A bit late here but... we went up to the NCAAs in Spokane to see my wife's St Marys team. Sadly, the mighty Gaels lost but we still had a great time.

We were there for a true March Madness experience when Yale beat Auburn. Everyone in the arena except Auburn fans started going nuts for Yale- it was wild. Also a great story about Yale's band not being able to make the trip so the University of Idaho's band learned the Yale songs and went to support the team.

I get that college sports are changing big time, in many ways not for the better. But there are still great underdog stories and fun times out there.

Well, Dang it. Traore just took over the game in the second half and we had no answer.

Shout-out to TY- we would have got blown out without him. Bummer ending but fun season overall.

Yes, I remember looking at Green Valley Resort online last year and it looked nice. Probably worth it if you want to see all the Big West games. We ended up staying at the Orleans because my wife's St Mary's team was playing there. The Orleans is kinda "meh" but a 5 minute walk from your room to the arena is perfect when you get into town about an hour before a game starts.

Tip to consider for anyone going to the tourney. We went last year and stopped at the District at Green Valley Ranch before the game. Its a upscale mall with nice pub and restaurant options. We had a few drinks, dinner and then walked 10 minutes to the game. Just spend some money at the mall and don't walk straight to the game from the car and you should be fine.

Caveat- I'm a cheap bast#rd and often try to avoid paying for parking. Its probably smart to just pay the money and park at the arena- ha.

I don't think we are going to make it this year, but hopefully with a #2 seed more Aggie fans will show up this year. The showing last year was rather bleak.

Ugh! Just missed out again. Jr and I made it out to the game. Last 2 games we've seen in person were the best of the year. Last year at Idaho and Saturday against Sac. Oh well, we enjoyed the win over the Hornets in the downpour. No committee can take that away from us.

LOL, yep that would be bad. Just saying that we are now tied for 3rd among the UCs.

I interpreted the post as trying to form a new FCS league. But its just a random post on a message board so does it really mean anything?

And yes realignment seems ridiculous at times but talking about college sports is far more interesting than the subjects you listed- lol.

The family and I had a great time, despite most of our teams losing. 7 games in 3 and 1/2 days. Even squeezed in trips to Hover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. The Davis game and the nearly empty arena were the biggest bummers of the trip. But the Pac-12 and Mountain West games were fun. Even with my wife's St Mary's getting blown out, it was a fun atmosphere- a packed 8-9 thousand seat arena.

I'm not seeing a link to an article. A nearly empty arena is about as neutral as you can get so I guess they achieved that. But having been there it was a bummer watching 2 games, and I would imagine it was a bummer for the players. I would much rather watch a game in Irvine with a few hundred Davis fans and a few thousand opposing fans, but maybe other don't agree.

Yes, Honda Center was a good location but way too big. One of the reasons I like the idea of having it at Irvine's 5000 seat Bren Center. If you can sell that out a few years then try a bigger arena.

Best hope which I read on the Big West Message Boards- maybe Disney builds a nice new 7,500-10,000 seat arena in Anaheim. I think that was just a fan dreaming not any real plans that I know of.

Yep you are probably right but seems penny wise dollar foolish to me. I've seen articles reporting the Pac 12 gets $500,000, WCC and Mountain West $300,000 to have their tourneys in Vegas. Maybe I'm wrong but I would guess Big West gets far less than either of those numbers. Is it worth $100,000(total guess) to play tourney games in a nearly empty arena, look terrible on tv, far from any campus?

There are a bunch of sad little gyms in the league, so I wouldn't rotate to every campus.

Bren Center is a nice 5,000 arena, it would look great on tv if packed. I haven't been there in 20 years but I remember it as being nice.
Irvine is very close to 3 Big West campuses and I'm guessing 7 schools are 2 hours or less away.
It's near the beach, Disneyland, airport, hotels.
Yes it's very far from Davis and Hawaii but guessing way more Davis and Hawaii fans would show up in Irvine than Henderson, NV.

Back from Vegas, we saw 7 games in the 3 and a half days there. Big West, Pac 12, WCC and Mountain West games. Overall it was a fun trip. As for the Ags- not the result we wanted but we did our part cheering them on from right behind the bench.

The Big West should consider moving the tourney back to So Cal. The spot in Henderson is a beautiful new arena but I'm not sure there were even 500 people in the building. Kind of a bummer environment to play or watch a game. I would move the tourney to the Bren Center in Irvine and give every team in the league 500 tickets and then release unsold tickets to the general public. Yes Irvine and the nearby school would have an advantage with more fans but I would imagine most players would prefer playing in front of 4 or 5 thousand fans than a nearly empty arena.

Wall to wall college basketball choices in Vegas right now. We fly in tomorrow, and will see St Mary's if they make the WCC finals Tuesday night. Early round Pac12 games Wednesday. Aggies on Thursday, then depending on the results- Aggies, Pac 12 or Mountain West games on Friday. Fly out Saturday. Jr and I want to see how many games we can squeeze in, the wife has other ideas- ha.

Go Ags, Crazy win! And me and the fam are going to Vegas baby. So happy we made it to a Thursday game. Wife is St Mary's grad, and if they win, we will be at the WCC final on Tuesday.

Yep, seems dumb on many levels to not play the final on Saturday.

But I haven't watched much of these playoffs... still mad that Davis didn't make it. We are better than most the teams in the playoffs. I'd bet only a hand full of teams would be over .500 with our schedule.

And yes DTD, the Vandal fans were great with us. While we were eating breakfast (in our Aggie gear) a couple of fans were very friendly and complimented the Aggies and their play, which was very cool.

No easy way to segue from the tragic story to mundane matters but yes BaseballAtDobbins, the hotel was great- although we weren't there long. We got up early and drove out through Pullman to check out Martin Stadium. Looks like a pretty cool stadium, junior wants to see a game there- maybe next year.

I enjoyed the Idaho band at the game, they have some of the best seats in the house and their sound dominates the Kibbie Dome.

A lot of driving this weekend but it was worth it to see a big Aggie win with junior. Great meeting you and Idaho Aggie too.