If my count is correct, there are 46 Catholic schools in D1. Just for fun, what if they conducted a tournament for all of them in the OOC or off season? Maybe the proceeds go to Catholic charities and the winner gets a trip to the Vatican.

You could do a Thurs/Fri round featuring 28 teams in 14 games.

Those 14 winners join the top 18 seeds for a Sat/Sun round of 32 (16 games).

The following week features the Sistine 16 on Thurs/Fri with winners advancing to play in the Immaculate 8….still working on a good pun for the Final 4.

Here is an idea for a Jesuit basketball tournament (there are 20 D1 Jesuit teams I think):

I tried to make a bracket, but could not find a way to avoid inter-conference matchups. So I took the idea in a slightly different direction, but in a way that would still give us magis Jesuit basketball. Rather than a full tournament, I decided to do a two weekend, five site game series. All 20 teams would play 4 games, and no teams would face conference foes. Each site would host 4 teams for a mini tournament, with the respective winners and losers on Saturday facing each other on Sunday

To help entice television coverage and reassure some of the more prominent teams that they would get exciting matchups, I decided to make the marquee matchups on Saturday, rather than hope that teams from the multi-bid conferences would meet up on the Sunday games. The winner of the event would be decided based on whichever team has the best record, with some mechanism for tie-breakers (or keeping ties is also fine).

In making the marquee matchups, I focused on the preseason rankings of the current year to match the top teams against each other along with either geographic proximity or, in the case of Georgetown and BC, historic affiliation.

I color coded by conference as a way to track and make sure I didn't have any conference matchups.

West:
7 from the WCC (Gonzaga, LMU, Portland, St. Mary's, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara)
1 from the WAC (Seattle)
1 from the Southland (Incarnate Word)
1 from the Summit (St. Thomas)
1 from the A-10 (St. Louis)
1 from the Big East (Creighton)

Central:
1 from the Horizon (Detroit Mercy)
1 from the ASUN (Bellarmine)
4 from the A-10 (Loyola Chicago, Dayton, Duquesne. St. Bonaventure)
1 from the ACC (Notre Dame)
3 from the Big East (DePaul, Marquette, Xavier)
2 from the MAAC (Niagara, Canisius)

Northeast:
1 from the ACC (Boston College)
1 from the Patriot (Holy Cross)
2 from the Big East (Providence, St. John's)
5 from the MAAC (Fairfield, Iona, Merrimack, Siena, Sacred Heart)
2 from the NEC (Le Moyne, Stonehill)

Mid-Atlantic:
3 from the Big East (Georgetown, Seton Hall, Villanova)
3 from the Atlantic 10 (LaSalle, St. Joseph's, Fordham)
1 from the NEC (St. Francis-PA)
3 from the MAAC (Manhattan, Mt. St. Mary's, St. Peter's)
1 from the Patriot (Loyola-MD)

(03-02-2024 04:22 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  If my count is correct, there are 46 Catholic schools in D1. Just for fun, what if they conducted a tournament for all of them in the OOC or off season? Maybe the proceeds go to Catholic charities and the winner gets a trip to the Vatican.

You could do a Thurs/Fri round featuring 28 teams in 14 games.

Those 14 winners join the top 18 seeds for a Sat/Sun round of 32 (16 games).

The following week features the Sistine 16 on Thurs/Fri with winners advancing to play in the Immaculate 8….still working on a good pun for the Final 4.

The Faithful 4

Who does the Pope root for?

I guess since the current Pope is a Jesuit, he'd be for one of the Jesuit 20.

Greg Gumbel voice: Welcome to Holy Sunday, where we unveil the 2024 Catholic Hoops Championship. Let's unveil the bracket for our four regions: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

MATTHEW REGION
1 Marquette (bye)
8 San Diego
9 Canisius

4 Duquesne (bye)
5 Santa Clara (bye)

6 Merrimack
11 Loyola Maryland
3 St. Bonaventure (bye)

7 St. Peter's
10 Incarnate Word
2 Providence (bye)

JOHN REGION
1 Gonzaga (bye)
8 Saint Louis
9 Sacred Heart

4 Boston College (bye)
5 St. Thomas
12 Stonehill

6 Fordham
11 Siena
3 Seton Hall (bye)

7 Georgetown
10 Bellarmine
2 Dayton (bye)


MARK REGION
1 Creighton (bye)
8 Mount St. Mary's
9 Portland

4 Saint Joseph's (bye)
5 Seattle (bye)

6 Fairfield
11 St. Francis PA
3 San Francisco (bye)

7 La Salle
10 Manhattan
2 St. John's (bye)

LUKE REGION
1 Saint Mary's (bye)
8 Niagara
9 Le Moyne

4 Loyola Chicago (bye)
5 Notre Dame
12 Detroit

6 Loyola Marymount
11 Holy Cross
3 Xavier (bye)

7 Iona
10 DePaul
2 Villanova (bye)

Maybe we're overthinking it. There's 128 private schools, which is 64x2. That'd be a great tourney.

The finale can be called Vatican II.

Ideally the tournament should begin the day after Ash Wednesday—just to make things interesting during everyone’s Lenten Fish Fries

Also, if we can have Providence Friars and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, why didn’t anyone give their Catholic school the mascot Cardinals?

(03-02-2024 10:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Also, if we can have Providence Friars and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, why didn’t anyone give their Catholic school the mascot Cardinals?

I wonder if Stanford gets an invite b/c they're private and they're the "Cardinal". I mean, that's close, right? Right??

(03-02-2024 10:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Also, if we can have Providence Friars and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, why didn’t anyone give their Catholic school the mascot Cardinals?

The University of Incarnate Word would like to have a talk with you.

(03-02-2024 11:19 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(03-02-2024 10:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Also, if we can have Providence Friars and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, why didn’t anyone give their Catholic school the mascot Cardinals?

The University of Incarnate Word would like to have a talk with you.

They use a bird though, rather than the church officer.

Marist can sell cupcakes in the lobby since they abandoned their Catholic roots years ago