John Calipari came out with the idea that the SEC Tournament should be played in November instead of the usual March setting to allow the tournament to have an effect on NCAA Tournament bids.
Calipari's SEC Attitude
In the past, Calipari has expressed his dislike for the SEC Tournament, and any conference tournaments, quite loudly. His hatred is reasonable, due to the NCAA Tournament field never changing to correspond with the results of the SEC Tournament.
The Kentucky head coach must feel the need to support this change after his 2015-16 Kentucky Wildcats were given a lower seed than a team they beat for the SEC title.
"Texas A&M lost to us and they were a 3-seed, and we were a 4," Calipari told ESPN.
This seeding pitted the Wildcats against an old-time rival, the Indiana Hoosiers in the Round of 32. Kentucky lost to Indiana and the second round exit is the earliest Kentucky has had in the NCAA Tournament under Calipari.
The Calipari Solution
With that, Calipari seeks change in the league. The ball coach believes that if the SEC Tournament was moved to November, teams would get a chance to up their RPI early on and see what a post-season setting is like in the preseason.
Calipari also said that the winner of the SEC Tournament should not get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, instead, the SEC regular season champion should. This shouldn't worry the head coach much as his Wildcats have won the SEC regular season title four times in his seven-year tenure at Kentucky.
The head coach talked about another idea relating to the SEC Tournament on Twitter.
Having two games going on at the same time on one stadium could get a little crazy as the NCAA has yet to attempt such a thing. But, Calipari could be onto a more efficient way of playing more games in a smaller amount of time.
Kentucky's vote for change didn't seem to be very popular among the SEC coaches, as Georgia head coach Mark Fox stated if the idea was ever debated, he would elect to keep it in March.
Calipari did offer an alternate solution to the SEC Tournament issues due to the lack of support his preseason tournament idea got. His other idea was to just move the SEC Tournament Championship so it didn't fall on Selection Sunday every year.
That, however, will not work as the conference has contractual obligations to play the game on a Sunday, according to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
The SEC is known for their hard-pressed rules and differences when it comes to academics and athletics, and the league takes pride in winning championships despite the tough conditions they set for the schools.
Calipari's idea for the SEC Tournament will likely just get swept under the rug no matter how much he pushes for the change.