The board have approved promotions and relegations. I know McKinnon from d1 men to champ men and warrandyte women from d1 women to champ women.

Supposedly Keilor, Werribee and Sth Pen from d2 women to D1 women.

What else has happened but?

Only new clubs get voted on at the AGM. Other than that the structure is just presented at the AGM.

Wodonga Wolves are vying for a spot in the league.

Chris Jones ex Warrandyte signs with Pakenham.

Jermaine Williams (Mildura Heat 2012 MVP) is living in Melbourne and lokking for a game not sure why he hasnt been picked up yet.

Whittlesea and Hawthorne also up to Champ from D1 in the men.

Knox have not been confirmed for SEABL. At this stage they've given in the EOI however, they, and word is 1-2 more teams, are still considering partings ways. Submitting an EOI for SEABL does not compel them to participate in the competition. It is no binding, so they could still choose to withdraw from the competition.

How much $$$ is Jermaine Williams after to play? May be the reason why.

Is Williams a school teacher by profession?

Has never asked for much that I know of and not sure of his Teaching deal dont know enough about his off court life.Was a team mate of Brad Bridgewaters @ LSU

Yes Williams is/was a school teacher/coach in the USA. Came to Melbourne on a 12 month holiday visa earlier this year to be with his girlfriend. Is likely to look at options to stay in the country long term, so teams interested in his services would be wise to get in contact.

Nice work Beth, always on the money.

So with 3 D1 mens teams going up to champ, are there any new teams coming into D1? If not how will D1 men operate?

3 teams up from div1......

Nothing like expanding the league, and dropping the overall standard once again

Sammy, such a pessimist! Maybe the top 2 teams should be in their own competition so that the standard is of the highest calibre?

I see it as providing more players, more clubs, more coaches the opportunity to play at higher levels.

Chook, hope that was just raw sarcasm.

What if only Whittlesea and McKinnon go up, Melton move to Div 1 and Sherbrooke get put down? League would be set and standards are kept.

Having the top2 teams compete in their own competition was sarcastic, my comments on having a larger SCM competition being beneficial were not.

It's only my opinion and I don't need to keep going on about it. The facts are - less teams, less spots, which means less mediocre basketballers getting around in the league.

More teams, more playing spots, more div1,div2 players getting an opportunity.
State League is not the level players get spoon fed opportunities. It's a level players should make their own opportunities.

All they are doing is watering down the standard dramatically

Just my opinion. Happily be proven wrong. I just think its becoming a bit of a joke

Then the problem with your comment is that by expanding what appears to be an already two tier championship division significantly, you are not exposing people to the level you want to, but to a comparably lesser level than even existed last year.

Reportedly last year championship was pretty two paced, with an upper echelon and the rest. If that remains the case the league is adding to its woes not helping them.

Unless some miracle occurs of course, and the teams all go on major recruiting drives.

Problem is Ho that Div 1 teams are getting more imports and spending more money that the bottom Champ teams, so either you have a SCM division with 4-5 teams or accept it as it is. Other leagues around the country other than SEABL the top 4-6 are considerably stronger as well, QBL, CBL, SBL.

To be honest, last year the top 6 in Div 1 were equal to the bottom 4 in Champ, and that's without even recruiting anyone new as they will if they move up.

You make some good points MB but it would be an major overreach to suggest that increasing Championship by 3 teams makes it better as Chook seems to be heading towards. It must by definition become more mediocre. I agree with Sammy you don't just grow championship so you can give more opportunity to teams and players to say "we played there".

Surely the overall objective of the BigV must be to bring its championship competition closer to the level of SEABL rather than further away. The changes as they have been explained here do not achieve that.

Are Melbourne and Sherbooke being demoted?

Why promote three teams? Why take Hawthorn and Mckinnon up when they did not even make the GF.

It just looks again like the league does not want to make hard decisions and force teams to earn their stripes.

If, as Melbourne Boy has said, 'last year the top 6 in Div 1 were equal to the bottom 4 in Champ, and that's without even recruiting anyone', then would the promotion of teams into Champ raise the level of the league?

Obviously it does little immediately to close the game between the top 4 and the bottom 4, but sticking to the status quo doesn't exactly do anything to change that either.

In addition to that, rosters for the promoted teams would not be finalised yet. So really, nobody on here is in a position to say anything about the quality of the new teams entering next season and how they will stack up against the others.

** Correction. Close the gap **

Spin Doctors hard at work at Southern Peninsula:

The Southern Peninsula Basketball Association is now the only team on the Mornington
Peninsula that has 2 senior teams competing in BigV Division 1, reaffirming the association's
status as the most elite sporting club on the Peninsula.

Anon2.

I don't think anyone is specifically talking about how teams are likely to stack up against each other.

The debate is really about what happens if you radically increase the size of championship in one hit, as appears to be happening here, and how that can really only dilute the talent pool, in a comp that already has a pretty wide gap between the top four and the rest.

More importantly, this move cannot create an overall improvement in the quality of championship.

I understand clubs set goals, have targets & strive towards playing in BigV championship.

However, like Previously stated before it dilutes the standard of the comp.
Now due to that fact, young up and coming stars (genuine pro prospects) will be lost to the SEABL to gain more exposure from NBL clubs, as the bigV will be brushed off by the pro clubs as just the mediocre league that is.

@ Sammy the only time that NBL or Pro teams would look at Big V on th resume would be if that player is already an extablished professional & are only getting paid good $$ to play in the offseason and even then they would more look to the previous season rather than stats in the Big V.

Yes, I do agree with both comments.

It would be nice to try and strive for that type of excellence however, instead of going backwards in standard.

Saying that, I do understand that with the powerhouse Victorian clubs playing in the SEABL it would just be too tough to compete with that. unless the bigV managed to get a few of those clubs to come accross.

Anyway, good luck to all teams being promoted for next season

If the vic clubs dropped back to BiG V (Which wont happen) it would kill the current set up as they would dominate the competition and outside the current top 4 teams the other would simply get smashed everyweek which wouldn't be great for the league....so can't imagine the Big V member clubs would be happy to vote 1 or multi SEABL clubs as it would effective kill 6 teams from SCM then have the flow on effect thru the comp.

If 1 or 2 SEABL team lowered their budget and came into Big V they would be the equivalent of the top 4 team, no better, so instead of being a clear top 4 in SCM there would be a clear top 6, in my eyes that strengthens the comp and the member clubs would no doubt be in favour..

TW and MB. Both your points are really good. They reflect the lack of ambition and leadership in the decision making by the BigV as an organisation. As many have pointed out, these obsession with "we will let everyone play" is simply the wrong course of action.

Sherbrooke announced that Brent stretch Reid to coach their Champ men team. Big call by Sherbrooke to risk an un-tried championship coach. But in saying that I have seen stretch coach and he knows his stuff. Good luck stretch and good on you Sherbrooke to take the risk.

@OFF - Great move by Suns they need to shake it up as last years coach really couldn't get it done and from the outside looking in looked a little out of his depth at times.