Today, as I was watching ESPN's 1st and 10, Doug Gottlieb and Skip Bayless debated on whether or not the NCAA tournament selection committee should change the selection process.Bayless argued that the best 65 teams, regardless of conference, should be put in the tournament field. He said that mid-majors are an embarrassment to college basketball.
Wow, an embarrassment? Tell me how a miraculous upset and a game winning buzzer-beater over a much higher ranked team can be an embarrassment.
Gottlieb's argument was fundamentally different from Bayless'. He said that the tournament's magic is made from these mid-major schools.
I have to agree with Gottlieb.
As a student and avid sports fan at Western Kentucky, a mid-major school, it was very offensive to me when Bayless said that mid-majors were an embarrassment. Maybe he hasn't watched some of the most special moments in NCAA tournament history, most of which have been made by mid-major programs.
Does anyone remember George Mason's magical run to the Final Four? What about Steve Nash's Santa Clara, who pulled off the unfathomable 15 seed over the 2 seed victory? On the same lines, No. 15 seeded Hampton pulled off a first round shocker over No. 2 seeded Iowa St. Also, one of the most signature moments of last year's tournament was Western Kentucky's Ty Rogers' buzzer beater to knock off 5th seeded Drake in the first round, propelling the Hilltoppers to the Sweet 16.
It's moments like this that make March Madness the greatest sporting event in the world. Mid-majors are a must-have in the NCAA tournament. I understand that there will we be "better" teams in much bigger conferences, but there is no way that the NCAA tournament would be nearly as special of an event if mid-major programs were left out of the picture.
The NCAA tournament is easily my favorite sporting event to watch, mainly because of the upsets every year by mid-major schools.
If you take these teams out, the tournament would simply not be the same.
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I agree...but I still think the World Cup beats March Madness, haha.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with everything written here. Along with the mid-major upsets the degree of difficulty in picking a winner of the NCAA tourney also contributes to why it is so great. Very rarely is there a clear cut, dominant favorite like in many pro sports, and in the rare years there are, oftentimes that favorite is one of the victims of a mid-major upset.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I find ironic, is WKU was a great story last year and had a great run, but how about Skip Bayless' argument that mid-majors are an embarrassment? WKU's upset win was against a mid-major like itself! While I disagree with Bayless about mid-majors being embarrassments, I do find it interesting that WKU's upset was an indeed against a mid-major like itself. I wonder had they been playing a team from the Big East, ACC, Big 10, etc., if they still would have pulled the upset.
I guess all that is irrelevant, but anyhow, good work and good read