I think everyone should get a trophyThe NCAA tournament is loved by everybody (except PSU and Northwestern fans)...even small schools like Fairleigh Dickinson, who only go every now and again love it. Heck, my Mom likes it (kinda) and she knows nothing about college basketball.
At the same time, not many like the BCS. The average Joe thinks the system's flawed. College football fan bases from Auburn to Boise to Salt Lake have seen the error in the formula -- it's not broken...it just never worked. But, the folks at EsPN and Fox love it...and the NCAA offices in Indy simply will not look this gift horse in the mouth and urinate all over Title IX...so what to do???
The solution is simple: Ruin the NCAA basketball tournament.
Brilliant!!
Who wouldn't want to see LaSalle and UIC in the Big Dance??But, Mommies and school principals wanted more of their babies to have a chance at a state championship trophy, so we all lost. Epic battles between Robinson and Henderson to a sold-out Hoosier Dome have been replaced with no-names playing to a one-third full Conseco Fieldhouse. Sure, the 4A title usually includes names like Oden, Gordon, Moore and others, but it's just not the same.
The last tournament expansion has drawn rave reviews from some(people who live in Dayton)...but most people didn't see the need. To me, the solution is simple- less is more. If some feel the incessant need to expand the tourney, it doesn't need to be a doubling of the field. Just make it an event- one play-in game per region. I'd go one step further and make it in just one or two locations to keep the arenas full.
The only thing that really need to be changed is the multi-purpose facilities need not to be used for anything other than the Final Four. Heck, even then, they're awful for watching basketball. But having regionals in such venues makes it unpleasant for the fans who attend and makes the game look lousy as many games are played to throngs of empty seats.
You'll see a theme in my writing...Contraction is the answer, not expansion. From the NFL talking of ruining a good thing by broadening the season to the NBA's talk of more teams outside of US borders...it's just not needed. Always leave them wanting more.
The NCAA shouldn't flood the market with tickets for single games, but make it a tougher ticket and raise the prices...make it noisier, more of a madhouse...it makes the end product better. Make it special, not cheap.
In the same way, the tournament shouldn't be viewed as something for everyone...it's an event for the best teams in the nation; something to aspire to. It's OK if the third-best team in the Horizon League and much of the bottom half of the major cons don't get invited.
I know, I know (Penn State fans), every year someone is left out of the tournament...but as IU basketball/Notre Dame football fans always say, there's always next year, right?
5 comments:
thank you for hating class basketball. one day I am going to write a book about my experience being on a team that went to the last real Final Four in Indiana. It was one of the best days of my life, but one of the worst days too because I had a front row seat the day the tournament died.
The two things I fear most are an expanded NFL season to 18 games and an expanded NCAA bracket. I'm not even sure I would have the same level of passion about the tournament if it were expanded much more!!!
Re: PSU fans. We were upset at not getting in, but (1) it wasn't totally unfair, just kind of from our perspective, and (2) winning the NIT, as sad as this sounds, was more fun for us than any realistic NCAA performance.
We posted this link and not a single person was even remotely interested in it. Sure we'd like to be in the tourny more often, but getting in b/c everyone does isn't a solution to the problem, which is that we are rarely a top 40 team.
Unlike the current football setup, in basketball, nearly everyone has a chance at the end of the season to make the tournament: every conference but one has a postseason tournament, and many conferences include all teams in their tournaments. I would guess basically every team at or above .500 has a chance to play their way in now.
Yeah, every year there are a few mediocre teams who blow their conference tournament entry and don't go to the dance. oh well. Every few years there's a mid-major who does the same thing ... sure, it would be nice to see them get in, but it's not really a requirement, and it's certainly not worth allowing 60 crap teams in just to catch the 3 decent teams that didn't make it.
Plus then Jay Bilas' dream would come true and there really would be 14 ACC teams in the tournament. And he would argue for a 15th.
Finally, either it would push the entire tournament forward a week (yawn, zzzzzz) or it would create disaster in the gambling world. Less than two full days to get your picks in? Are you kidding me?
If this gets any more momentum, I'm going downtown to the headquarters and cracking some skulls.
I could not agree more. Indiana high school basketball used to be such a special thing. I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that got to play in the semi-state in Mackey Arena back when it was still a true state tournament. Granted, my team got blown out in that game and I didn't get to play due to a torn ACL, but that's another story. The old IHSAA tournament was such a beautiful thing. Class basketball killed one of the few things that really made Indiana special. The IHSAA still will not admit that it was such a collossal mistake.
If the NCAA messes with the men's basketball tournament, well that would just be tragic. It's easily the greatest sporting event of the year. Don't mess with perfection.
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