“It Just Doesn’t Make Sense” – Green Bay Basketball Pushing For Huge Changes With Proposed $1 Million Tournament Entry

The Green Bay basketball program has filed a waiver with the NCAA that could potentially have major lasting impacts if accepted.

The Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball program struggled through year one with new coach Doug Gottlieb at the helm. Gottlieb has been outspoken about his team with weekly updates regarding the Phoenix, with the latest update being a massive one.

The Basketball Tournament, or TBT, is a winner-take-all tournament with a sizeable $1 million pot going to the top team. NCAA officials have sanctioned a large number of post-season tournaments, but out of season games have been strictly played overseas. Green Bay seeks to enter TBT and participate in an effort to make summer competition both affordable and reasonable.

Green Bay Basketball, Coach Doug Gottlieb File NCAA Waiver to Join The Basketball Tournament 

While playing in tournaments within the United States makes sense for collegiate teams, the lack of sanctioning from the NCAA makes playing during the summer difficult.

Each basketball program is allotted one trip abroad every four years to play against professional competition. Currently, programs cannot play within any of the states due to the fact that the NCAA will not allow or recognize the competition.

However, that was until Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon arrived and has now made valid points regarding the current legislation the NCAA recognizes. Moon stated that both coaches and players are ‘still operating’ in an environment from ’10, 15 years ago’ which hampers the ability of a program to have the best chance at succeeding.

Gottlieb doubled down, specifically attacking the originally backing for the abroad competition rule. The rule was originally created to allow for every athlete to receive an opportunity to play abroad. However, as Gottlieb and Moon pointed out, players spend significantly less time on average in college than previously and rarely spend a full four years with a single program.

Along with the idea of the rules being outdated, the Green Bay basketball program also proposed the potential cost issues with traveling abroad. Outside of the top collegiate programs, abroad trips are an expensive endeavor to go through with. Division-II and Division-III programs do not take the full roster or staff on some abroad trips due to the costs, which defeats the purpose of why the rule was established.

While the NCAA may potentially not be a fan of the waiver, TBT representatives on the other hand feel the move would make sense. TBT stated that ‘at least 11 programs’ have discussed joining the tournament with varying levels of interest.

For a tournament that is known to field entire teams of alumni from various schools, having the actual teams themselves participate is the next move.

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