John Calipari Advocates for College Basketball Summer Practice Period

Some college basketball coaches are content to use offseason interviews to provide nuggets of information about their current squad.

Not UK head man John Calipari.

During an interview Monday on The Dan Dakich Show, Coach Cal advocated for a college basketball take over of August.

His idea: a seven or 10-day practice period in which teams can schedule scrimmages against each other or overseas club akin to the one every four years, NCAA sanctioned trips programs are allowed to take now.

Cal advocated that the games take place on the weekends so that student athletes do not miss any class time.

Of course, Cal also mentioned his idea might spike TV ratings and will also be another opportunity for players to gain broad exposure through the media before the regular season.

Cal pointed to the good ratings and wall to wall coverage that the NBA Summer League produced by airing games on ESPN earlier this month.

He also stated that college basketball needs to start looking five to ten years down the road and that the media will spin this idea as him "being out of his mind."

Cut out all the Cal talk, and this an excellent suggestion in the same realm as spring football practice. It would not hurt the players to get extra instructional time and provide the coaches with a body of work to compare progress with later in the fall.

Cable networks will also benefit. Late summer is full of constant focus on Major League Baseball and NBA free agency. Basketball fans, not just the Big Blue Nation, would lap up the chance to view live games. In turn that yields high ratings and more sponsorship dollars.

Essentially, everybody wins in Cal's vision for an August practice period, but whether it happens will remain to be seen.