Proposed Mid-Season Nationally Televised Doubleheader

[CaribouJim]

In my obsession to get more eyes on the Big East next year outside of FS1, how does this sound for a mid-season, nationally televised double-header on CBS?

Kind of a Midwest version of last year's DH @ MSG. This one played at the United Center in Chicago.

Game 1: MU vs. Northwestern (S. Wojciechowski vs. Chris Collins)

Game 2: DePaul vs. 'Nova

Enough excitement generated between the two Chicago based teams to make it an event and get much more fannies in the seats than they normally do? We can always count on MU fans and 'Nova has a great brand name, a high profile coach and a decent alumni base in Chicago and maybe the DePaul frosh from this year will make some hay next year as sophs?

Probably not enough sex appeal for a national audience and maybe Wojo and Chris don't want to play each other? I don't understand that as it would help both teams I would think.

Again this would be in the middle of the BE conference play, like the MSG event.

Thoughts?

PS - has everyone "add to dictionary" Wojo's last name when you first typed out his last name?

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Wojo said that K wouldn't play his assistants because it would be too emotional. I imagine the assistants may not play each other either.

[ChitownAl]

Caribou: Sort of reminds me of the old, old Chicago Stadium doubleheaders, of which MU used to participate in.

Also, MU did do a series way back with NWestern, which I always thought was good because of our Chi fan base. Then, I heard that DePaul as a league mate objected to MU doing a separate game in "their" market. Your idea would be a solution for that. It works for me if Coach W and Chris Collins want to play each other

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

I think MU's schedule has been plenty competitive the last few years, our big issue is when we scheduled bunnies we were scraping the bottom of the barrel, now with the new Big East I think we have to get more mid majors on the schedule because the league won't boost our RPI anymore

[CaribouJim]

I think MU's schedule has been plenty competitive the last few years, our big issue is when we scheduled bunnies we were scraping the bottom of the barrel, now with the new Big East I think we have to get more mid majors on the schedule because the league won't boost our RPI anymore

I'm not just talking about the difficulty of the schedule, although I think it could be better, I'm primarily talking also about creating events that will attract attention to the league - the FS1 #'s were miniscule this past season. Need to create some excitement in the league - do some creative things.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I think MU's schedule has been plenty competitive the last few years, our big issue is when we scheduled bunnies we were scraping the bottom of the barrel, now with the new Big East I think we have to get more mid majors on the schedule because the league won't boost our RPI anymore

I agree with this. I hope Wojo does as well...in the past 5 years, Duke has only played 1 sub-300 opponent per Pomeroy, Colgate (#305) in 2011. I would love to see more Horizon, West Coast Conference, and Missouri Valley. Not the top teams, but the ones in the middle. Even the teams that struggle are usually top-250, so worst case scenario they will be a minimal drain on the RPI.

[CaribouJim]

Caribou: Sort of reminds me of the old, old Chicago Stadium doubleheaders, of which MU used to participate in.

Also, MU did do a series way back with NWestern, which I always thought was good because of our Chi fan base. Then, I heard that DePaul as a league mate objected to MU doing a separate game in "their" market. Your idea would be a solution for that. It works for me if Coach W and Chris Collins want to play each other

My oldest brother went to grad school at Northwestern and my father came from home out east to visit him and they went to a doubleheader at the Stadium along with another brother who was at MU at the time - it was in '73 or '74 and Bill Walton and UCLA played maybe Loyola? Not sure of the other game - I know they said the place was rocking and had fun. Do you remember that game?

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

And Jim, I agree to a point. But in the new landscape, we are in general going to see a number of teams in the 30-80 RPI range in league play. I don't think we'll get a lot of top-25 opportunities, but we also won't have a lot of sub-100 opponents.

I hope to continue seeing 3-4 top level teams on the schedule. You can almost always expect one or two in the conference tourney, Wisconsin is good for one, but I really hope we don't go hog wild like we did last year. As we learned, stocking your schedule with top-50 opponents can be very dangerous, especially when all your other games are against sub-300 teams. When you lose, your RPI takes a hit, and when you win, your RPI takes a hit.

The teams in the 100-200 range have huge value. They are positives for the RPI and while they may not draw eyeballs, they are great for ensuring a good seed that should lead to March success. Wisconsin's schedule this year was a thing of beauty. Of their 7 buy-level games, 6 were in the 90-215 RPI range. That's genius scheduling.

[ChitownAl]

My oldest brother went to grad school at Northwestern and my father came from home out east to visit him and they went to a doubleheader at the Stadium along with another brother who was at MU at the time - it was in '73 or '74 and Bill Walton and UCLA played maybe Loyola? Not sure of the other game - I know they said the place was rocking and had fun. Do you remember that game?

Didn't see that one - I was living somewhere else than MKE-Chi. But I do remember seeing Kareem (then Lew Alcindor) and UCLA @ one of them... also NCAA Champs TexasWestern. It was a very hot BB concept in those days... so your idea struck a chord.

[CaribouJim]

Didn't see that one - I was living somewhere else than MKE-Chi. But I do remember seeing Kareem (then Lew Alcindor) and UCLA @ one of them... also NCAA Champs TexasWestern. It was a very hot BB concept in those days... so your idea struck a chord.

Here is an article from the late, great Bill Jauss of the Tribune early this century on college doubleheaders at the Stadium and the financial feasibility - MU/Jim Chones, Alcindor, Walton mentions.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-11-29/sports/0111290317_1_doubleheaders-chicago-sports-fans-drifts

[trublufan]

Didn't see that one - I was living somewhere else than MKE-Chi. But I do remember seeing Kareem (then Lew Alcindor) and UCLA @ one of them... also NCAA Champs TexasWestern. It was a very hot BB concept in those days... so your idea struck a chord.

The other game was Notre Dame vs. Illinois. Nick weatherspoon was a stud for IL at the time. 1973.

[Goose85]

I would love to see some type of made for TV double session double headers in The Garden with former Big East teams.

Session 1.
1. Georgetown v. Syracuse
2. MU v. ND

Session 2.
1. UConn v. Louisville
2. Villanova v. Pitt

I think you would have both sessions sell out.

[CaribouJim]

I would love to see some type of made for TV double session double headers in The Garden with former Big East teams.

Session 1.
1. Georgetown v. Syracuse
2. MU v. ND

Session 2.
1. UConn v. Louisville
2. Villanova v. Pitt

I think you would have both sessions sell out.

Wow - that would be pretty cool. Would hope that the NBE could get at least 2 wins for street credit.