging for a lot of mid-major
01:32 programs and leagues to get multiple bids.
01:37 I mean, there's so much money that drives this conference realignment and a lot of the
01:43 money is talked about as broadcast rights, but there's also a lot of money in NCAA tournament
01:48 units, appearances, units being how many games were advanced into an NCAA tournament and
01:54 those get paid out over I think a six-year term.
01:57 And those are valuable to schools and leagues because each unit that is earned for a school
02:05 goes into a pot for a league and then it gets divvied out amongst those schools within the
02:10 league for six years as mentioned.
02:13 But those schools in the Pac-12 that are leaving, well, you know, Oregon State and Washington
02:19 State at this moment in time looks like they're about to take the units and the money that
02:23 relates to that from Arizona being in the tournament, from UCLA making a Final Four
02:28 within the last six years, from Oregon being in the tournament.
02:32 So there's kind of all these different factors that go along to that.
02:35 But one of the things that I don't think people are looking at too closely and I think it
02:40 popped its head today when the Big East, the Big Ten and one other league, I want to say
02:47 the Big 12 talked about hosting their own postseason tournament for teams that don't
02:53 make the NCAA tournament.
02:55 This is an absolute attack on mid-major programs, basically trying to shuffle as much money
03:01 to their programs and their entities and keeping away from the mid-majors as possible.
03:07 I think it's disgusting.
03:09 I understand why they're doing it.
03:12 But if you're going to create these super conferences and these teams can't even make,
03:20 you know, have a 500 level in your league, you shouldn't be in the NCAA tournament unless
03:26 you win your postseason tournament.
03:28 You shouldn't play in the postseason tournament in your own created postseason tournament
03:33 because you're in a power conference league.
03:35 You shouldn't, and even if you say we're invited to the NIT, you should play in that tournament
03:41 as opposed to playing in this newly talked about possibly form tournament.
03:47 Essentially what it's doing is, well, we don't want to play in the NIT because we don't want
03:52 to play a team from the Big Sky or the Big West or, you know, the Southland Conference
03:58 champion who couldn't quite get it done in their conference tournament.
04:02 So they're going to go play in the NIT.
04:04 I think it will completely destroy the NIT tournament and it's going to create an even
04:09 bigger schism, an even bigger break in a gap between your haves and have nots in the world
04:16 of college athletics.
04:18 It's already been seen in football and this is something that could do that again in basketball.
04:23 You know, again, I can't emphasize enough, and I've said this for a few years, if you're
04:30 in a power conference and you have say 14, 15, 16 schools in your league, which now some
04:36 of these leagues have, if you can't even be above 500, yet your net ranking is, you know,
04:46 45 and your Ken Palm is in the mid forties, whatever, and you think you should be in the
04:52 NCAA tournament, you need to stop the conversation.
04:55 You shouldn't be in the NCAA tournament.
04:57 The only reason your net is high and your Ken Palm is high and your RPI is high and
05:01 all these other metrics is because you're playing very good teams over and over again.
05:06 And maybe you did strike lightning in a bottle three, four times and knock off a good team,
05:11 but you haven't done it over the course of the regular season of your league and you
05:15 haven't proven it with consistency.
05:17 You should not be in the NCAA tournament with that type of resume.
05:22 I would rather see a team from a conference such as, you know, Ken Palm ranked 10, 11,
05:31 12, that had a heck of a regular season.
05:34 Maybe they dominated their league throughout, but then unfortunately got upended in their
05:39 NCAA tournament or excuse me, in their post-season tournament.
05:42 So they had to, they couldn't make the NCAA tournament because another school took their
05:47 automatic bid.
05:48 I would much rather see that school be in the tournament than a team in say the Big
05:54 Ten that finished 10th.
05:56 Like where's the excitement in that?
05:58 Everybody's had the opportunity to see that Big Ten team that was 10th multiple times.
06:03 And if they didn't move the needle and excite you during the season and they couldn't play
06:07 good consistent basketball, why would you reward them for putting them in the NCAA tournament?
06:13 Makes no sense to me, but I get it why these three conferences are trying to put together
06:17 an alliance to create a post-season tournament because there's money in it.
06:22 Well, let me ask you then a plain devil's advocate type of question.
06:28 You're saying that you would be opposed to any form of a regional WCC Mountain West,
06:36 Big Sky or Big Wet, like something of that type of tournament, like post-season as well
06:40 to kind of counter this?
06:42 Yeah, a hundred percent.
06:44 I would.
06:45 I mean, there's the NCAA is the crown jewel for teams to play in as a postseason tournament.
06:53 The NIT is a nice secondary option.
06:58 Many times, unfortunately, I hate to say it for teams that are in a lower league or a
07:05 mid-major league to have the ability to have that postseason experience.
07:11 You know, you're talking to Eastern Washington, they won the league last year in the Big Sky,
07:17 but they couldn't get it done in the Big Sky Conference tournament.
07:21 So they didn't go to the NCAA tournament.
07:22 They went to the NIT.
07:23 That's a great experience and opportunity for those kids.
07:28 But now if you're getting a lot of these power conferences and even some of these mid-major
07:31 leagues to say, no, we don't want to do that.
07:34 We're going to create our own thing.
07:36 To me, that's ridiculous.
07:39 Many of these power conference schools have turned down NIT bid invites in the past.
07:48 They don't want to play in that, but then, oh, now there's more money involved in the
07:51 opportunity to go play in a made-for-TV alliance with this two other, three other leagues.
07:58 Let's go do that.
08:00 Now you're really starting to show the issues that are driving all of these things in college
08:06 athletics.
08:07 We talked about it in football with the alignment and the broadcast rights.
08:11 It's starting to pop its head in basketball.
08:14 And I get it.
08:15 I understand it.
08:16 But something like the post-season, that's not something for you to mess with.
08:20 To me, I think that's ridiculous.
08:22 Fair enough.
08:23 Hey, I don't shoot the messenger.
08:25 I'm just asking on behalf of the people.
08:28 So let's talk then about the specific implication for Gonzaga, because it sounds kind of from
08:33 because I'm dodging fiery haymakers from you punching in all directions out at society
08:38 as they crush your beloved college basketball post-season.
08:42 It sounds like you're saying that the winner of the WCC is going to be maybe potentially
08:48 the only one or it's going to be a little bit more weighted towards the winner.
08:51 So it feels like maybe you're saying that all of the Gonzaga conference games are just
08:56 that little bit more stressful, just that little bit more important.
08:59 Let's talk about the specifics of this schedule.
09:01 Are you seeing some changing like, hey, you're focusing on this game or a little more curious
09:05 about this game or just give people a schedule update in general?
09:08 No, I mean, I don't think this kind of post-season tournament impacts Gonzaga and the WCC per
09:16 se.
09:17 I think that the WCC is elevated enough as a league where that's not the case.
09:22 But in regards to the importance of games in Gonzaga's schedule, Gonzaga hasn't released
09:30 their schedule yet.
09:31 That to me is interesting.
09:32 I'm looking at the date.
09:33 We're recording this on September 11th.
09:38 You look at that, you would have thought the schedule would have been out by now.
09:42 Most teams in the WCC have announced their schedule.
09:45 Obviously, the WCC league schedule has been out.
09:50 Most people, if you read through the lines and you look at other opponents that we know
09:54 Gonzaga's play, you can start piecing together some of the non-conference schedule.
09:59 But the fact that they haven't released their full entire schedule is a little unique.
10:05 Curious if they're waiting on maybe another game or two and who those schools might be
10:09 waiting on maybe to finalize dates in regards to TV opportunities.
10:15 Hard to say, but I would imagine and hope that that comes out any day.
10:21 So safe to say that they're up to something or they're just waiting to see if any last
10:28 miracle sort of thing happens.
10:30 No, I think it's a matter of don't want to release the schedule in pieces.
10:37 You want to release it in its entirety.
10:40 So that would lead me to think there's maybe another game or two that they're trying to
10:44 finalize.
10:45 Whoever that is, I don't know.
10:47 But I think you've got to imagine that schedule is coming out in the next short bit because
10:54 people...
10:55 I get asked the question all the time, "When's Gonzaga's schedule?"
10:59 I don't know.
11:00 I've got a good idea of some things, but I don't know.
11:04 A lot of years it would have been out by now, but as of now, it's not.
11:07 Well, I'll tell you what, we can direct people to follow us, Fandation Zags, on all the social
11:14 media or subscribe to Gonzaga Nation wherever you get your podcasts so that the moment the
11:18 full schedule does come out, we got you, Cuck.
11:20 We'll have the schedule for you to obviously look over and salivate over some big wins,
11:24 but Dan will be back with podcasts.
11:26 We've got Colt Forsman on full time as a writer, which is awesome.
11:30 The studio is where big things are happening.
11:32 So make sure you stay tuned with us all season long as we are your source for the best Gonzaga
11:37 basketball coverage in the nation, probably in the world.
11:41 I don't know if anybody internationally is trying to compete with us.
11:43 We haven't checked.
11:45 We will get back to you guys on that on our next episode.
11:47 Thanks for tuning in.
11:48 Dan, thanks for sitting in.
11:49 We'll talk to everybody soon.
11:49 everybody soon.