Bob Huggins suggest radical NCAA college basketball idea

West Virginia men’s basketball head coach Bob Huggins believes the major conferences should split from other schools and create their own postseason tournament.

“They’re doing it in football,” Huggins told ESPN at Big 12 media day. “Why wouldn’t they do it? The presidents and athletic directors that have all the juice, why wouldn’t they do it? Makes no sense why they wouldn’t do it. I think it’s more ‘Why wouldn’t they?’ than ‘Why would they?’ And then, the other people, they can have their own tournament.”

Huggins believes controlling the postseason tournament is a way for basketball to remain financially relevant in the future as college football’s influence and footprint continue to grow. He added that college basketball revenue, on many campuses, goes toward supporting football, while the NCAA makes the bulk of its money off its basketball tournament.

“We have no power because we don’t generate the same kind of TV income that football does,” Huggins said. “But we don’t try to.”

He continued.

“Those Cinderella schools are putting 200 people, at best, in their gym,” Huggins said. “We’re putting 14,000.”

The majority of the NCAA’s annual revenue is attained through the TV rights contract for the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA signed an eight-year, $8.8 billion extension through 2032 with Turner Sports for the rights to the NCAA men’s tournament in 2016.

TCU head coach Jamie Dixon also weight in.

“I always laugh about the NCAA tournament in college basketball and about how it doesn’t make sense how the money is dispersed and where it goes,” Dixon told ESPN. “And football has become bigger and the decision-maker in this realignment because of the disbursement of money. And I don’t know that we’ve done our best job with marketing and promoting and building on basketball, because really, the NCAA’s only goal is to keep that NCAA tournament as their sole moneymaker.”

Huggins is entering his 15th season at West Virginia. Holding a 310-171 record in his time, Huggins has led the Mountaineers to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, with one Final Four berth and four Sweet 16 appearances.

Texas head coach Chris Beard disagreed.

“I’m one of these guys that I don’t think anything’s wrong with the NCAA tournament,” said Beard, who led Arkansas-Little Rock to the second round in 2016. “I thought 64 [teams] was fine. It’s just, why are we trying to fix something that ain’t broke? It’s the best three weeks in sports. And I feel like I can talk about it because I’ve been on all ends of it.”