SEC May Change Conference Tourney Format

DESTIN, Fla. — Southeastern Conference men’s basketball coaches tossed around ideas Tuesday about how to seed the league’s tournament and whether to ditch the two-division format.

Scrapping the current East and West Divisions won’t be decided this week, commissioner Mike Slive said Tuesday, but the seeding could.

“I think that’s something that we should take a hard look at, Slive said.

The athletic directors will meet with the coaches this afternoon.

Georgia coach Mark Fox said before the coaches met Tuesday that he thought they’ll be a lot of momentum for change, and that opinion didn’t change afterwards.

What that change is, I don’t know, Fox said. There’s a lot of options on the table.”

The tournament seeding format — which currently gives byes for the top-two finishers in each division — could change for the 2012 tournament if there is enough backing, but the decision about divisions will wait.

Football divisions determine the teams that play in the league title games.

“There’s no need to make a decision about how we do it in the future here, Slive said. What we wanted to get done here is the beginning of some significant dialogue. … In basketball, almost all the conferences don’t have divisions, so we ought to be asking ourselves the question, is this what we want? Rather than just going blankly on, should we take a look and see if we like it?”

The conference schedule is already set for next season, but future scheduling could include 18 conference games instead of 16, Slive said.

Athletic directors could discuss that in meetings in August or December.

Coaches were split 6-6 last year about the seeding.

“We’ve got some different coaches in there, Fox said.

Florida coach Billy Donovan even suggested seeding the tournament by RPI ranking.

I support change, Fox said. I do feel like we have to do the best thing for the league to position ourselves the best way we can for postseason tournaments, for television. We have to evolve as the game changes and the culture changes.”

SEC May Change Conference Tourney Format

SavannahNow, Marc Weiszer

http://savannahnow.com/sports/2011-05-31/sec-basketball-coaches-eye-new-tourney-format

DESTIN, Fla. — Southeastern Conference men’s basketball coaches tossed around ideas Tuesday about how to seed the league’s tournament and whether to ditch the two-division format.

Scrapping the current East and West Divisions won’t be decided this week, commissioner Mike Slive said Tuesday, but the seeding could.

“I think that’s something that we should take a hard look at, Slive said.

The athletic directors will meet with the coaches this afternoon.

Georgia coach Mark Fox said before the coaches met Tuesday that he thought they’ll be a lot of momentum for change, and that opinion didn’t change afterwards.

What that change is, I don’t know, Fox said. There’s a lot of options on the table.”

The tournament seeding format — which currently gives byes for the top-two finishers in each division — could change for the 2012 tournament if there is enough backing, but the decision about divisions will wait.

Football divisions determine the teams that play in the league title games.

“There’s no need to make a decision about how we do it in the future here, Slive said. What we wanted to get done here is the beginning of some significant dialogue. … In basketball, almost all the conferences don’t have divisions, so we ought to be asking ourselves the question, is this what we want? Rather than just going blankly on, should we take a look and see if we like it?”

The conference schedule is already set for next season, but future scheduling could include 18 conference games instead of 16, Slive said.

Athletic directors could discuss that in meetings in August or December.

Coaches were split 6-6 last year about the seeding.

“We’ve got some different coaches in there, Fox said.

Florida coach Billy Donovan even suggested seeding the tournament by RPI ranking.

I support change, Fox said. I do feel like we have to do the best thing for the league to position ourselves the best way we can for postseason tournaments, for television. We have to evolve as the game changes and the culture changes.”