A friend of mine shared this with me earlier today.
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-basketball/2018... I love their idea of seeding based on the prior year's RPI/Ken Pom/season finish. I love including all D1 teams in the state. It's a better draw and better games than most other non-conf games all of these schools play.
Having this on a Saturday/Sunday at Nationwide would be brilliant. In this format, it might be a really tough ticket. Making it a week long event in terms of the Ohio Classic is also a great idea.
Now, here's the hangups: The number of MAC teams playing non-conference games against each other is a problem. Always playing in Columbus, in my mind, is also potentially a problem - why not The Q as well every so many years? Also, ensuring that the tournament, every year, is based on RPI finish, and not seeding UC/OSU/X automatically higher than MAC teams should be assured. Getting that occasional UD/UC/OSU travelling to Toledo/Ohio/Akron etc would be a bonus every once in awhile.
My solution to the quantity of MAC teams is simple: Take UC, UD, X, OSU. Then take half of the MAC teams in Ohio based on RPI, and the best Horizon league team in Ohio based on RPI. Build a Bracket of 8 -- home sites on Wednesday night prior, then all four winners come to Nationwide/Q for the weekend.
After that, you'd have to guarantee everyone at least two games, so have a losers bracket. Because if you don't guarantee two games, getting this off the ground for non-conference scheduling won't happen because teams need a predictable number of non-conference games.
I'd buy tickets to this every year, regardless of who ended up in the "final four".