Big 10 VB Tournament in 2015?

[FreeBall]

The following article was in today's Grand Island (NE) newspaper:

www.theindependent.com/sports/big-ten-volleyball-tournament-could-be-coming-soon/article_16263190-742f-11e4-a75a-03f6de0265d8.html

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"While there is still plenty of volleyball to play this season, coach John Cook was talking Monday at his weekly press conference about what might be on the horizon.

Cook said there is a real possibility that a season-ending Big Ten Conference tournament will be added to the schedule as early as next year.

“Every coach I’ve talked to hates the schedule, so it’s going to change,” Cook said."

[ugopher]

Of course, the tournament would be held in either Omaha or Lincoln.

[rand909]

Nov 25, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -5 ugopher said:

Of course, the tournament would be held in either Omaha or Lincoln.

Well, wouldn't you like an arena full of fans? Where else would you have it?

[n00b]

Great news!

And I'm sure it will not be in Lincoln every year. That would get voted down 1-13 in the conference. I'm very interested to see how this plays out...

[tomclen]

Also from the article, John Cook ain't gonna make new friends in Madison:

“This year nobody feels like there is a true champion. Wisconsin is in first right now. They didn’t have to go to Penn State. They didn’t have to go to Nebraska.

And, oh yeah, this thing needs to be played probably in Nebraska...

“Nobody wants to play four matches in four days someplace with no crowds unless we host it here maybe or Minnesota where they’ll draw. Nobody wants that going into the tournament.”

[ugopher]

It will be interesting. I don't think there was much support when there was a full round robin in the past. Or, even when there were 12 teams in the conference. But, with 14 teams and the mess this season's scheduled turned out to be, I can see the support.

A conference tournament this year would have been a lot of fun!

[NebraskaVBfan93]

Nov 25, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -5 ugopher said:

Of course, the tournament would be held in either Omaha or Lincoln.

Maybe take time to actually read the article before making ignorant statements.

[ugopher]

Nov 25, 2014 11:54:09 GMT -5 rand909 said:

Nov 25, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -5 ugopher said:

Of course, the tournament would be held in either Omaha or Lincoln.

Well, wouldn't you like an arena full of fans? Where else would you have it?

Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue.

Yes, Nebraska has great fan support. But, they are not the only program to have fans that will turn out for volleyball.

[ugopher]

Nov 25, 2014 12:05:04 GMT -5 NebraskaVBfan93 said:

Nov 25, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -5 ugopher said:

Of course, the tournament would be held in either Omaha or Lincoln.

Maybe take time to actually read the article before making ignorant statements.

I was joking!

Kinda.

[psumaui]

Yea, I am all for a conference tournament since it may eventually be 16 teams before it is all said and done and only fair way to determine conference winner from here on out.

[Wiswell]

Yuck.

You want to make a season ending single match with Divisional leaders, fine.

And the travel schedule can be fixed without having a tournament in there. The mess wasn't really because Rutgers and Maryland were added, except the last six matches. The scheduling mess was the Wednesday matches.

[dorothymantooth]

Nov 25, 2014 11:56:44 GMT -5 n00b said:

Great news!

And I'm sure it will not be in Lincoln every year. That would get voted down 1-13 in the conference. I'm very interested to see how this plays out...

The proposal would be for the east and west winners alternating each year as hosts.

[vbcoltrane]

Very interesting, and, IMO, necessary.

I agree, the schedule is a mess and that's just the inevitable fallout from having a 14 team conference and not being able to do a full double round robin.    That's the problem with mega conferences.  

I know this isn't a certainty, but I hope it will happen.   If so, Dd they stick with the current 20-game, non-division schedule and then just send the top 4 (or 2 or 8?) to the tournament, or do they go to divisions and a 19-game schedule (12 division games (each divisions opponent twice) and 7 cross-division games (each cross-division opponent once)), or something else entirely?

[FreeBall]

Also from the article:

The coaches will submit a proposal to the conference in the next week or two. The idea is to have two seven-team divisions — an east and a west just like in football.

It would be divided by time zones, with either Indiana or Purdue — both Eastern Time Zone teams — playing in the west.

Teams would play everyone in their division home-and-home and play each team in the opposite division once to make for a 19-match conference season.

The winner of the west would then play the winner of the east for the championship. One year it would be played at the west winner and the next at the winner of the east.

But every team will get a match. The second seeds would play each other, the thirds would play and on down the line.

Cook said the coaches don’t want to play the kind of tournament you see for basketball that late in the season as they are heading into NCAA tournament play.

The only thing I don't like about this proposal is the geographic determination of the championship match location. Since the two teams would have already played each other during the regular season, I think it would make more sense to have it hosted by the team that did not host the first matchup.

[dorothymantooth]

Nov 25, 2014 12:02:30 GMT -5 tomclen said:

Also from the article, John Cook ain't gonna make new friends in Madison:

“This year nobody feels like there is a true champion. Wisconsin is in first right now. They didn’t have to go to Penn State. They didn’t have to go to Nebraska.

And, oh yeah, this thing needs to be played probably in Nebraska...

“Nobody wants to play four matches in four days someplace with no crowds unless we host it here maybe or Minnesota where they’ll draw. Nobody wants that going into the tournament.”

Guessing he would have liked to worded that statement better, and certainly shouldn't be speaking for all coaches.