Philly vs. NYC in a college hoops tournament?

In theory, it sounds fantastic.

A tournament-style, head-to-head battle for college hoops supremacy between Philly and New York? Umm, yeah! We can call it the Battle for I-95. We can play the games at the Palestra and at Madison Square Garden. We can bring in advertisers and sponsors and put it on TV and make a boat load of money (amateurism, F*** YEAH!)

Like I said, it sounds awesome.

But the problem with Philadelphia businessman Tom Moldoon's idea -- "that Penn, Villanova, St. Joe's, Temple, and La Salle have tournament-style, head-to-head matches with Fordham, Columbia, Manhattan, Iona, and another New York City-area schools" -- is that the New York City-area schools he listed are, frankly, never going to win any kind of basketball competition against Philly's Big 5.

They just aren't.

If Moldoon is going to do this right, he's going to need to get the right schools involved. St. John's absolutely, 100% has to be a part of it. They are the most storied basketball program in the NYC metro region and a founding father of the Big East. If you can't get the Johnnies, you can't run this tournament. The other question is how you choose who you include from NYC. Are Fordham, Columbia, Manhattan, and Iona a foregone conclusion? What about programs like Hofstra or Long Island or St. Francis? Will they get a shot?

Do you pick teams based on their record from the year before? Do you pick the five who you think are going to be the best in the upcoming season? Will it always be the same five playing the Philly schools?

And what about the teams in the same conference? Will Fordham vs. St. Joe's count as one of their A-10 league games? Can St. John's even play Villanova on a day other than what the Big East schedule stipulates?

Like I said, this is a great idea on paper.

Getting it to come to fruition, however, may be quite a bit more difficult. But hey, that's why they are businessmen and all I do is write about their ideas, right?