So to ramp up some small school interest yet keep some local traditions, in the spirit of the holidays I provide this gift of a proposal.
Expand the MCAA to 16 teams and 2 divisions
Since CHOF, PACT and Spectrum basically play an MCAA schedule anyway, put them in the league once and for all. With the size of the Tri-Metro and the relative lack of size and competitiveness of St. Agnes and Mounds Park Academy, I'd move them to the MCAA. That makes 16 teams and 2 divisions. Or if Lester Prairie could find a home out west, put Minnesota Transitions in since they play the MCAA teams in non-conference games.
South: New Life, Mounds Park, St. Agnes, CHOF, Trinity, Bethany, Lion's Gate, Southwest Christian
North: Maranatha, Meadow Creek, Providence, West Lutheran, Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity, Spectrum, PACT, Heritage
MTS would play in the east and SW Christian would move to the west which works better geographically.
Expand the MCAA Tournament
Play 14 regular season games (your own division home and home) and then do a 4 game guarantee MCAA tournament. That concept is very similar to the current MCAA tournament where most teams get 3 games. Seed it like the current SEC tournament (North 1 vs South 8, etc etc). If seeds hold, you'd never play a team from your division. Since we know they wouldn't hold in all cases, you could just layout the 4 games ahead of time so they'd all be against the other division (North 1 plays South 8,4,2 and 1). In that setup, the final week is like the Twin Cities series where each seed plays the same seed on the other side.
The tournament would be 8 games a night playing on Tuesday/Friday over 2 weeks. With a total of 32 games and 16 teams, you have each team host a double-header on 1 night of the tournament so you can use it for financial gain across the league. You can rotate how its hosted. 1 year you'd have Heritage host the 1st and 3rd place games, then the next season have those 2 games over at Mounds Park Academy. 2 high-class facilities for the league and provides the east/west balances. The schools with smaller gyms could host the early round games since they have less demand. For the remaining games, you try to schedule it to have as many of the host teams playing at home as possible for more revenue.
So if you're the MCAA, this guarantees you 18 games. Add in a holiday tourney and you only have 5 or 6 games to fill. It still gives you division and conference bragging rights with the tournament. And if the tournament is the last 2 weeks of the regular season, its a great way to prepare for the playoffs.
The Tri-Metro would be able to have an 18 game league schedule with 10 teams instead of the 16 games league schedule they play now.
Now to find the commissioner of the MCAA.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great idea to me. Only problem would be trying to let the MCAA to let Mounds Park and MTS into the league, being that it is the "Minnesota Christian Athletic Association." I know Lester Prairie made it in a few years back, but it was a problem to let them in. Now that they have paired with Holy Trinity, there doesn't seem to be too much speculation. Besides that, the tourney setup looks good and I like the idea of keeping the two subdivisions separate until playoffs come.
ReplyDeletepact and spectrum are not christian schools as well...so they would have to humble themselves to at least 4 teams...it would be great to see happen though.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great idea, and I'd gladly be commish.
ReplyDelete