NEA Tournament….Is Change Coming?

By: Ryan Fletcher

            The Northeast Arkansas Invitational Tournament is the annual tournament that all of our local fans look forward to.  Folks from around the area will take off work to spend a day out at First National Bank Arena with the opportunity to watch some of the top talent play.  The tournament often presents opportunities to see unlikely matchups with teams from different conferences and classifications pitted against one another.  Sometimes you get lucky to see some of Northeast Arkansas’ top rivals faceoff in a key matchup deep into the tournament.  It’s an event that is a tradition that needs to carry on for years to come.  However, as the game has changed, the tournament has not.  Multiple administrators, coaches, and fans have clamored for much needed change for many years but those changes have fallen on deaf ears.  The committee has stuck to their guns over the years, but that may all change come this December.

            Multiple suggestions have been made over the years.  In the past, the NEA tournament hasn’t had the competition it faces now.  Teams have opted to find tournaments in other parts of the state along with more local tournaments coming into competition with the NEA Tournament.  The Bad Boy Mowers Classic is the latest edition to the new local tournaments that have come into play.  That specific tournament has been named after a long time NEA legend Ronnie Brogdon.  Ironically, Brogdon sits on the NEA Tournament committee.  This tournament, like many others, offers teams more guaranteed games.  Trumann, Rivercrest, and Manila all rallied together to head to Highland leaving the NEA Tournament in the dust.  Supposedly, the primary reason was the guarantee of at least three games, win or lose.  The NEA Tournament Committee has always countered that if you win you will guarantee yourself games.  However, upsets occur and so do down seasons.  The idea that a team could play their first tournament game in mid-December, get beat, and not play again until the start of the new year is not good for teams.  It’s time to guarantee games and move away from the archaic idea that “we are going to keep it the same because that’s the way it has always been!”

            Something that fans would love to see more is a change in seeding.  In recent seasons, the tournament has been split up into two divisions in both boys and girls.  Those divisions have been separated mainly by classification/school population.  That often separates some of the tournaments top teams and creates an imbalance in competition.  A prime example would be the Bay Yellowjackets.  They have won four state championships over the course of the last eight years.  They are clearly a top team in the Northeast Arkansas Region.  However, their classification puts them in the lower division.  Why seclude great teams to the lower region only to trounce teams in the first two rounds.  Why have Nettleton play in the upper division and face teams in the first and second round that they will also destroy?  The first round and often the second round has become so unbearable to watch as games are so lopsided.  If you want to truly make it a tournament of champions, you dump the present alignment and seed the entire tournament from top to bottom.  Forget hurt feelings! 

            Another suggestion has been the location.  I will be the first to admit that it is very cool to house the event in the biggest gym on the eastern side of the entire state.  The “Convo” seats around 10,000.  The facility not only makes it a sports event, but it makes it a social event for the student athletes, coaches, and fans.  Honestly, I would hate to see it moved, but the good folks at First National Bank Arena charge an arm and a leg renting the place out on a daily basis.  On top of that, the tournament committee has to work their schedule around Arkansas State basketball and their home schedule.  If you are going to guarantee more games, can you then play all of those games in its present location?  The arena charges rent on top of getting all of the money from the concession stands.  Valley View and Brookland have recently built extra-large state of the art facilities, and of course Don Riggs Hurricane Gymnasium is another top facility that could house the tournament.  From a financial and logistical stand-point, would it be such a bad idea to move the tournament?  With the move, it creates the possibility of having more games and far more competitive games.  Personally, I want to see the tournament stay where it is, but it is high time the arena works with the committee in terms of cost and/or generating income (concessions).  

            In March of this year, the committee invited all of the area coaches out to meet about proposed changes that could occur.  The newest idea was to create three divisions in which the tournament committee would place each team into one of the three divisions and base it solely on how good each team was in that given year.  With that being said, once the committee makes a determination, schools will have an opportunity to appeal whether or not they should be in a higher or lower division.  This idea is splendid!  It gives fans what they have clamored for in terms of seeing far better games in nearly every round.  It also allows schools the chance to move up or down if the committee feels they are deserving.  Could seeding get political? Absolutely!  However, when coaches seed a bracket, politics often play a role and sometimes teams get a poor seed because of it.  

            Another intriguing proposal was to have a two-game guarantee.  This is something that has needed to occur for quite some time.  It’s is something that has caused many teams to find tournaments in other locations.  While there are some coaches in opposition to it, I don’t envision teams dropping out of the tournament if they were forced to play in a consolation bracket.  This is simply a no brainer.  I am sure many of these consolation games wouldn’t attract big crowds; however, the tournament has got to find away to bring the teams back that they have lost over the years.  Paragould, Greene County Tech, Manila, Trumann, Rivercrest, etc. are schools that should be in it every year.  Hopefully this guarantee would bring them back where they belong.  In addition, this tactic could possibly bring in some other schools from outside of the NEA area.  How fun would that be to see other top teams from other parts of the state traveling to play in the most popular tournament in our region and in Arkansas.  

Finally, because there is a two-game guarantee, there is simply no way all of the games can be played at the First National Bank Arena.  Therefore, it was proposed that another school or schools would help host these added games.  However, teams that go deep into their consolation bracket can work there way back into playing in the arena which is an added incentive.  I previously mentioned some potential places.  Brookland School District actually hosted the meeting that was held in March.  Could it be possible that this is the location where the consolation games will be held?  Sources close to NEA Sports have indicated that Brookland is the top candidate to be the added host.  They certainly have the facility for it.  

I think it is safe to say that the NEA Tournament is headed in the right direction.  It certainly has taken a while, but it seems changes are ahead.  While it’s only July, I for one cannot wait to see our top local talent play in a newly structured system that should leave fans on the edge of their seats.