Mediocrity will lead to parity. 

 

The talent pool in college basketball has dwindled over the past decade with too many players leaving after one year of college. There is not a team in college basketball that would make the Elite Eight in a 65-team bracket against teams from ten years ago.

 

But we don't care. We love upsets. We love it when Morehead State hits a last second three off the backboard to beat Duke, 85-84. We love the drama of the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA Tournament. 

 

We crowd around the television at work to catch the drama. Less work gets done on these two days than any other time during the calendar or fiscal year. We even update each other on upsets through texting. 

 

"Siena up on UConn by 5, 10 min left. LOL."

 

"OMG. Like, no way. Seriously?"

 

The sound of the CBS College Basketball theme music gives us chills. More than likely after that theme music, drama is next. That magnetic basketball the NCAA has to force these things to boost ratings will be working fine. 

 

Some fill out their brackets seven minutes after they are released. On Monday in front of the water cooler, the bracket is the hot topic of conversation.

 

"You have too many upsets dude."

 

"But look at my Final Four. Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, and Kansas. It's a lock."

 

"I have three 12 seeds beating 5 seeds-seems to happen every year. And I have Oklahoma winning it."

 

These days we have 30 different media outlets predicting the bubble situation with up to millisecond updates. Since when did the "next four out" really matter? Those teams probably shouldn't be in the tournament anyway. 

 

"Creighton was out five minutes ago, but now they could be a 6-seed in the Indianapolis regional. Wait, this just in. San Diego State won, so Creighton is now out unless Utah State beats Nevada by more than 11 points and hits at least 10 three's in the win unless the Netherlands can score at least three runs against Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. 

 

"Just trust us, okay. Because we know and you don't!"

 

The reality of it is, these bracket experts don't really know what's going to happen... and that's the beauty of it. The NCAA Tournament selection committee always brings us a few surprises. 

 

For a handful of teams, Greg Gumbel holds the key to their futures as he names the teams that are going to be playing in the Big Dance. "Who are we playing? Where are we playing? Are we playing? Who else is in our regional?"

 

And when these brackets are released, we want to read the committee the riot act for leaving out a few teams public opinion says "got robbed" out of a bid to the tournament. Pragmatically, these teams don't have a leg to stand on. 

 

If they wanted in, they should have won a few more games to ensure their entry. If you don't want your bubble to rupture, play your way off the bubble. 

 

Then we have to listen to Dick Vitale whine about a travesty all night on Sunday night, "I think it's really, really sad that Syracuse didn't get into the tournament." Mr. Vitale must be upset because he picked the Orange on his November grocery list of teams to get to the Final Four. 

 

"Hey baby... I like Syracuse, I like Duke, North Carolina baby, Oklahoma, I like UConn, Louisville, I like UCLA, I like Gonzaga, I like your shoes, I like my bald head, I like my glass eyeball... and one sleeper team right now to watch is Billy Donavan and the Florida Gators this season Baby 3, everybody say, Ay Bay Bay."

Jeez Mr. Vitale. Way to go out on a limb by picking the school that won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 to be a potential sleeper. 

 

Some fans want the NCAA to split up Division I into two different divisions so only the big boys get a chance to play for the national title. Tell that to George Mason-the team that made the improbable tournament runs of all tournament runs. 

 

Before the Patriots did the impossible by making the 2006 Final Four, the casual basketball fan thought George Mason was a former player for North Carolina-albeit it was really George Lynch. George Mason didn't even fit the "mid-major" tag given by the condescending bigger conferences as a tag they put on the alleged "giant-killers" in the bracket.

 

Tell Stephon Curry and Davidson their 2008 run to the Elite Eight shouldn't have happened. They were a 10-seed that knocked off power-hungry Georgetown and Wisconsin before falling by a bucket to eventual national champion Kansas in the regional final.

 

This year, these pundits will attempt to act confident when they pick their four teams to make the trip to the Motor City. But like us, they have absolutely no idea who will end up in Detroit. 

 

Why? Because nobody has separated themselves from the pack. As soon as we think somebody is ready and willing to become a top-tier team (to borrow Clark Kellogg's theory of putting teams in tiers-which is actually a good idea no matter how boring and annoying he is), they suffer an strange loss.

 

We wanted to anoint North Carolina in December after they pounded Michigan State by what might as well have been 100 points inside the very football stadium this Final Four is to be held. The Tarheels-much like other Roy Williams coached teams-have underachieved despite only losing three games. 

 

But when the Atlantic Coast Conference officials give North Carolina and Duke calls only given to the most homerific referee of all-time and Michael Jordan, it's hard to lose more than three games.

 

Although Duke can lose six times and still be one of two schools in the history of college basketball to move up five spots in the top ten after a 27-point loss to Clemson... along with North Carolina.

 

Not that I'm bitter.

 

Nobody will win the $1 million bracket challenge this year or any other year either. Because you have no inkling at all who will be going to the Final Four. Admit it, you don't. Neither do I, but again, that's the beauty of this whole March Madness thing.

 

So while we are at it, give me Pittsburgh, Louisville, Michigan State, and Siena. And North Carolina, UConn, and UCLA. If Dick Vitale gets 12 Final Four teams, I get seven. New rule.

 

And that's why mediocrity will lead to parity this March and April.