Editor’s note: Dan Gavitt is the son of the great Dave Gavitt, the driving force behind the creation of the Big East. The younger Gavitt is NIT board chair and NCAA senior vice president of basketball, and he has backed a new NIT policy which eliminates the automatic bid for mid-major conference champions who do not win their conference tournaments.
Dear Dan:
What would your father say?
Seriously, Dan, do you think your dad would be proud of the money- grabbing initiative whereby a hypothetical Yale team at 26-5 that wins the Ivy with a perfect 14-0 ledger and then falls in the Ivy tourney to Brown at Columbia in triple overtime is barred from the NIT auto-bid? I don’t think so.
I don’t think that he would be proud to see Villanova of his Big East last season, at 17-17, playing 16-19 Ohio State in the NIT because it had a gaudy NET number.
Not sure how many Nova and Buckeye fans would care about that consolation prize, either. But I know that fans from mid-majors like Liberty, Hofstra, Towson and many more would be thrilled by the invitation.
This is a slippery slope, Dan. Very slippery. We are talking about getting on a highway toward a seismic change in the greatest tourney of them all, the Big Dance. We think that what you’re saying by inference is that TV and power-conference powerbrokers do not care anymore about the monumental upsets over the years by the likes of Yale, Princeton, Valparaiso and countless others.
We perceive that you weren’t too happy with San Diego State in the NCAA final last year against Connecticut. So you’ve gotten behind a gang-up on the little guys in the NIT and will soon gang up again on the little guys in March Madness.
The almighty TV dollar is going to do in the greatest sporting event known to man someday. It is inevitable.
And what about due process? Were the conference commissioners of the mid-majors given a seat at the table to express their predictable dissatisfaction? No.
Finding this out 10 days before the start of the college basketball season is surprising and disappointing. There was no opportunity for discussion or feedback. Taking away access for conference champions dilutes the magic of March. This isn’t the way this is supposed to work. https://t.co/I9fk7vOgpx
— Robin Harris (@IvyExecDir) October 28, 2023
Dan, what would your wise father say? My goodness.
Signed,
Disgruntled
Bravo, Richard! Sadly, you’re probably right on the mark in suggesting that the auto bids for the NCAA Tournament are next on the chopping block.