Report: 27% of Coaches Surveyed Prefer Not to Play CBB Conference Tournaments

College basketball conference tournaments were some of the first events canceled when the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the country last March. A number of coaches would be OK if they were scrapped in 2021 too. 

According to CBS Sports' Matt Norlander, 27 percent of 41 college head coaches surveyed believe their conference should not stage a tournament this season. 

It's certainly a small sample size, considering there are 350 Division I basketball programs; however, Norlander attempted to receive input from across the sport, interviewing coaches at big schools and small schools as well as those with strong records, bad records and some on the bubble. 

"If I was a mid-major, I'd be scared to death about the conference tournaments," one high-major coach told Norlander. "What do you do if a team wins a tournament but then they have five guys later test positive and can't go to the NCAAs?"  

Instead of giving an automatic bid to the team that wins their conference tournament, leagues could instead reward their regular-season champion with a berth in the NCAA tournament. With Selection Sunday scheduled for March 14, playing traditional conference tournaments ahead of the NCAA tournament could potentially leave teams susceptible to outbreaks. 

Per Norlander:

"The calendar and context are important, as the schedule could ultimately give way to NCAA Tournament vulnerabilities and/or opportunities surrendered. The NCAA is mandating all Tier 1 personnel on NCAA Tournament-selected teams return negative COVID-19 tests for seven consecutive days segueing to a team's departure for Indianapolis. Despite all planning and precautions by the NCAA—which is not providing those tests to schools and leagues—this is not foolproof."

South Carolina head coach Frank Martin is among those against playing conference tournaments and blamed greed for overtaking common sense.

"I've never understood conference tournaments," Martin said. "After beating the living you-know-what out of each other for two and a half months? I get why it's done. Money. I wouldn't be against taking a deep breath this year and saying, 'You know what, let's utilize that time to try and make up games for the ones we missed and let's just crown a regular-season champion.'"