Why not a College Basketball Champions League? The concept, first suggested by NCAA bylaws baron @John_Infante, and heartily endorsed by me, would riff off of the European soccer setup, which enables teams from different countries (and leagues) to play each other on the biggest stage. College basketball is perfect for that kind of setup. We already spend two months enabling these kinds of cross-conference matchups. Why not package them better and profit? The initial allocations for multiple-bid leagues would be based on previous seasons’ performance and, at least for this season, is impacted by a number of conference realignment jumps. That means teams like Creighton and Memphis get squeezed for this season. Here’s a hypothetical breakdown of the “multi-bid” conferences for a 2013-14 event: Multi-bid Leagues (25 total spots) Big Ten (4): Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan ACC (3): Miami, Duke, North Carolina Big 12 (3): Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State Mountain West (3): New Mexico, Colorado State, UNLV Pac-12 (3): UCLA, Arizona, Oregon SEC (3): Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss Atlantic 10 (2): Saint Louis, VCU American Athletic (2): Louisville, Connecticut Big East (2): Georgetown, Marquette The other 23 conferences get one bid each, given to their regular-season champion from last season. So you’d also have Gonzaga, Wichita State (because of Creighton’s move), Davidson, Harvard and other known smaller-conference entities in the mix. http://college-basketball.si.com/2013/05/08/college-basketball-schedule/?sct=uk_bf1_a4
Why? College basketball has a championship tournament that includes every team with a realistic chance of success and a few with none. And the Big Dance is better because it chooses teams based on their success over the same season. The only reason the Champions League format is the way it is, is because there's no time left in the season for such a tournament once the domestic tables have been decided. So they use the previous season's standings to determine the next season's CL draw.
I don't think teams would want that many out of conference games as part of one event, and I wouldn't want this event to happen if some top teams declined to play in it. It might make more sense to do the group stage at eight neutral sites so that teams could play that on three consecutive days with the winners playing the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final, and consolation games on three consecutive days the following week. Maybe the eight sites that will host the Round of 64 and Round of 32 (now known as the second and third rounds) of the NCAA Tournament could host groups of this like how the World Cup host hosts the Confederations Cup the year before. Keep in mind that out of conference games are sometimes agreed to over a year in advance and teams wouldn't want uncertainty about how many of these games they would have. Most NCAA Basketball fans don't know much about Champions Leagues, and who knows if fans who don't follow Champions Leagues (in soccer, basketball, or any other sport) would like the idea.