It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Left Out of the Tournament

The NCAA Tournament field has been announced. People are filling out their brackets for office pools across the nation. Everybody is included in the madness, and everyone seems to be happy and excited. Well, everyone except for the "bubble teams" that were left out of the field of 65 on Selection Sunday. A bickering match has erupted between Craig Littlepage, the chairman of the NCAA selection committee, and Billy Packer, an analyst for CBS. On the Selection Show that took place Sunday evening, Packard questioned the amount of mid-major schools that were allowed at-large bids to the field of 65. (Some definitions here: a mid-major is a school that is not in one of the power conferences like the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 or Big East. Mid-Majors come from seldom heard of conferences like the Missouri Valley conference, the WAC, and the WCC. 31 teams get automatic bids to the NCAA tourney for winning their conference tournies and another 34 get at-large bids, which are supposed to go to the best 34 remaining teams, regardless of what conference they are in). Packer was upset teams like Utah State and Air Force (both mid-majors) had received at-large bids over teams like Cincinnati and Michigan (both from major conferences). Littlepage shot back by defending his committee's selections.

My view on all this is that it doesn't matter. Yes, a team like Cincinnati or Michigan could probably do more damage than a Utah State or Air Force could in the tournament, but that doesn't really matter. Because Cincinnati or Michigan wasn't going to win the national championship. Neither is Utah State or Air Force. NCAA basketball has a fail-safe system for determining it's national champion, a grueling national tournament. It differs from the debates that exist in the very subjective BCS system that exists to determine who will play for the national title in NCAA football. I think that is the reason that so much is made over a team like Cincinnati being left out, and a team like Air Force being put in. The analysts have nobody else to talk about being snubbed. So they make a big deal out of something that really is not going to matter in the large scheme of things. The feud between Packer and Littlepage is silly, and it will disappear as soon as the first game tournament game gets underway on Thursday.

Publish Date: March 14 in the Missourian.