That’s what ESPN’s Bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, said three years ago when I emailed him this entry. Gene Wojciechowski and a host of other national scribes are on board as well. I’ve pulled this one out from the back of the freezer, defrosted it, and updated it with teams and scenarios from this year’s tournament...
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. Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, and Illinois State, on the “bubble” for gaining entry to the tourney, weren’t picked. On the other hand, Villanova, Kentucky, and St. Joseph’s made it through the selection process to join the field of 65.
But there are two other schools where folks should be complaining: Coppin State and Mount St. Mary’s. 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 Coppin State plays Mount St. Mary’s in a “play-in” game. The winner joins the big boys in “Bracketville.” The loser goes home, having not actually played in the NCAA tournament.
Granted, these are the two worst teams in the field. Either team would probably get trounced by North Carolina or Memphis. 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 Denver or Anaheim 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 It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown 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 seed 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 (except for Cinderella Georgia out of the SEC) 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 three of the 11 seeds and one 12 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 Arizona State in the field. Just for kicks.
Without further ado, here are the fourth 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:
Virginia Tech can make one of the biggest cases for getting snubbed this year, but in my field of 68, Virginia Tech gets a chance to advance into the field of 64. Their opponent is Kansas State, whose early exit from the Big 12 tournament really impacted their resume. This is the first game of the day, with the winner moving on to face USC in the tournament.
Game 2 of the Dayton Bubble Busters is a doozie. St. Joseph’s clearly had a better resume than Temple, as they ended up with a higher seed. They’ll take on Ohio State, who beat tournament entrants Purdue and Michigan State to finish their season but fell to Michigan State in the Big 12 tournament. One of the biggest arguments against the “Bubble Buster “system is that it would give teams such as Oklanhoma—seeded 6—an advantage since the team they end up playing would lack rest. But I think everyone can agree that Georgia blew a whole in that theory this year, as they won three games in two days against “more rested” opponents.
This game moves out to Denver since Dayton is prominently involved. The Flyers battled in the tough Atlantic-10 conference but fell to Xavier in the conference tournament, while Villanova won a “play-in” game with Syracuse only to fall to Georgetown in the Big East tournament. With Clemson awaiting the winner, this could be the game of the day.
This one could be worth staying up late for. Kentucky, 12-4 in the SEC but firmly on the bubble heading into Selection Sunday, will have to get past Illinois State to make it to Anaheim to face Marquette. The Illinois State Redbirds, out of the Missouri Valley Conference, must have been hurt by their 30-point loss to Drake in their conference tournament, but with Drake receiving a 5 seed, Illinois State must have been close to the cut line.
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 Coppin State vs. Mount St. Mary’s tomorrow night, you’re crazy.
Darren Kelly got tired of waiting for his ship to come in. A lifelong sports fan, he wants nothing more than for his full-time job to involve watching and writing about sports. To this end, he launched Sports in a Can. There's no money in it...yet. More of his fine writing is available on the Patriots Insider website: http://patrio ts.scout.com.
