NCAA

It has been awhile since anything has really come to mind to write about.  It''s a little surprising to me given the exciting NCAA Tournament we are having, but I really have nothing to offer in that department, although I did get one Final Four team right in my picks (UCONN).

Obviously this has been the year of the little guy in college basketball a mid-major guaranteed of making the championship game for the second straight year.  Two astounding stories there: A team that was in the "First Four" is now in the "Final Four."  That is unbelievable.  Analysts are fond of saying things like "Duke and coach K are the kind of team that can win 6 games in March" insinuating that it takes 6 games in three consecutive weekends to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.  Well, VCU has already won 5, and they have two more games to go to be champions, because they played USC in one of these much maligned play in games (that the NCAA insists on calling "first round" games) on the Wednesday before everyone else started their games.  And Butler, they made the Final Four for the 2nd straight year.  That is absurd.  Teams like UNC, Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State, UCLA and even Florida, Kansas and Connecticut might make 2 Final Fours in a row, but Butler?  After their losing their best player to the NBA?  That just doesn't make sense, so I won't really try to make any out of it.

College football and specifically the BCS system has tilted the scales to 6 power conferences (and Notre Dame) that are home to 90% of the premier football schools/teams in the nation.  There is no tournament.  Teams historically were always ranked, and at the end of the season the press & coaches would vote for who they thought was the champion after all the teams had played out their seasons, and especially in more recent history, after their bowl matchups, which were predetermined by your conference's commitment (Big Ten/Pac 10 in the Rose Bowl, Big 12/ACC in the Orange).  Most of the time it was clear cut.  But some split decisions in the 90s made the college football landscape want a more definitive answer as to who was the best team in the land.  Why can't Michigan & Nebraska (1997) play, or Washington/Miami (1992) etc?  Well, if a system could be set up that paired the top two teams to play in the championship game regardless of conference affiliation, that would solve our problems, right?

Sort of.  Seemingly every year the BCS gets exposed as flawed.  I won't go into the details, but lets be honest: Everyone hates the BCS.  The little guy (Utah, Boise St, TCU) doesn't get the chance to prove themselves on the field.  Sure, the BCS has made it possible for those teams to get an at large bid if they are in the top 12.  But in the end, history doesn't really remember Utah's win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, or TCU's win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.  They want to see David vs. Goliath.

This is what basketball offers.  Not that often, but it offers the hope of it.  And this year the hope came true for two small schools, one of which, in VCU, many pundits said shouldn't even be in the field in the first place.

But what is my point?  None of what I've said so far is really news to anyone.  Well, I've seen some comments made on Twitter by a few sports writers that I follow about the contrast between this NCAA Tournament and the College Football BCS System.  The point being that this basketball postseason should make the football presidents and BCS committee realize that they need a playoff.  Personally, I think it will not change their minds one bit, for one main reason.  The big schools, presidents, and BCS don't want a small school (or even a BCS conference team) who played a "soft" regular season schedule to have a chance at the title.  They want the power schools who every week have to play top 10, top 15 teams to get rewarded for the regular season battles they went through.  Many people like to argue that every week is a playoff in the NCAA season.  Games like Auburn/Alabama, Texas/Oklahoma, USC/Oregon, Ohio State/Michigan, and so on basically define a team's chances of going undefeated, or finishing with one or two losses and having the chance to play for the title or not.  The old guard likes this week in and week out craziness that mirrors the 3 week basketball tournament in March, but for 3 months.

Is this fair? No.  Every sport has a tournament or NCAA sponsored championship except football.  BCS or AP National Championships aren't even recognized by the NCAA as national championships for their purposes of record keeping.  But nothing is going to change.  There is so much money in the current system, and those in control like it the way it is, and of course the fans complain, but in reality still come out to games in record numbers year after year.  So, don't get your hopes up that a Butler or VCU championship will get the powers that be to change their minds.