![]() ![]() He’s had two administrative/member services stints working for the NCAA. Gill, a former Duke football player, has held high-level athletic department jobs at Oklahoma and Vanderbilt. More: UL forward Gant will get a shot at playing on the next level ALL ABOUT MULTITASKING “The league voted to make these changes,” Gill said, “so I certainly would anticipate that we’ll do that moving forward.”īut, he added, “I would never say something is completely locked in stone.” He’ll go into the season to come with an open mind. 14 seed.īut Gill, who is replacing the outgoing Karl Benson as commissioner of the SBC, suggested he has no preconceived notions. It didn’t exactly receive rave reviews and didn’t prove particularly helpful, with only Old Dominion going to the NCAA Tournament this year as a No. “I think also we’ll begin to dive into the numbers … (so) that we understand what really matters, and what can move the needle there,” he added, “and we’ll take that information and try to develop additional initiatives that support some of the steps we’re taking.”įellow mid-major Conference USA adopted a similar pod system, also known as flex scheduling, for the 2018-19 season. ![]() “So we’ll need to develop a way to evaluate that, to kind of understand that. “So I’m looking forward to … getting started,” he said, “so I can really get a clear sense of what folks anticipated the outcomes would be, and then try to build a system to evaluate whether or not we’re achieving those outcomes and whether we should continue down that path, or if there are some tweaks we should do or some initiatives we should add. Related: Sun Belt names new commissioner Gill to replace Karl Benson NO PRECONCEIVED NOTIONSįorming an opinion now, Gill suggested when introduced by the conference in March, is premature. “With regard to the kind of basketball changes that will take place next (season),” Gill said when asked by The Daily Advertiser for his thoughts on the plan, “I’m interested to see how it plays out.” It’s all designed to pad the resume of the league’s higher-echelon teams, and all with the NCAA Tourney - seeding for the automatic qualifier, and multiple bids - in mind. The structure of the conference’s tourney, which moves from Lakefront Arena to a Final Four format at Smooth King Center in New Orleans next season, also favors its higher seeds with early-round byes. 1 seed should that team not have the best pod record among the three teams in that pod. ![]() 1 position in Pod A - wouldn’t be the conference tourney’s No. ![]() Related: UL coaches tackle SBC tourney formatĪt the end of the regular season, teams will be seeded for the conference tournament based on results within their respective pod range.Ī team in Pod A, for example, can’t be seeded any lower than third. But it’s possible that the regular-season champion - the No. The conference’s regular-season champion will be awarded based on the results of the full 20-game schedule. The plan’s first step calls for teams to “reserve two dates in the non-conference portion of their schedule to play against peer conference opponents.”įurthermore, the league has adopted a format - the so-called "20-game smart schedule" - that splits the Sun Belt into two divisions with UL, UL Monroe, Little Rock, Arkansas State, Texas-Arlington and Texas State in the West and Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, South Alabama and Troy in the West.Įach team will play a 16-game schedule - five at home, five away against divisional opponents three at home and three away against non-divisional opponents.īased on the resulting standings, teams will be placed in four pods - A (1-3), Pod B (4-6), C (7-9) and D (10-12). Each will then play the other two pod members, once at home and once away, for the last four games of the 20-game schedule. So back in June 2018, the Sun Belt announced a new basketball scheduling plan that goes into full effect for the upcoming 2019-20 season. Since coach Bob Marlin's Cajuns last went to the NCAA Tournament, in 2014, the Sun Belt has had a team seeded higher than 14th just once - Little Rock, at No. The Sun Belt has had more than one team make it to the Big Dance just once in the last 11 seasons - in 2013, when Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, both no longer in the league, went. ![]()
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