With a 19-14 record, an RPI of 127, and a strength of schedule of 134, Creighton is looking at a bid in the CBI or the CIT as their only postseason opportunities. Some fans have expressed the opinion that short of an NIT or NCAA tournament bid, the Jays should hang it up for the year and move on to the task of preparing for next year — that a bid to either the CIT or CBI is such an insult, its not worth the bother.
I do not subscribe to this line of thinking.
For one thing, those tournaments are not an insult and no school is above playing in them. They may not be “March Madness” but they’re still a chance to play some more basketball — which means extra practice time. Two or three weeks more practice time for young players like Doug McDermott, Jahenns Manigat and Gregory Echenique is invaluable. So is the experience of playing additional games, whatever the venue.
And then there’s this: NCAA Men’s basketball is the most exclusive postseason in major American sport, if the NCAA Tournament is the only postseason you count. Here’s some cold, hard numbers for you.
68 of 345 Division 1 teams make the NCAA Tournament (19.7%)
70 of 120 FBS (Formerly D1) teams make bowl games (58.3%)
64 of 211 D1 baseball teams make the tournament (30%)
48 of 198 D1 men’s soccer teams make the tournament (24%)
And in the professional ranks:
16 of 30 NBA teams make the playoffs (54%)
16 of 30 NHL teams make the playoffs (54%)
12 of 32 NFL teams make the playoffs (37.5%)
8 of 30 MLB teams make the playoffs (27%)
Including the 32-team NIT field in those numbers gives us this:
100 of 345 Division 1 teams (28.9%)
That’s still pretty exclusive relative to postseasons in other sports, both collegiate and pro. So what happens when we include the 24-team CIT and the 16-team CBI fields to those numbers?
140 of 345 Division 1 teams (40.5%)
Even including those two tourneys, college basketball still awards postseason bids at a lower rate than FBS football, the NBA or the NHL, and just barely higher than the NFL. Don’t misread me here; the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal for every team every year, but I think people look at the CBI and the CIT in the wrong frame of reference. They’re not the NCAA Tournament, yes. But to use a football analogy (sorry!), think of them as a lower-tier bowl game that, while it may not be as exciting as the Rose Bowl or even the Capital One Bowl, still acts as a reward to your team for a good season and gives you additional practice time for your returning players.
So what the heck is the CIT and the CBI, anyway? Here’s a quick rundown of both tourneys, as well as the pros/cons of each in my opinion.
CBI
Full name: College Basketball Invitational Presented by Zebra Pen
Schedule: First round games are Tuesday, March 15 and Wednesday, March 16. Second round games are Monday, March 21. Semifinal games are Wednesday, March 23. The Championship Series begins Monday, March 28, with Game Two on the 30th and Game Three (if necessary) on April 1.
TV: At least 11 games will be televised nationally on HDNET, with the possibility of additional games being added.
About the CBI: Founded in 2008, the CBI is a 16-team tournament hosted on campus sites (or in the case of schools like Creighton, at home arenas — the essential thing to note is that none of the games are played at neutral sites.) Its produced by The Gazelle Group in Princeton, N.J., a sports marketing firm specializing in event production and management, client representation, and sponsorship consulting. You might recognize their name as the same group who puts on the 2K Sports Classic and the CBE Classic, two preseason exempt tournaments. Creighton played in the CBE Classic twice back when it was known as the Guardians Classic.
The CBI is a bracketed, single-elimination tournament. The two teams who advance to the final then meet in a Championship Series, which is a best-of-three series akin to what pro leagues do, and a foreign concept to the collegiate ranks.
Host teams are required to make a financial guarantee of $70,000 to the tournament organizers.
Previous years: Bradley advanced to the Championship Series of the CBI in 2008, where they lost 2-1 to Tulsa. Some decent “names” participated in 2008, including Virginia, Cincinnati, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Houston, Old Dominion and Richmond.
In 2009, Wichita State was the only MVC team invited, and they advanced to the second round, where they were beaten by Stanford. Other “name” teams participating included St. John’s, Wyoming, Oregon State and UTEP. Oregon State won the title.
Last year, VCU defeated Saint Louis in the Championship Series. Indiana State was the only MVC team to be invited, losing to the aforementioned Billikins in the first round.
CIT
Full Name: CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament
Schedule: Games begin the week of March 14, but are subject to arena/gym availability.
TV: None until the title game, which is broadcast nationally on Fox College Sports.
About the CIT: Founded in 2009, this is the third year of the CIT, which has expanded to 24 teams this year and will feature 12 first-round games. Four of the teams that win first-round games will earn byes and advance straight to the quarterfinals, while the other eight teams will have to play an extra game for the right to advance to the quarterfinals.
In previous years, there was no bracket and pairings were determined after each round to get the most desirable matchups between the remaining teams, both in terms of ticket sales and to keep travel to a minimum. It has not been announced whether this year will feature an actual bracket or not.
The field is selected by a committee of experts, including Riley Wallace, Lefty Driesell, Lou Henson, Jim Harrick, MVC Analyst Rich Zvosec, San Diego Charger TE Antonio Gates, and San Diego Charger Vincent Jackson. (Before you laugh, Gates is not entirely unqualified: he was an honorable mention All-American as a senior at Kent State and led the Golden Flashes to the Elite 8 in 2003. As for Jackson, he led Northern Colorado in scoring twice before concentrating on football as a senior.)
Host teams are required to make a financial guarantee of $30,000 to the tournament organizers.
Previous years: MVC teams Bradley, Evansville and Drake all played in the inaugural CIT in 2009, with Drake losing on the road at Idaho, and the Aces losing at home to Belmont. The Braves won three games — defeating Austin Peay, Oakland and Pacific — and advanced to the championship where they lost to Old Dominion.
Last year, Creighton and Missouri State played in the CIT, with Missouri State winning the tourney by defeating Middle Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Creighton and Pacific.
***
In my opinion, the CBI is a vastly superior tournament: it has national TV coverage for a majority of its games (albeit on a channel most people do not get), it features a bracketed format so you know who you’ll play should you win a game, and its fields have generally had much better “names.” If I had a preference, it would be the CBI for those very reasons.
Either tournament offers the Jays a chance to play some more games, get some more practice time in, and reward the players for winning 19 games — a feat that over 200 teams in Division 1 did not achieve.