Parrish's Plan for NCAA Hoops

[TexasZagFan]

Original title:

How college basketball conference games in a bubble could keep the NCAA Tournament from being canceled again

https://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...anceled-again/

Good column, seems reasonable to me.

[TexasZagFan]

Conference bubbles:

Then games start on Jan. 20 with teams playing, on average, every other day.

I can imagine the WCC schools would scream, Zags would have an enormous advantage, depth-wise.

Just thinking out loud: would Vegas be the place for our bubble? Hotels, facilities, location (outside of CA and all that implies).

[Mr Vulture]

Makes far too much sense to happen. Have the NCAA supplement the costs from the bubbles with the huge revenues they make on the tournament. The schools it will really hurt are the one bid leagues that may not be able to financially handle it. I'm not sure the WCC could handle it outside of Gonzaga and BYU. I do think the NCAA tournament needs to be in a bubble situation, not sure about league play, but open to any ideas that make it happen.

[Zags11]

NFL players and coaches who tested positive are at 0.46%.

[NotoriousZ]

If we get a season, that’s the only way it could work. How to bubble enough teams in conference play is the hurdle. The Zags could get it done, but most schools will not be able to I think.

[MDABE80]

Testing is key. Almost daily if this would happen. Academics are a very big thing with our student athletes so this might be too intense but this or stretch it out over 2 months with rigorous testing with quick turnaround times would make this manageable. Just so no player is competing while infected or clinically ill. Assumes the test is accurate and reproducible.

[caduceus]

The Big East just bailed on Fall sports:

https://omaha.com/sports/college/cre...9364d4f1c.html

[MDABE80]

"Dan Gavitt said during a video interview with NCAA.com’s Andy Katz that the sport’s decision-makers will consider “four or five” contingency plans in the wake of the pandemic — that includes the possibility of creating a bubble setting for league play and the NCAA tournament.

“We remain very confident that we’re going to have a basketball season, albeit different and maybe altered as necessary,” Gavitt said."

So volleyball, cross country and 2 others but they expect a basketball season. Creighton/Omaha's arena is roughly 20 K seat venue and likely would be one of the bubble sites.

I don't think it'll be a normal season but as the schools tell us their plans, I do think we'll have a season....just not a full one like usual. There are still 4.5 months till January. Hopefully things will be improving and/or will be figured out out by then.

[zagfan24]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...tball-calamity

[Chicken Ball]

Why not just create conference bubbles and, instead of cancelling non conference games, replace those with in-conference games, effectively doubling the non conference season?

[tinfoilzag]

Why not just create conference bubbles and, instead of cancelling non conference games, replace those with in-conference games, effectively doubling the non conference season?

Fear and liability.

[MDABE80]

Media has scared the pants off everybody. It’s amazing.

[ZAGS ATTACK BASKET]

Nonconference bubble idea pitched to at least 50 college basketball programs
11:15 AM PT
Jeff Borzello
ESPN Staff Writer

College basketball might have its first Plan B. An event operator in Houston has proposed a bubble involving 20 teams that would allow college basketball programs to play an entire nonconference schedule in three weeks in December.

Rhossi Carron, who ran a nonconference event in 2019 and has two planned for the upcoming season, said he sent a proposal to at least 50 programs.

It's believed to be the first detailed bubble proposal sent to programs for the 2020-21 college basketball season.

"Nothing is bulletproof, but based on what medical professionals are telling me, a bubble might be the only way to do it," Carron told ESPN. "Our goal is to create a safe, controlled and competitive environment that places priority on the safety of the student-athlete."

NCAA: Bubble for hoops tourney 'perfectly viable'

Can college basketball avoid a repeat of college football's calamity?

NCAA advisers: Focus on pandemic over sports
According to Carron's plan, 20 teams would be invited to the bubble, split into two 10-team divisions. With most campuses ending fall semester before Thanksgiving break, the teams would quarantine as a group on their own campuses for seven days following the departure of the general student body, then quarantine in the bubble for three days upon arrival.

Carron said teams would be tested when they arrive to the bubble and then every other day while in the bubble. Temperature checks would be every day. Teams would not be able to fly commercial to this event; they could take a bus or a charter plane.

It would be a completely isolated bubble, according to Carron's proposal sent to programs. All meals would be eaten on campus, nobody would be allowed in or out of the bubble and the event staff would provide video games and activities for the teams during their downtime. NBA scouts would be permitted to attend, but they must follow the same guidelines as event staff.

Carron has been consulting with multiple doctors and medical professionals and hopes to partner with a local hospital in order to ensure adequate testing and guarantee fast results.

Following the quarantine period, teams would have one scrimmage and then up to eight games against teams from other conferences.

"The goal is to knock out your nonconference schedule between Dec. 1 and Dec. 21 and then go on Christmas break," Carron said. "Then you come back and start conference play."

The plan is for schools to pay for their entrance into the "Battle in the Bubble" with money they've already set aside for buy games. Carron also wants to invite at least two HBCUs into the bubble and provide support for them, since those programs will miss out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in guarantee games this fall if traditional nonconference games are canceled.

The Pac-12 announced Tuesday that all sport competitions were postponed through the end of the calendar year, including winter sports. That decision followed the Ivy League's announcement last month that no sports would be played during the entire fall semester, which ends in early December. Multiple conference officials around college basketball have told ESPN that a conference-only season is the most likely scenario for the 2020-21 season.

"It's going to come down to what the NCAA decides about nonconference," said Carron, who still has his Hoop Hype XL and The Battleground 2k20 events scheduled for November and December, respectively.

Carron hopes that similar events can be developed in other regions, allowing most of the 350-plus teams in Division I to achieve some sort of nonconference schedule. He is also considering a second bubble session for 20 additional programs. He thinks his bubble can be replicated by conferences if they end up having to go to a bubble format during conference play.

"Can college kids bubble for three months? Probably not. But I think they can do it for three weeks," Carron said.

[MJ777]

In 20-21 every team will be on the Bubble, or in the Bubble.

[scrooner]

Media has scared the pants off everybody. It’s amazing.

This can be said, but saying that unbridled enthusiasm got us here is enough to have a thread closed. Double standard.