At 67, John Calipari is entering the twilight of his coaching career, but that’s not stopping him from dreaming big about the future of college basketball. Among his ideas for the SEC: a conference tournament that begins the regular season instead of ending it.
Calipari shared the concept Wednesday with reporters at the SEC spring meetings.
“Before the season, as the season gets started, the first thing that happens is the SEC Tournament,” Calipari said. “And everybody gets to play three games, and the final teams get to play four games…at the end you can move your season back and then you don’t have to play three games in a week and go to the NCAA tournament.”
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It’s a fascinating suggestion with some merit that may never gain any real traction for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t take a genius to understand where Calipari is coming from.
After winning three games in three days to capture the SEC Tournament title on Selection Sunday in 2026, the Razorbacks were promptly shipped to Portland, Oregon to begin their NCAA Tournament journey with a Thursday afternoon game.
They handled the unfavorable combination of travel and workload well by reaching the Sweet 16. But that brought more time in the Pacific time zone for the Hogs, who never returned home as they stayed out West to prepare for a Sweet 16 loss to Arizona in San Jose.
Moving the SEC Tournament to the beginning of the season would make it a standalone showcase, eliminate the March crunch and allow SEC teams to rest up for the Big Dance.
Why Calipari’s idea holds merit
College basketball’s opening couple of nights are in need of some juice. The first four days of the 2025-26 regular season — a Monday through Thursday stretch — featured just one game between ranked teams.
On the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the season — days when there was no NFL or meaningful college football to compete against for eyeballs — college basketball’s schedule primarily featured undercard snoozers. Even Friday and Saturday featured just three total games pitting ranked teams against each other.
Moving a conference tournament into that timeframe would add significant energy to the beginning of college basketball’s regular season while also alleviating the physical grind that comes with up to four consecutive weeks of postseason action on the heels of the regular season grind.
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In the 76-team era of the NCAA Tournament, complaints around the logistical hurdles of postseason play will only become more common. Moving forward, a total 24 teams will now be forced into action on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the Big Dance.
A chunk of the 24 teams participating in 12 opening-round games will be working on quick turnarounds from high-major conference tournaments that concluded either Saturday or Sunday of the prior week.
If a Sunday-Thursday turnaround marked by cross-country travel brought frustration for Arkansas, the situation will likely only be worse for others in the years ahead.
Big Ten or SEC teams who are on the bubble that make Cinderella runs to their conference tournament semifinals or title games will face even shorter transitions as they are subsequently slotted in the expanded “opening round” of the Big Dance.
Why moving tournaments is impractical
For all the bluster and criticism often flung upon the Sunday timing of the Big Ten and SEC Tournament title games, they are highly lucrative television products coming at a time on the calendar when college basketball is at the forefront of the national sports discourse.
Moving those matchups to a point on the calendar when football typically dominates would come with a significant tradeoff. While an early November SEC Tournament would bring more viewership than a mashup of buy games against low-major regional opponents, it would be hard to attract the same attention that the events currently attract in their March time slots.
From an in-person viewing perspective, dedicated college sports fans are also stretched financially and logistically in November by football ticket, travel and time costs in a way that could depress the amount of revenue currently generated by March conference tournaments.
College basketball’s TV inventory is most valuable during the month of March, and moving a valuable commodity like the SEC Tournament to November could be financially counterproductive.
A potential alternative
One alternative that could gain traction in the years ahead is the addition of early-season showcases. Whether in a mini-tournament format or simply in the concept of standalone games, the SEC could benefit from strategically staging meaningful games in November.
Big Ten teams typically play a couple of conference games in December, but November conference action is not a part of college basketball in any significant way. Could that change? The concept has at least made it to the long-term idea board within SEC circles.
In an era of ballooning roster costs, college basketball has a well-documented revenue issue. Offering a meaningful SEC hoops product in the quiet early November window before Feast Week multi-team events begin is a concept warranting further exploration.
While it’s tempting for coaches to schedule light during the season’s first week while getting a sense for their teams, the expansion of the NCAA Tournament provides a safety net. With eight more at-large spots now available in the Big Dance, losing a game or two in early November would not be a postseason death sentence, especially if those losses came against quality league opponents.
Staging games of that ilk would also reduce the conference crunch of January-March, providing teams more time to rest up for March Madness. Alternatively, coaches could have the flexibility to schedule a nonconference game or two if they desired.
CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello contributed to this report.
