College basketball fans know this week in Portland they are having the PK85, named after Phil Knight, Nike's founder, on his 85th birthday. I believe they also had one for his 80th birthday. They have two separate brackets, one for the men and one for the women, allowing for 16 men's teams and 8 women's teams to participate.

Now of course there's zero chance we'd ever have a football equivalent but in honor of my upcoming 50th birthday

September 2, 2023:

Schmolik 50 Invitational:
Penn State vs. Alabama, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Noon (FOX)

Clemson vs. Oregon, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, 3:30pm (CBS)

Schmolik 50 Legacy:

Ohio State vs. USC, Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 7:30pm (NBC)

September 3, 2023:

Georgia vs. Florida State, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, 7:30pm (ABC)

September 9, 2023:

Schmolik 50 Invitational Consolation Game, Lincoln Financial Field, noon (FOX)

Schmolik 50 Legacy Consolation Game, Fex Ed Field, Landover, Md, noon (ESPN)

(To avoid playing on a non weekend, the consolation games would be played simultaneously)

Schmolik 50 Invitational Championship Game, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Md, 3:30pm (CBS)

Schmolik 50 Legacy Championship Game, Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, 7:30pm (NBC)

Sorry, Michigan.

I decided to give Oregon a break rather than play Ohio State or Georgia again or Alabama. I expect Penn State to be in Philly and not Baltimore on Sept. 9.

Who would be in your dream eight?

Those would be some good games.

I’ve pushed the idea that the PAC 10, in order to maintain a presence in LA, should pair up all 10 teams to play a week 1 conference games in LA:

Game 1: Thursday
Game 2: Friday
Game 3: Saturday
Game 4: Sunday
Game 5: Monday

I’d schedule them so that all the weeknight games air at 8pm eastern. The Saturday and Sunday games have a little more flexibility. This could be a great event to kick off the season on a weekend where there are only a few good match ups and a lot of FCS/G5 rent-a-victim games going on. plus it would be pretty cool to watch an entire conference play over a long weekend.

Better still, hold a Big 12 version of this in Orlando with 3 stadiums in play. Have a Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday/Sunday doubleheaders.

The Phil Knight Tournament is clearly non conference.

And I do love Orlando but wouldn't the Big 12 more likely do something like this in Dallas rather than Orlando? They could use Jerry World, the Cotton Bowl, and TCU's stadium.

I think a North vs South thing would be fun:

North: Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St, Notre Dame, USC
South: Texas, LSU, Alabama, Georgia, Clemson

The concept of the Phil Knight was a bracket format. The men's was two separate 8 team brackets (so both Duke and North Carolina can participate) and the women's two separate 4 team brackets. I thought the four team would be more realistic than the 8 team and finding 16 "top" football teams is a lot tougher to find than 16 top men's basketball teams without duplicating conferences (other than die hards, who wants to see Alabama see either the best or second best MAC team?) Now of course Phil Knight included Portland and Oregon State but he's loaded so North Carolina and Duke will still go (to Portland, no less).

(11-25-2022 09:44 AM)schmolik Wrote:  The Phil Knight Tournament is clearly non conference.

And I do love Orlando but wouldn't the Big 12 more likely do something like this in Dallas rather than Orlando? They could use Jerry World, the Cotton Bowl, and TCU's stadium.

They can most years but they want to open themselves to the brand new Florida market first.