March Madness: The NCAA Tourney Snubs Competition for Their Own Power

     The last decade of Men’s NCAA Basketball has been a tale of the new and the old. The new kid on the block is represented by the media and the selection committee’s love affair with the “Mid-Major” conference teams in the hopes of the occasional upset of a big name school. Gonzaga and Butler have done an excellent job of breaking the mold and are legitimate basketball powerhouses now, but every year we have a George Washington or Murray State that come in with excitement and hype (and controversy), being treated like the cool underground indie band that only the hippest and most savvy commentators and prognosticators had ever heard of (but of course knew all along how, like, totally awesome they are) and then the following year slink back into a “Come on Eileen” one-hit-wonder obscurity. Of course when a Chaminade beats a University of Virginia, headlines will be made and highlight reels will be played on the three and four-letter sports networks. The David beats Goliath story is as old and popular as well, David beats Goliath. When David doth reign three pointers down on Goliath’s head and gives him a Spaulding tattoo with a tomahawk jam, it makes all of us ordinary folk just feel better.  It’s good to see the little guy have his day in the sun. 

     Conversely, Goliath is routinely represented by teams who always get the top recruits and most talented athletes; Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, etc. These are the schools that really have no excuse for not winning 20 games every year and dominate the television and internet coverage; and when they don’t, it’s like their comeuppance. C’mon, how many times have you actually rooted against a little school? Ok, how many times have you rooted against Duke?  Or simple rooted for whatever team happens to be playing Duke? You can be honest; no one will blame you. 

     Like Alabama football (and the SEC in general), all the teams associated with those established winners in the conferences actually do glean benefits from their yearly beat-downs by virtue of television coverage, better recruiting, and the opportunity to play against the best at the highest level.  The same holds true in basketball, with the ACC, the Big Ten, Big 12 and others.  The ‘middle of the road’ teams in those power conferences, like Maryland, Virginia, Wisconsin and Purdue, get exponentially better because the competition makes both coaches and athletes better. Fair or not, there are some colleges and universities that are geared for athletic success; millions are spent on facilities and high profile coaches to lure prospective ball players.

     Now comes the rub. NCAA basketball, and especially the NCAA tournament, is big, big business.  For the athletes, it is a showcase for a potential life in the NBA, it is the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice to end up getting recruited by a school known for their basketball program that agents actually spend time looking at and evaluating. For the schools, winning brings money and stature and keeps that well-oiled engine running year after year, and a trip to the Tournament validates putting those resources into the program.  For the television networks and their respective web sites, the NCAA tournament is a true goldmine; picture the cartoon with that guy with bulging eyes with dollar signs sticking out of them. He is what pretty much all of those T.V. execs and ad guys look like when March rolls around. The NCAA tournament is everything the BCS wishes it could be; exciting, logical and undiluted, with the crowning of an undisputed national champion, with the dignity of not having to play in a game sponsored by Vinnie’s Tacos to win the Beef and Bean Chalupa Championship Trophy.

  But the powers that be (yes, I’m staring disapprovingly at YOU selection committee people) decided to fix it, even though it wasn’t broken.

     Let’s look at some of the “at-large” field of 2012-2013 that were graciously granted invitations to the Tournament: Middle Tennessee, Boise St, La Salle, Saint Mary’s and Wichita State. Keep in mind, the NCAA tournament, outside of the automatic conference bids, is meant to represent the best 68 teams ( *Sigh*…68. That is a whole different kettle of monkeys and barrel of fishes) overall in the country. Now according to the experts on the selection committee, Middle Tennessee is a better ball club than the Maryland Terrapins, who beat the RPI #1 team in the nation, twice. Boise St, who lost seven games in the Mountain West, is a better basketball team than Iowa, and so on. You get the idea. Of course, one could argue how subjective those wins and losses were, and cite RPI or TMI and TGIF or other numbers and figures to put a BCS-type feel to the whole thing.  Or, as somewhat rational fans of the sport, we can look at the talent of the teams and the talent of the teams they have played and come to a logical conclusion without the burden of math and science. Let’s face it NCAA selection people; You are like the judging panel on American Idol, except conveniently hidden from view and are unlikely to have British accents.  Somehow this association managed to take the perfection that was once the legendary March Madness and turned it into their own personal feel-good afternoon “movie of the week."

     Greg Shaheen, the former NCAA Senior V.P. went on ESPN to briefly talk about this selection process, and said that the selection committee has been actively demonstrating to schools for years that they must schedule the most difficult out-of-conference lineup possible or they will likely get snubbed, regardless if they are a superior basketball team or not.  Of course the caveat here is that little rule doesn’t apply to the Cinderella wannabe’s in the Mid-Majors. They often schedule one or two games against teams from the power conferences, and most times get beat down and their lunch money stolen. 

     The selection overlords have single-handedly proclaimed that no longer will the top 68 teams in the country compete for a National Title. Their personal hopes of manufacturing drama, getting that announcer screaming a memorable quote when the clock hits zero and the feel-good-story-of-the-week when the nobody beats the somebody, the endless loop leading off national sportscasts of fans rushing the court when David slays Goliath has trumped the simple perfection of the NCAA Tournament.  For those of you bemoaning the plight of the Mid-Major schools that win over twenty games but don’t (rightfully) get selected to the NCAA Tournament, there is a solution. It’s called the NIT. Now, thanks to the walking dead over at the selection committee clubhouse, potential National Invitation Tournament Champions Middle Tennessee is not going to get that chance. Somehow, it is now better to receive a nationally televised butt-kicking than play to win the NIT.