Jay Bilas poses the question of NCAA tournament expansion in his blog today, and it's the belief of this single blogger that there is only one solution:
Make the tournament smaller. Get rid of the godforsaken play-in game.
For starters, the very concept of the play-in game is demeaning. On one hand, it guarantees teams from the MEAC, SWAC, NEC, and other low rent conferences their lone spotlight in a nationally televised game that gives their school, alumni and players recognition usually reserved for serial killers and rapists on the loose. On the other and more dominant and funny hand, you've got two teams fighting for the right to be sacrificed on regional coverage on Friday evening by a name brand school whose cocky alumni couldn't tell you what the MEAC stood for.
(Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, for the uninformed)
Back to the point-- the play-in game was created for teams like Bobby Knight's most recent Indiana and Texas Tech teams, Steve Alford and the Iowa Hawkeyes to continue reaping the benefits of historic conference affiliation which allows them garner higher computer ratings because of their peers. Do we really want to continue recognizing a .500 season in a power league, just to bow out early?
Make the tournament smaller. Get rid of the godforsaken play-in game.
For starters, the very concept of the play-in game is demeaning. On one hand, it guarantees teams from the MEAC, SWAC, NEC, and other low rent conferences their lone spotlight in a nationally televised game that gives their school, alumni and players recognition usually reserved for serial killers and rapists on the loose. On the other and more dominant and funny hand, you've got two teams fighting for the right to be sacrificed on regional coverage on Friday evening by a name brand school whose cocky alumni couldn't tell you what the MEAC stood for.
(Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, for the uninformed)
Back to the point-- the play-in game was created for teams like Bobby Knight's most recent Indiana and Texas Tech teams, Steve Alford and the Iowa Hawkeyes to continue reaping the benefits of historic conference affiliation which allows them garner higher computer ratings because of their peers. Do we really want to continue recognizing a .500 season in a power league, just to bow out early?
Will this happen? I think so. Now that the NCAA is in control of the NIT, it is in their best interest to make sure that some of the marquee names in college hoops are left to shill tickets at MSG in March. In years previous, teams like this current version of Connecticut and Illinois could be confident that the committee would smile on them, and sneak them into the tournament. Parity argument aside, this should change. Why would the NCAA want to have UI or UConn play one weekend in the Big Dance, when they can advance well into the Little Dance? As we all know, the NCAA makes it's decisions on one factor: money. Why should we expect postseason basketball to be any different?
(posted by JH)
7 comments:
I completely agree...it's completely unfair for the Alabama A&Ms and the Alcorn States of the world to only be seen once, on a Tuesday night on ESPN that nobody will see, just to get the opportunity to be seen by a national television audience. Sure, they'll more than likely end up getting pounded, but they at least had to win a conference or a conference tourney to get there. The idea of making the play-in game be between the last two at-larges would make sense, but what may end up happening is mid-major programs end up playing that game (I believe last year that playoff game would have been between the Mountain West's Air Force Academy and the Missouri Valley's Bradley). The best idea is to cut down the number of at-larges to 30, but that will probably never happen.
Not as god as my blog.
Never forget, sonz.
The Underscore
yea listen to what the underscore wannabe said and come to just another lemming.
Dood, the MEAC stands for the MidDLE East Athletic conference, and is home to the greatest rivalry in all of college hoops -- Tel Aviv Tech and Amman A&M.
Kevin Durant should be his own at-large team. If the Celts don't get Durant in the lottery I'm going on a seven-state killing spree before waiting out the eventual SWAT team siege with Hench, my Super Bowl Champs DVD's and my Larry Bird jersey.
Great blog,
Bill
^^^That was teh queso trying to be funny. Sorry that didn't work. Keep it up.
You've hit the nail on the head. Expansion is an even more insincere expression than the status quo, which is a slap in the face. I wrote about this a couple months ago. (http://phsports.blogspot.com/2006/12/ncaa-tournament-expansion-to-68-teams.html)
Statistically, the SWAC, MEAC, Mid-Continent, and Northeast have suffered the most over the last 3 yrs.
Post a Comment