I love college basketball. It is my third favorite sport behind the College Football and the NFL, and is close to passing the NFL (especially if it doesn't exist next year). Whatever the fourth place sport is, it isn't close to college basketball. That being said, I don't love it unconditionally. In fact, this time of the year is the one time of the year that really makes me hate college basketball.
You're probably saying: "now? In March? I could see you hating it in November, dawg, when the shit doesn't matter, but March is the best month for College Basketball!" Well, yes and no. Once the ball is tipped on the Thursday morning of the first round of the tournament, college basketball is great. It takes over the sports universe for 2.5 weeks. Theres no football to compete with. The NBA and NHL playoffs are still on the horizon. Baseball's opening day occurs concurrently, but does not interfere much with the popularity of the Final Four. Even Wrestlemania saves its date for a Sunday night, making sure not to interfere with any elite eight games.
But for right now, people and the media are starting to get into March Madness. The only problem is that stations (ESPN and CBS), overbill certain games, make other games "do or dies," and drastically affect the the perception, and perhaps ultimately the participation of teams in the tournament. Let them hype a game, thats fine. But when games turn into promotions for one teams, and smear campaigns for another, thats another. These networks make the games out to be an all-or-nothing, do-or-die situation for certain teams, which ignores the 30 other games and 3 months these teams have put into the season.
The Problem: College Basketball has become too much of a knee-jerk industry. It has turned into a "what have you done for me lately" campaign for teams to get into the tournament. With that, it has become too political.
I can give two good examples of this off the top of my head, but there are probably hundreds more, and you will see/hear more and more as the next two weeks unfold. Saturday night, Virginia Tech hosted Duke. VT was thought to be a bubble team. Pundits and 'experts' said that if VT won, they would be in, if they lost, they would have a LOT of work to do.
Stop for a minute and think about that.
Does it seem fair, that a team, in order to qualify for a tournament with 68 teams, has to beat the #1 team?
And this is in no way a campaign for VT. I don't particularly care for them, but I also wrote in this blog that I thought they should be in no matter what. The idea that VT had to win that game in order to get into the tournament is stupid. Why would they bill the game as such though? It couldn't be because it was on primetime on Saturday night on ESPN, could it?
What people don't realize, and this will come as a shock to many, is that this game was probably not even VT's best win. If we go by a strictly spread standpoint, as I like to do, the Hokies were 4 point underdogs in this game. Not a large margin at all. So they won, and they beat the #1 team, and it was a nice win and all that. To me, winning @ Maryland on January 20th, when the Hokies were 5.5 point underdogs, is just as significant, (if not more) than their win over Duke. Was it met with as much fanfare? Did the highlights of that game lead off sportscenter? This brings me to another point, but something that will wait for another day. PLaying at home and playing on the road is night and day. Case in point: its harder to win at Maryland than it is to beat Duke at home. People also need to remember, just as there are no true home games in the tournament, there are no true road games. Texas will not have to play at Colorado or at Nebraska.
Another example of this is the game between Illinois and Purdue. The game tomorrow night. A game that hasn't even happened yet. Yesterday, during the end of the Purdue MSU game, announcer Dan Dakich said "Illinois is a bubble team, and must win that game." His counterpart, Dave O' Brien said "If they win, they figure to be a lock, otherwise, theyre in trouble." So again, preaching an all-or-nothing mentality. And again, the game is on ESPN.
Here's the truth. Illinois is going to be around a 10 point underdog in that game. Here's another truth. Purdue hasn't lost at home all year. Here's another truth. Purdue beat Ohio State at home, the #1 team in the nation. So...........why would Illinois HAVE to win at Purdue? As of now, Illinois is in the tournament. In fact, at no point during the year has Lunardi or Jerry Palm of CBS-Sportsline ever had Illinois OUT of the tournament. They've always been in. But now, all of a sudden, they have to go on the road, and do something fifteen other teams couldn't do, including Ohio State and Wisconsin, and that is, beat Purdue, all because ESPN said so. This shit is sickening.
And hey, maybe Illinois doesn't deserve to be in. I for one would put Illinois in. If you had an argument against them being in the tournament, though, I would listen. I could see one arguing against Illinois. But I wouldn't hinge their entire probability and chances of getting into the tournament on one game against Purdue. But, that is what college basketball is all about this time of the year. It's a shame. If this same exact game took place one month ago, nobody would care. ESPN would be talking about the NFL playoffs, Brett Favre's chances of retiring, and whatever else they talk about in January. The game would occupy 30 seconds of air time on sportscenter. Now, because there's nothing else on, it has become one of the marquee games of the week, and they're basing an entire teams' season on the outcome. It isn't fair to ANY of the teams they do this to.
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