The college basketball season officially began on Monday, but it'll truly get going next week.

The start to the college hoops season just doesn't have that juice that comes with opening day in major league baseball or the beginning of the NFL season.

North Carolina, Ohio State, Syracuse and Cal all took to the court on Monday night, but they all played non-BCS programs that were scheduled as virtual tune-ups in the 2K Sports Classic benefitting Coaches vs. Cancer.

Gazelle Group’' Rick Giles, who runs the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament, said he has looked into trying to get a doubleheader involving four heavyweight programs recently – without any success.

"The big-time programs don't want to play each other in the first game of the year," Giles said. "It sounds good in theory, but it's not going to happen."

Giles is right. They'd rather get their feet wet with a season opener against the FIU's and Albany's of the world than go up against another Final Four contender to begin the season.

A few years back, in 2002 and 2003, when the NCAA changed the rules for exempt tournaments, Giles did start the season with a pair of doubleheaders on successive nights in Madison Square Garden.

Personally, I'd rather go that route – where you have four competitive, interesting games.

Here's what he had:

2002 – No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 8 Alabama; Memphis vs. Syracuse; No. 4 Texas vs. No. 16 Georgia; No. 18 Marquette vs. Villanova

2003 – No. 23 Marquette vs. St. John’s; No. 21 Wake Forest vs. Memphis; St. Joe’s vs. Gonzaga; No. 22 Pittsburgh vs. Alabama

If you notice, there's no North Carolina, Kansas, Duke, Kentucky or UCLA in the mix. That's because those schools are unlikely to play a team considered a threat in the season opener.

One of the reasons is that coaches don't get to work with their players in the summer and have limited practice time leading up to the start of the season, so most feel as though they aren't prepared for a big-time matchup.

"The four teams (UNC, Ohio State, Syracuse and Cal) are going to be so much better in New York after having played these games than if they had played each other this week," Giles said.

Giles, whose tournament has been grandfathered in and is allowed to start earlier than anything else due to its contract with Madison Square Garden and with ESPN, said the new setup with preliminary games has worked better than in the past when the four teams went directly to New York.

He also pointed out the 1999 tourney when No. 1 UConn lost to Iowa and Stanford upset Duke.

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