In the two days since Chris Hill floated the idea of the state of Utah's four premier college basketball programs annually facing off in a season-opening tournament, the Utah athletic director has learned a valuable lesson.
"I'll have to remember not to let cats out of the bag too soon," he said with a chuckle.
Hill told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that discussions about a four-team event involving Utah, Utah State, BYU and Weber State were "very, very preliminary." He has only spoken to BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe and officials at Salt Lake City's Energy Solutions Arena about the idea and the talks didn't even progress far enough to discuss the merits of potential formats.
"They said let's continue to talk, so it wasn't a 'no,'" Hill said. "We've all got a lot on the plate, but it's something we may want to look into."
The notion of a four-team event comes at a time when conference realignment has put several of the state of Utah's most historic rivalries in jeopardy. Pac-12-bound Utah has renewed its rivalry with BYU, but it will not play Utah State next winter for the first time since the 1944-45 season and its series with Weber State ends with a matchup in Ogden next December.
Utah backing out of those series represents a shift in scheduling philosophy now that the Utes are part of a power six conference for the first time. They're wary of playing too many home-and-home series against teams from smaller conferences, especially against quality opponents like Utah State and Weber State who represent an RPI hit yet are very capable of defeating the Utes.
An annual four-team event involving the Beehive State's best four teams would preserve those rivalries, but a source with knowledge of the situation told Yahoo! Sports he'd be "a little bit shocked" if the schools make it happened. The source suggested Hill may have floated the idea to deflect backlash from canceling long-running series with Utah State and Weber State.
Hill acknowledged that satisfying fans who want those rivalries to continue was part of his thought process, as was creating an event that generate interest in college basketball at a time of year when football is king.
"It's just trying to think of things differently to see what may work for all of us. If you don't throw out ideas, you don't come up with new things," Hill said. "Maybe it's something that will work. Maybe it's not. But I think it's something worth considering."
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