Sports
For all you Art Bell listeners who believe that captured aliens are alive at Area 51, that the queen ordered Scotland Yard to knock off Princess Di and that there were at least two gunmen on the Grassy Knoll, here’s another irresistible conspiracy to stew over: the National Cash-grubbing Athletic Association is bent on hosing a significant number of its member institutions.
How else to explain the shabby treatment of mid-major schools in selecting participants in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament?
This year, mid-major teams—those not part of power conferences such as the SEC—received only six at-large bids to the field of 64. That number reflects a steady decline over the past several years, a setback that’s at odds with the actual performance of these roundball Davids.
So far, for example, Winthrop, the best team you never heard of, defied its unrighteous 11th seeding to topple Notre Dame. Virginia Commonwealth, another 11, took down Duke. UNLV, decidedly a mid-major despite its powerhouse past, stunned Wisconsin to reach the Sweet 16. Butler thumped Maryland. Were it not for an egregious non-call by the refs, Xavier would have eliminated Ohio State, a No. 1 seed.
Despite increasing on-court parity in recent years, mid-major conferences with strong track records (remember George Washington last year?) continue to struggle to gain more than one representative each. Thus, Drexel, which won 14 road games—several against big boys that wound up in the tournament—was left home. So was Appalachian State, despite 24 wins and victories over Virginia and Vanderbilt.
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Arkansas and Stanford, two power-conference members who got bids that might have gone to a mid-major standout, lost ignominiously in the first round. Meanwhile, almost half of the Big Ten’s members received bids, though three had seedings of 9 or lower and only one (thanks to the whistle-swallowing zebras) survived the first weekend. Likewise, all but one of the seven entrants from the vaunted ACC will watch the rest of the tournament from the TV lounge.
And of the middies that did receive bids, several were pitted against each other. Old Dominion drew Butler instead of one of the other No. 5 seeds, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and USC. Creighton was matched against Nevada. As a result, the selection committee geniuses ensured that at least two underdogs could not pull upsets.
If there’s a conspiracy, the motive isn’t difficult to discern. Despite its pontifications about student-athletics, the NCAA is conspicuously about cash. Big schools with big fan bases deliver big dollars at tournament time. Their fans travel in big numbers to tournament sites. They deliver big TV audiences that make big-spending CBS smile. While Cinderella teams such as George Mason may reflect the delightfully confused, Forest of Arden spirit of the tournament—as we like it—the people who spent $1 billion for the rights to telecast it all don’t particularly crave a regional final between Butler and UNLV.
Still, we shouldn’t conclude that the selection committee is under orders to rig the brackets. That would require amazing coordination for an organization that struggles to tie its collective shoes. The most likely reason for eyebrow-raising picks is that the committee is no more adept at its task than the NCAA is effective at reducing the academic fraud that pervades its revenue sports.
We note that the head of the selection committee is from Princeton, and that’s probably all the explanation needed. As every heartlander knows, never send an ivory-tower denizen to do a practical job.
How it looks from the La-Z-Boy (slightly revised)
NCAA Men’s Tournament
Midwest Region Sweet 16: Florida over Butler, Oregon over UNLV. Regional Championship: Florida over Oregon.
West Region Sweet 16: Kansas over Southern Illinois, UCLA over Pittsburgh. Regional Championship: UCLA over Kansas.
East Region Sweet 16: North Carolina over USC, Georgetown over Vanderbilt. Regional Championship: Georgetown over North Carolina.
South Region Sweet 16: Ohio State over Tennessee, Texas A&M over Memphis. Regional Championship: Texas A&M over Ohio State.
Final Four: Florida over UCLA, Georgetown over Texas A&M. Championship: Florida over Georgetown.
Note: Second-round women’s games were not complete until after the Scene’s deadline.
How it looks for the local boys
Vanderbilt: It’s hard to get up for a team you’ve already thrashed. That will be Georgetown’s challenge against Vandy, which has vastly improved since November. But the Commodores will be harder pressed to match up with the towering Hoyas.
Tennessee: Nobody had the Vols advancing to the Final Four. Now it doesn’t look like such a crazy pick. We like their chances against Ohio State and then to upset either Texas A&M or a Memphis team they’ve beaten before.