City 6 men’s tournament takes ‘positive’ step toward happening
The tournament could start as soon as the 2023-24 season.
Athletic directors and other administrators held a meeting Friday about a City 6 tournament, according to one local source who said the group received “a really exciting pitch from the Wells Fargo Center” about hosting a tripleheader on the final day of the tournament.
The idea is to start this new format as soon as next season, with the tripleheader on a Saturday in early December.
“There was alignment,” the source said of the reaction from the various schools. “There was excitement.”
The word “revitalization” also was used, since the City 6 has been in the doldrums lately. All the schools, existing Big 5 members plus Drexel, would commit to three games. The format would break the six schools into two pods, with each school playing the other two in their respective pod, with the early-round games on campus sites or, if a school wanted to give up a home game, at the Palestra.
This pod system takes care of a number of issues that had held back a tournament from happening in the past. For instance, if St. Joseph’s and Villanova were in the same pod, then that rivalry game would still happen every year. Conversely, if St. Joe’s and La Salle were in opposite pods, the Atlantic 10 rivals wouldn’t automatically play each other an extra time.
One big potential winner is Drexel. If the Dragons are the best team, they could beat their local rivals and win a championship.
Details on potentially seeding teams into the tripleheader would still have to be worked out.
“Wells Fargo has a marketing arm, a ticketing arm,” the source said. “Everything that could help. They put it all on the table.”
If it happens in 2023-24, it would be a one-year trial run, with a single ticket getting you into the final tripleheader. Right now, this is for men’s play only, since there is a belief that the women’s Big 5 round-robin is working and the coaches aren’t looking to change from the current format.
Television elements would have to be worked out.
“Everybody has to give up a little something,” the source said. “That’s what today was.”