Alright, I finally have a good topic to blog upon. It's about time.
The big deal tonight is the NCAA Tournament's "Opening Round" game, between Morehead State and Alabama State, where the winner earns the right to get absolutely turned inside out by the overall #1 seed, Louisville (Rick Pitino has always had that freaky vibe around him). Besides the lack of blowjob jokes directed at Morehead (c'mon blogosphere, I had more faith in you), I've been disappointed with the overall "mehness" directed towards this game. People seem accepting of it now, which I don't like.
Obviously, it does well for two lesser-known teams in the arena of PR, but other that that, it's not very beneficial. These two teams are basically playing to see who gets the bonus for being in the field of 64 (from the concensus of what I've read, all 65 teams get a TV revenue share, but there's a specific bonus for being in the true field of 64 on top of that).
The one big "positive" for the game has been of that school of thought: this game will be "the only thing on tonight", so they'll get media attention up the wazoo.
Bull.
I say this because I'm currently watching DAVIDSON VERSUS SOUTH CAROLINA, a much more interesting game, in the first round of the NIT. IT'S ON THE SAME FAMILY OF CHANNELS AS THE PLAY-IN GAME WILL BE, GUYS. JESUS CHRIST. The play-in game will start when there's about 8, 10 minutes left in the first half of this game. Meanwhile, on ESPN Deportes and MLB Network (the order of priority, take note), the World Baseball Classic is going to have a US elimination game (versus Puerto Rico), which I just flipped over to and caught the first pitch to... so yeah, that's on now as well.
I mean, what the hell? Everyone's slurping the NCAA right now, and I guess that makes sense, as they provide the most entertaining sporting event of the calendar year. But... c'mon. The play-in game has never been a good idea. The only reasoning anyone ever gives is, "It gives unapposed in viewership, giving these teams exposure". I just mentioned 2 big SPORTING ratings stealers there, and there's two post-season college basketball tourneys going on I haven't even mentioned.
If you want more teams in, expand the tourney. Don't give us one meaningless game that people will forget about in 6 hours. 64 vs. 65 doesn't guarantee a good game against Louisville. It guarantees a half-hearted attempt at making ONE MORE GAME important. Quit milking the teet before it goes dry.
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Hey this is great, I don't watch at all and I loved reading your post about it. Seriously. I hope this blog goes far.
ReplyDeleteI caught some of the davidson (while watching my morehead st. eagles own) and all of the st mary's game and no doubt those teams and notre dame could handle the two teams in the "NCAA"...but the game in Dayton still drew 11,000 people (largest play-in game crowd ever) and based on the excitement and energy I saw from Morehead they came to play in an NCAA game and bring pride to their school.
ReplyDeleteNobody is asserting that this play-in game is the only game in town tonight. The WBC is a special tournament that is not played annually not to mention the special comeback that will dominate the highlights and rightly so. Also the NIT is always scheduled opposite the play-in because they want to get their first round out of the way before the NCAA starts thursday.
Its obvious that 65 is a weird bracket number. But here's a history lesson: back in 2001 the Mountain West conference was created, causing an extra spot to be available. The decision was to add this game rather than cut away an at-large team.....obviously its a pain in the ass for everyone: fans, coaches, players, etc. However the integrity of the tournament is kept through this system.
Would we rather have St. Mary's vs. Arizona for the right to be a 12 seed and play Utah? Or come closer to having the best 64 teams in the tournament. Even though I'm sad St. Mary's got snubbed this year, I'd rather have Arizona in the field than Alabama State. (No offense Chief Kickingstallionsims)
I know of the whole Mountain West fiasco. I also know the women's bracket just took away an at-large bid instead of a play-in, which doesn't sound all that fair, but it's so much more symmetrical.
ReplyDeleteI feel like if two teams have to play in, why is 61-63 safe? Why don't all 16 seeds get determined by play-in?
I based a lot of this argument on what I saw around the internet the past 2-3 days... and there was a great consensus that the play-in is great because two teams that don't normally get media pub get the night to themselves. I guess when you single out the NCAA tourney, that makes sense, but there's a shit ton of other sports/entities that are trying to cram their schedule into this early part of the week so they don't have to go head-to-head with the NCAA tourney.
We lost the integrity of getting the best 64 in this tournament when the number became 65. (Or, when Dickie V got aroused by the Hooters girls and popped some Viagras before the selection show... I really need to start watching CBS for that.) You can't create opportunities for more bids, yet try to keep the integrity of the old number. It really doesn't make sense that we have two teams play for the right to get trounced. At the ABSOLUTE very least, make all the 16 seeds play-ins. At least that way, the bubble is more defined, opportunities are structured, and a team that earns a bogus auto-bid won't be able to complain when they have to jump through one more hoop than everybody else.
But that'll never happen, because then the Selection Shows become that much more anti-climatic.