Another year of Billiken men’s basketball is behind us. We can look back and reflect on a season of big highs and tormenting lows. There were big wins against quality teams; there were losses against some poor teams; and in between, there were several big leads, which folded down the stretch. But looking over the season as a whole, I’d say there was more good than bad.

A team’s success or failure in men’s basketball can usually be attributed to whether or not they are given a bid to play in a postseason tournament. With an excellent season, a team gets to play in the NCAA tournament, the Big Dance. With a good season, a team is given a ticket to play in the National Invitational Tournament, or the NIT. For those of you unfamiliar with the NIT, it is sort of like the Golden Globes in the entertainment industry. It’s nice to be recognized for a good performance, but it’s nothing like being nominated for an Oscar.

Unfortunately, there was no postseason play for the Saint Louis University Billikens this year. A 17-14 record was not good enough for them even to slide into the NIT. I’d honestly like to believe this is because they were not deserving of a spot in the NIT. I’d like to think all the teams playing in the NIT are better than our Billikens. I’d also like to think Santa Claus is real, and I should be on the cover of GQ. They are all nice thoughts, but I doubt that any of them are true.

What did the Billikens do to deserve to be in the NIT? How about playing a schedule that included 13 games against teams playing in a postseason tournament, including eight games against teams playing the NCAA tournament. They won four of those games including a win over Cincinnati, which is in the Sweet 16. They also swept No. 9-seed Charlotte, where they won both games by an average of 14 points. And it wasn’t a cupcake non-conference schedule either. Games at Missouri, at Washington, and a tournament in Hawaii-where they played two NCAA tournament teams-made up most of SLU’s non-conference schedule.

So then, if they should have been given a bid to play in the NIT, what went wrong? Why were they passed over for teams like McNeese State and Illinois State? As far as I can see, there is only one real reason that sticks out.

Money.

Had the Billikens been given a bid and the opportunity to play at home, they would not have played at the huge Savvis center, which seats 22,000. It was booked up. Not only for the first-round games, but for the second-round dates as well. Had they gotten a bid, they would have been out in St. Charles, Mo. at the Family Arena, which seats about 10,000. Don’t think for a second this didn’t influence the NIT selection committee. Now, I wasn’t sitting in the room when they decided who was going to play in their tournament, but I’d be willing to guess that losing 12,000 paying spectators was not going to help SLU get into the NIT. Lets say for a second that SLU did not deserve to go to the NIT. Does this excuse the selection committee from my theory?

Not a chance.

The NIT knows where the money will come from. It gave first-round home games to teams like Mississippi State, Auburn and Purdue, all of whom can draw big crowds and bring in more money than their opponents. The three teams combined were a total of eight games over .500. Their first- round opponents were a combined 31 games over .500. But all three opponents were from smaller conferences and probably would not have drawn in as much money.

I’m guessing the people in charge of the NIT are praying all the mid-major schools are out of the tournament before the semifinal games are played at Madison Square Garden in New York.

I’m sure they cringed when the University of Detroit beat Connecticut, an NCAA Tournament bubble team. They want to see teams that get national recognition. They want highlights on ESPN. A Cinderella story isn’t as lucrative in the NIT as it is in the NCAA Tournament.

They need big-name schools with big-time tradition and alumni with big money to follow their teams to New York. And unfortunately, SLU was left out of consideration even for a shot at Madison Square Garden.

The Billikens were not the best team left after the NCAA Tournament; there is no doubt about that.

They didn’t belong among the best of 64. However, in my opinion, they were better than a number of teams who were selected above them for the NIT. And whether it’s a good thing or not, I believe that had the Savvis Center been available for SLU, they would have had their shot in the postseason.

So a note to Coach Lorenzo Romar and the Billiken basketball team: you guys did a good job this year.

But leave no doubt about next year. This year you may have been left out, not because you weren’t good enough, but because you couldn’t bring in the funds they wanted. Because in this game, what’s the only reason a team would be snubbed? . Hey, it must be the money.