College basketball could use mid-season, interconference flex scheduling

College basketball is deep in the heart of conference season, but on Saturday, the SEC and Big 12 will take a reprieve from the conference grind to participate in the type of “challenge” typically reserved for non-conference play.

It figures to be one of the most exciting days of the college basketball regular season, thanks to the help of organizer ESPN, with a number of heavyweight matchups, including Kentucky at Kansas, Iowa State at Texas A&M, Oklahoma at LSU, West Virginia at Florida, and Vanderbilt at Texas.

That should help save a day of college basketball TV with only a few other games that are even in the league of those (Louisville-Virginia and … Arizona-Oregon State?).

The SEC and the Big 12 might be onto something. In fact, the challenge provides a blueprint for a mid-conference season event involving the six major college basketball conferences, in which the the networks and conferences can flex the nation’s best teams into prime matchups.

Let’s call it the Midseason Madness.

College basketball is often forgotten about until March because of days like Saturday (minus the Big 12-SEC Challenge). The season begins in the heart of college football season, and there is no consistent schedule of great games even in conference play. That’s why the Indiana-Duke Pinstripe Bowl can out-rate last year’s overtime Duke-North Carolina game.

The sport itself isn’t a ratings nightmare. March Madness is an extremely lucrative event. In 2010, CBS paid $10.8 billion to broadcast the NCAA Tournament through 2024. In 2014, the NCAA made $700 million off the tournament.

Of course, our “Midseason Madness” tournament wouldn’t bring in nearly that much revenue. But if it took place over the course of a weekend, it could become part of the sporting culture and be a ratings boon for the networks that are already eager to broadcast conference challenges, and other established events that can bring in more viewers than stand-alone games that don’t draw the attention of casual fans, no matter how good the matchups. Without football in the way, and in the heart of college basketball season, Midseason Madness TV rights would likely be far more valuable than typical conference challenge rights.

Here’s how the rules would work. Each conference would be paired up with another — they can even rotate — and would match up their five best teams with their opposing conference’s five best teams. There would be no preseason predictions necessary, as these matchups would be determined in the weeks prior to the event to ensure the best teams would be playing.

For the sake of not disturbing current challenges (Big Ten-ACC, Big 12-SEC, Big Ten-Big East), let’s have the inaugural year feature Big Ten-Big 12, Pac-12-SEC and ACC-Big East pairings. Here’s how that could look:

The dates and times are clearly arbitrary, but that’s the beauty of a flex schedule — the network can put together those dates and times as they see fit.

But more importantly … LOOK AT THOSE GAMES! There is no reason to leave your couch all weekend with 15 matchups on the slate, all of which feature likely NCAA Tournament teams. 10 of the 15 games feature two top 25 teams, and three of them feature two top 10 teams.

Outside of March, there has never been a college basketball weekend this good, and it has the potential to bring in viewers, who will set aside an entire day to watch a big-time, say, Oklahoma game as part of this day-long spectacle, but wouldn’t have set aside the time to watch that same game if it stood alone.

The best part is that this isn’t too good to be true, as there’s precedent for all of it. For 11 years, ESPN broadcast “BracketBuster” games, which featured flex matchups between good teams outside of the major conferences. Those matchups were also announced in the weeks before the event, so as to feature the best teams. ESPN discontinued that event, but it’s clear that Midseason Madness, with the biggest names in college basketball, would draw in far more viewers.

And to their credit, conferences, schools, and networks have been willing to try creative college basketball events. The conference challenges have wound up being a rousing success, which is why the Big 12-SEC Challenge and the Big Ten-Big East “Gavitt Games” have been added. Schools have also shown a willingness to do one-off, neutral site events in NBA arenas, or even on battleships.

Midseason Madness would be good for fans, and good for ratings. That’s perfect for a sport that needs an exposure bump before March.