College Basketball Invitational: What's the Point?

There are 340 Division I men's basketball programs that competed in 30 conferences in the 2007-2008 for the chance at playing in the coveted NCAA Basketball Championship.  Each conference (except the Ivy League) hosts a tournament that crowns the winner with an automatic bid to the "Big Dance".  Those teams not composed enough to win three or so games in as many days have to sweat out the selection committee for an at-large bid. 

The point behind this madness (some might say "March Madness) is to have a compilation of the elite teams from each conference and around the country competing for the ultimate shelf decoration—a used-cut net and some cheap t-shirts.  I am in no way patronizing the event, it is the most glorious three weeks of basketball (Has anyone done a study on the correlation between March Madness and potato chip consumption? That's beside the point.).  And as the famous saying goes, "second place is the first loser" (or if you prefer Ricky Bobby's testament "if you ain't first, you'r last!"). Teams that fail to make the "Big Dance" get a chance to be a spectator.

A year prior, big brother, a.k.a NIT, was birthed and now gives way to younger, smart, more attractive and appealing to the ladies brother, NCAA Basketball Championship.  The NIT had one year of spot light, co-existed peacefully for a decade or so, and then like the older brother (more affectionately called "March Sadness"), who is balding and socially awkward, took a back seat to the prominent more affluent younger brother, the "March Madness".  

The NIT is a feel-good tournament for those teams who like to say "if", "shoulda or coulda" ("If we won that game", "We shoulda beat Duke", "We coulda beat them in the first round", etc.).  The NIT is also another excuse to watch more college basketball.  It is kind of like the non-January college football bowls (Insight.com bowl, SeeHowManyWordsCanFitInATitle Bowl, and the likes); no one really cares, but they enjoy getting together and watching sports. 

All-in-all the NIT is not too terribly bad and for the most part, peacefully co-exists with the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship.Then the Gazelle Group (mystery corporation) comes along and decides that college basketball post-season needs something more.  Something that "March Madness" and "March Sadness" is not.  Maybe a "March Gladness" or a "March Badness"—since it’s the inaugural year we will not know until April. 

Nonetheless, the Gazelle Group has taken it into their own hands to award even more bad teams the opportunity to play (synonymous with lose) more games--College Basketball Invitational (CBI; in the analogy of the brothers, the CBI is the horribly awkward neighbor kid that wants to play with the brothers, but the brothers end up throwing mud at him)

What's the catch? The home-team gets to pay $60,000 to host the game they play.  If they win the first round game, they get to pay another sixty grand to play another sub-par team for a chance to win a post-season championship that means about as much as eating a box of cracker jacks in one sitting. 

So what is the Gazelle Group trying to accomplish?  Maybe lining their pockets with some green paper, while sub-par college teams that refuse to believe they are not "worthy" duke it out for a less-than prestigious chance at competing in a best-of-three championship round!  That is not an error.  A home and home series for the championship.  Trying all night to fathom something more ridiculous, nothing pursued (except for I thought, wouldn't it be great if Will Farrell starred in a movie portraying a semi-professional basketball player?) 

The icing on the cake is that the CBI announced an exclusive partnership with Fox College Sports to broadcast the games.  More than likely, the majority of sports fans will not catch a whiff of the games on the TV. 

In conclusion, maybe in a few years so genius will combine the three tournaments so that the winner's of the tournaments can play a three-way game of Slam Ball (anyone remember this? Trampolines and basketball?).  Then college basketball would have its real champion.

Bravo, Gazelle Group.  Bravo.