Unfortunately, the last day of spring break and Selection Sunday coincided this year. This meant that during my four-hour drive back to St. Louis, I was forced to listen to scathing radio commentary about the conspiracies and flaws littering this year’s scandalous NCAA tournament bracket.
Any certified “bracketologist” is quick to verbalize their qualms with the bracket. A few common examples:
Too many big-conference, big-money teams were included at the expense of seemingly deserving mid-major programs. Big Ten power Wisconsin, at 19-12, sneaked in with a No. 12 seed while Saint Mary’s of the West Coast Conference, 26-6, was relegated to the NIT. Subsequently, basketball sports caster Dick Vitale nearly suffered a heart attack. Creighton suffered the same fate as Saint Mary’s.
Memphis, winners of 25 straight games, only deserved a No. 2 seed in the eyes of the selection committee.
Big East teams were overrated and placed in favorable positions in the bracket.
Inevitably, these criticisms lead to an undeserved verbal vendetta against the NCAA selection committee.
I understand that this is an annual process. I think it is important that journalists and analysts communicate their misgivings and question those in power. CBS and ESPN analysts can and should expose mistakes and corruption when they observe it-but there must be a purpose.
Listening to sportscasters Vitale and Seth Davis whine on the radio for four straight hours was childish and unnecessarily inflammatory.
I couldn’t believe it when retired basketball coach Bobby Knight rambled on about how the tournament should consider expanding to include 128 teams to make everyone happy.
Since when is Knight, the chair-tossing, cursing, bitter and insensitive old man concerned about making everyone happy?
Other drastic ideas about how to fix the slight problems of the tournament were suggested. Why not, for example, follow the example of the BCS and have computers determine who qualifies for postseason play? It would certainly eliminate any subjectivity.
These suggestions were a desperate attempt to create conflict for the sake of conflict.
The reality of the NCAA tournament is that it is the creation of subjective, biased, prejudiced and fallible humans. It is by no means a perfect system-but that does not mean it should be thrown out entirely.
In college football, computers determine who plays for the national championship. It doesn’t work. Teams like Utah can go 13-0 and not even have the opportunity to become champions. Furthermore, there is almost never an undisputed national champion.
The unavoidable subjectivity of the selection committee is a necessary component of the NCAA tournament. The main reason the selection committee is being criticized this year is because teams like Mississippi State, Temple, USC and Cleveland State won their conference tournaments, replacing bubble teams like Creighton and Saint Mary’s.
Every once in a while, the selection committee makes a mistake. Maybe they favor teams from big conferences who bring in more money.At the very least, the NCAA tournament produces a legitimate national champion.
Just because Wisconsin was selected and Saint Mary’s wasn’t doesn’t mean that the paradigm of the NCAA tournament should be abandoned.
