INDIANAPOLIS.  The US Chamber of Commerce filed suit against the NCAA in federal court here today alleging that college basketball's "March Madness" tournament hurts American businesses.

"We generally see a drop-off of twenty-five to thirty percent in non-farm productivity once the tournament starts," said Edward Hutchins of WidgetTek, a maker of electronic thingamabobs for the computer industry.  "All of sudden people who don't give a rat's ass about Gonzaga the rest of the year are checking scores when they should be filing paper in manila folders or doing something useful like that."

The Chamber is seeking a court order that would reduce the number of teams in the tournament from 64 to sixteen so that play can be completed in two weekends.  The group also seeks to limit the number of bracket sheets employees of small businesses could fill out.

"In a mom-and-pop company, you can't have people doing a 'money' sheet, a 'hedge' sheet and a 'sentimental' sheet," Hutchins said.  "It takes too much time.  Plus there's always a secretary with a boyfriend laying off bets from his regular office pool who ends up winning," he added bitterly.

An NCAA spokesman said it would try to reach an out-of-court settlement with the powerful trade organization, but was not optimistic.  "Your average businessman is about as flexible as Bobby Knight on a bad day," Allen Barkley noted.  "They don't negotiate--they throw stuff."

Copyright 2006, Con Chapman