Second-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard currently has enough to worry about, five games into SEC play with his Rebels squarely in the mix for an SEC regular season title in March.
That said, he had absolutely no issues giving his two cents (and plenty more) when Inside the Rebels asked him about a recent NCAA rule-relaxing announcement, even if it was solely preseason related.
On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee approved a proposal that allows teams to play up to two preseason exhibition games against any four-year school, at all levels of competition. This goes into effect at the beginning of the 2025-26 men’s basketball season.
According to the NCAA’s announcement, “In previous years, these exhibitions were approved through a waiver process, and the proceeds from the games were donated to a charity. This proposal eliminates that requirement, and schools can decide how to allocate the revenue generated from these games… Additionally, the new rule eliminates the requirement that preseason practice scrimmages be conducted in private and without official scoring.”
During Ole Miss’ 2024-25 preseason period, the Rebels traveled to Shreveport, La. to face Houston in a “secret scrimmage” before turning around to host Illinois in a home preseason exhibition, one where ticket proceeds benefited Casa of North Mississippi.
Ole Miss dominated the Illini in said matchup 91-74 back on Oct. 27. At the time of writing, Illinois, like Ole Miss, is nationally ranked in the top 25.
When asked about these tweaks to the rules, Beard proceeded to talk for five consecutive minutes about all the benefits, as well as where work had to be done.
“That was a big one,” Beard started with. “It could be good from a revenue standpoint, now with this world with the Grove Collective. This brings a lot of opportunities. If there a way to make some funds, a way to promote or market our team? From a basketball standpoint, playing against Illinois made our team better. The new ruling basically means that we get two cracks at this. I know some coaches might lean toward the closed door scrimmages just for the ability to play more than 40 minutes and get to know your team in a setting. We haven’t made that final decision yet.
“What I can say is that we’re going to try and play against two of the top teams we can play competition wise. If there’s something we can do to please our fans or help the Grove Collective to raise money… yeah that was a big rule. It’s my understanding that those won’t be on the weekends now. That was always a challenge because you’re playing college football on Saturday, so you have a chance to slot those to Thursday before a home football game… It’s what’s right for college basketball.”
Then Beard proceeded to put his college basketball commissioner hat on when discussing all other things that need to be adjusted or relaxed preseason, and it is all based on the soft-spot that he has for all levels of college basketball.
Beard had very humble coaching beginnings since getting his undergraduate degree from Texas in 1995. Starting off as a graduate assistant at Incarnate Word, Bread went on to coach junior college at Fort Scott (Kan.) and Seminole, before making stops in the ABA (South Carolina Warriors), McMurray, Angelo State and Little Rock… before and after spending a chunk of his life in Lubbock to coach Texas Tech in two different stints.
“I still think they ought to let us play games in the summer, more than two cracks before the season starts. With my small college background, those games mean a lot to us at McMurray and Angelo State. I hope this doesn’t hurt Division II basketball in some way. A lot of D-II basketball, they rely on that exhibition game to get that experience for the players, the guaranteed check,” Beard said.
“It’s just common sense to me. I’m not in the room with those who make the rules. Why now allow us Division I schools to play one non D-I? That way we still help basketball at that level. It would make a lot of sense to me. Let us play a game or two in the summer. Our guys are here anyways. No one is in class. We can play those games regionally and on weekends. We don’t have to spend money on the charter planes, just like a 100-mile rule in the summer. Why not let us play a non Division I maybe before the two exhibition games so we can help basketball?
“When I was at Angelo State. We got a crack at UTEP. Tim Floyd, my friend, gave us that opportunity. It was awesome. Our guys still talk about that game today. At McMurray, we played Lamar University when Pat Knight was there. He did us a solid… I don’t think there’s one Division I coach that would say that they don’t get any good out of that (lower level) game. There’s some really good players, coaches and teams in NAIA and Division II… We talk about college experience for the student-athletes, our guys at Angelo State playing down in UTEP, that was a kicka** experience.”
Tipoff for Wednesday’s SEC home matchup against Texas A&M is set for 8 p.m. CT and can be seen once again on ESPN2. After that, Ole Miss will again hit the road to face Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 25. That tip is set for 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
“If even given the chance to be in one of those (decision-making) rooms, that’s what guys like me would bring. Just common sense of what’s good for all college basketball… I can tell you what’s good for the game.”
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