March (and April) madness is upon us again. Certainly everyone would agree the NCAA basketball tournament is one of the greatest annual spectacles in American sports. From the President and millionaire CEOs on down to every day folk, it seems most get caught up in it. Brackets here, brackets there, brackets everywhere. It's like one is hopelessly out of touch with society if they don't fill out a bracket. God bless them and different strokes, but yours truly has never bought into that theory.
I've never filled out a bracket and, as the years go on, contrary to public opinion, it makes less and less sense to me. Most would likely say the NCAA (mens) hoops tourney keeps getting better and better. It's growing, there are now "play-in" games to involve even more schools, and everybody theoretically has a chance at glory. To all of which I say one word -- balderdash.
It's not getting better, it's getting more watered down. Teams from schools with ZERO chance of becoming champions are allowed to compete. Along that line, consider the terms we have not only come to accept, but hold in high esteem.
"The Sweet Sixteen". "The Elite 8". And the Holy Grail itself -- the "Final Four". Disregarding the first two, even the Final Four only means a team made it to the semis. While a notable accomplishment, nowhere else in the sports world is it trumpeted to the heavens like it is in NCAA hoops. And let's face it, in the end, three of them have to lose anyway and few will remember they were even there. Quick -- besides Louisville and Michigan in the national title game last year -- who were the two teams they defeated in the semis to get there? Bet you don't remember. See what I mean?
But back to the point of being watered down. A team such as Cal-Poly made it into the tournament while going 10-19 in an already pitifully weak Big West conference. But by improbably winning their conference tournament, they got invited to the dance. In a "play-in" game, they defeated an even sorrier Texas Southern team. Guess what's going to happen when Cal-Poly squares off against #1 seed Wichita State? Try red-headed stepchild. Woodshed. Beatdown. Blowout.
Sure, such schools will collect a check, and get brief national TV exposure while travelling to a place they've likely never been before. Besides the players and staff -- throw in the moms and dads, cheerleaders, and student body faithful that can somehow afford to attend such games -- and this is a big deal -- at least to them. I get that.
Yes, I understand the money thing about filling arenas all over the country. It's a big cha-ching in several different ways. Yet the fact remains, while the tournament is getting bigger, it's also getting more watered down. And that doesn't make it better. I would humbly submit it makes it worse.
The NCAA hoops tourney is supposed to be about the best squaring off against each other after the regular season is done. Instead of expanding the field, they should shrink it. Forget 68 "qualifiers". 32 teams would be more than enough. The Top 25 in the season ending polls, plus 7 more "at large" bids to round out the field. And who's kidding who? No team outside the Top 25 has a prayer to win the championship anyway. If it's supposed to be about the best -- then MAKE it about the best.
Big schools with huge enrollments would dominate, you say? Not necessarily. Look at Duke. They're a relatively small private school. But somehow they built powerhouse basketball programs. On the other end of the spectrum are some enormous public universities like Alabama, which has certainly been dominant in football -- but whose basketball team might well get run out of the building by a not-so-good team such as Cal Poly. Funny how those things come to be.
Some of us old-timers can remember when the NHL consisted of just 21 teams. At the end of the regular season -- 16 of them made it into the playoffs. In other words, a team had to be a bottom feeder NOT to make it into the playoffs. Sure, it was all about filling arenas at inflated ticket prices -- but objectively speaking -- how dumb was that? Speaking of being a geezer, yours truly can remember the heady days of when the National League champion faced the American League champion in the World Series. No playoffs. Finish first in the regular season in your league to advance to the Fall Classic, or go home. Nowadays, there's 3 division winners in both leagues plus a "wild card" or two -- or is that three?
And look around. The NFL is considering expanding their playoff format even further. The PGA tour touts it's Fed-Ex Cup. NASCAR has its ten race "Chase" at the end of the season. If they wanted to get serious about it, only the Top Ten cars from the regular season would be allowed in those races. Whoever finishes last in the first race is out, and so on, until the final race only has two cars. But of course it will never work that way, because like the above examples, there's too much money to be made by allowing the also-rans to clog up the field as well. Why? Deep pocketed sponsors, who don't care about competitiveness, as long as they get their name and product out there.
The moral of the story? From NCAA hoops to the rest of the sports world -- pitting the best against the best at the end of a season has been phased out. Instead, it's been bastardized in favor of the almighty buck.
And call me what you will -- a purist, old school, or just plain retarded -- but I don't much care for what all this has come to.
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