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VeteranFrom the Back of the Freezer
"I agree completely."
With the announcement of the brackets for the Division I Men's basketball tournament comes the annual gnashing of teeth about (and by) teams that weren't selected. Saint Mary's, San Diego State, Creighton, and Auburn on the "bubble" for gaining entry to the tourney, weren't picked. On the other hand, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Dayton made it through the selection process to join the field of 65.
But there are two other schools where folks should be complaining: Alabama State and Morehead State. You see a few years ago, the NCAA-in its infinite wisdom-decided to expand the field from 64 teams to 65 (presumably to quell the anger of the bubble teams). Tomorrow night Alabama State plays Morehead State in a "play-in" game. The winner joins the big boys in "Bracketville." The loser goes home, having not played in the actual NCAA tournament.
Granted, these are the two worst teams in the field. Either team would probably get trounced by Louisville or North Carolina. But that's not the point. These two teams did what the NCAA asked them to do: They won their conference tournament, gaining an automatic bid into the March Madness field. And yet, teams who finished with sub-par records and spent the final weeks of the season on the bubble get to participate, no questions asked. So instead of making the trip to Philadelphia or Miami to be part of the festivities of the NCAA Tournament, these two teams catch the red eye to Dayton to play in front of a half-empty stadium.
Just like the other 63 teams in the field, these two teams have great stories to tell about their road to the tournament. But for the team that loses tomorrow night, it will be as if they never even existed, because this game is possibly one of the least-watched sporting events of all time.
No offense to either of the schools involved, but does anyone watch this game? Does anyone care? I'm guessing that the Dancing with the Stars recap hour attracts more viewers tomorrow night. Heck, more people will probably watch the Family Guy marathon on TBS. Most people don't even consider these two schools when filling out their brackets. (How many times has someone looked at you with that blank stare when trying to figure out where the 16th-seeded college named "Play-in" is located?)
If I were the Czar of Sports (which, by the way, I am still submitting my resume for), things would be different: The day after the Super Bowl would be a holiday, there would be a Division I-A college football tournament, and there would be no play-in game for the NCAA Tournament. Instead, there would be three more teams added to the field for a 68-team tourney. There would be four "Bubble Buster" games, two each at different sites, making the match-ups far more intriguing than tomorrow night's game.
Using Joe Lunardi's final Bracketology report (a great resource for college hoops junkies) as a guide, along with the teams everyone has been talking about ad nauseam since Selection Sunday, I've come up with four potential games we could be looking forward to tomorrow night instead of the play-in game.
Keep in mind that since all of the seeds from 13-16 are conference tournament champs from lower-tier conferences (i.e., a bunch of schools you may never have heard of), the final "at-large" teams selected by the committee were two 12 seeds, one 11 seed, and one 10 seed. I've selected those four teams as well as four teams who just missed out on making the field. Oh, and since the selection committee either loves controversy or can't avoid it, I'm still not putting Penn State in the field. Just for kicks.
Without further ado, here are the fifth annual "Bubble Buster" games (as drawn by the Can's trusty illustrator, Rob). Round 1 of the tournament would go this way in my world:
We kick off the day with one of two Big Ten bubble teams trying to gain entry into the tournament. Their opponent is Creighton, out of the Missouri Valley Conference. The Bluejays lost game 2 of their conference tournament, which put them squarely on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Florida State-who made it all the way to the ACC Championship Game-awaits the winner.
Game 2 of the Dayton Bubble Busters feature another Big Ten team-Minnesota. The Golden Gophers were one of the only teams to beat Louisville this season, but they finished 9-9 in conference play, and lost five of their final eight games. Meanwhile, San Diego State was one of a bunch of bubble teams out of the Mountain West Conference, and they lost their conference tournament final by just two points to Utah. One of the biggest arguments against the "Bubble Buster "system is that it would give teams such as Texas-seeded 7-an advantage since the team they end up playing would lack rest. But I think everyone can agree that Georgia blew a hole in that theory last year during the SEC tournament, as they won three games in two days against "more rested" opponents.
Saint Mary's can make one of the biggest cases for getting snubbed this year, but in my field of 68, the Gaels-with Patty Mills back from his broken hand-get a chance to advance into the field of 64. Their opponent is Arizona, whose inclusion in the actual field of 65 has caused the most angst since Sunday. This one is the ultimate play-in game.
This game moves out to Portland since Dayton is prominently involved, but it could be worth staying up late for. The Flyers battled Xavier all season for supremacy in the Atlantic-10 conference, but lost to Duquesne and watched Temple win the tournament. Auburn, meanwhile, went 10-6 in the SEC, but fell to Tennessee in the conference tournament. West Virginia awaits the winner of the final game of the day.
There you have it. Perfect? No. Better than the current system? Heck yes. A couple of notes: All of the winners of these games would play on Friday and not Thursday (to give them a little breather); the losers could be the top four seeds in the NIT; folks running office pools would have to make the decision of whether or not to include these games in their pools.
Someday, common sense will prevail and the NCAA will put a system such as this one in place. Until then, I'll keep dreaming about becoming the Czar of Sports (feel free to contact your Congressman and demand action on this). And if you think I'll be watching Alabama State vs. Morehead State tomorrow night, you're crazy.