[NU Sports] Could be interesting NIT

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> I asked for evidence, and all you said was "Yes." Where is
> the evidence?

No - if you read after the "yes" you will see I make the case the a big-league "name" team is worth more in seats and ratings than a mid-major would be for an NIT tournament desperate for revenue. They just need to be smart (like the old NIT was) about setting up their matchups.

For example ... one of the recent NIT trips NU had, we could have been slated for a Chicagoland grudge match with the Irish - ticket sales would be high, media coverage in Chicago would be high, etc. But they had some southern team (UAB?) in South Bend if I remember and we weren't even in the bracket.

With Ill-noise seemingly tanking their NCAA bid (or if Notre Dame's bubble bursts), you could set up an attractive first or second round game for the NIT among those Chicagoland market teams ... or you could have Wichita State at Southern Alabama. Which one do you think will get folks to stop channel surfing on ESPN or make the news that night?

Plus, you could make a nice story out of NU this year -- a school not known for hoops having its best year ever, yadda yadda yadda.

> Why would "packing Welsh-Ryan" be desirable for the NIT? Do
> you realize that most mid-major teams have larger gyms than
> Welsh-Ryan (and in many cases, larger enrollment than NU)?

As I said in the original note, they may pack their similar-sized gyms at SW Missouri State or UC-Santa Barbara ... but those teams don't generate much interest outside of those gyms. Northwestern -- with the football team's rise in prominence and the Big Ten name, not to mention the Chicago market -- would bring more in terms of ratings.

Another thing I mentioned in the first note, after the word "yes," was how if NU would be on the road, you could capitalize on our nationally based alumni by placing us at a road site near a large concentration of NU alums -- New York, California, etc. (not Tulsa). Then you get the NU name, Chicago coverage and help in filling seats for what I suspect will be a great many half-full NIT gyms and arenas this March.

> What makes you think they won't fill more seats? Bear in
> mind that Winter Quarter is about to end here, and most
> students will be either finishing up finals or already on
> break by the time the NIT starts, so packing the place is
> hardly a given.

NU does not have a lengthy record of postseason play, but we do seem to do well at packing Welsh-Ryan for the NIT games we've been able to host. Even during break.

> to host an NIT game, despite our precarious bubble status
> for selection, solely for the purposes of packing a rather

The bubble and RPI ratings are for the Big Dance. Once those invites are sent out, it's all about a tournament that can fill seats, get ratings and draw a smidgeon of media attention from March Madness. I like NU's chances of being an NIT story over SUNY-Binghamton or North Texas.

But like I said in the original post -- we definitely should not "pay to play" in the CIB and if the NIT selects us, then that's great news and we can hopefully use the run as a springboard for the Big Dance in 2011 -- but if they don't pick NU, no real skin off our back. Their loss.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT