26/05/2006
News
to read
Adding to March Madness a ridiculous idea
From: www.shns.com
View source article here.
BY GREG HANSEN
The worst college sports ideas of the last decade:
_ Sticking with that blue artificial turf at Boise State's football stadium when they replaced the turf in 2002.
_ George O'Leary deciding not to redo his risumi upon being hired as Notre Dame's football coach.
_ Oregon spending $140,875 for a single football recruiting weekend, after which Ducks AD Bill Moos attempts to blow it off, saying, "we can afford it."
_ Alabama's Mike Price deciding to blow off some steam at a Pensacola, Fla., bar.
And now comes Gary Walters, incoming chairman of the NCAA men's basketball selection committee, informing USA Today that "we're going to have some serious discussion" about changing the format of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Walters, who is the athletic director at Princeton, acknowledged that the National Association of Basketball Coaches recently discussed expanding the NCAA bracket from 65 teams to an undetermined number. 66? 80? 260 perhaps? Something divisible by 65? Something ridiculous for sure.
Oh, well. Maybe Arizona State can get in.
What's wrong with 65? With the possible exception of Billy Packer's attitude, there is no cry to change a single piece of the inimitable NCAA basketball tournament. It cannot be improved.
"I don't know if we should be influenced by whether there is an outcry or not," Walters told the newspaper, further declaring that the selection committee should act in the "best interests as stewards of the game."
In that sense, it is frightening that Gary Walters considers himself a steward of our fine madness.
The NCAA basketball tournament is untouchable, an American heirloom, bigger than the Super Bowl, better than an Ali-Frazier fight.
And now someone from Princeton is talking about tweaking it? What will the NCAA do next, put the Rose Bowl in Laramie, Wyo.?
As it now sits, 334 schools own Division I basketball status. That means 19 percent of all teams qualify for the NCAA tournament. What perfect math. One in five. Not too many. Not too few. And we all know how it works _ even the librarians and rocket scientists.
We have seen postseason models that do not work. The NHL, for example, allows 16 of its 30 teams into the playoffs, identical to the bloated NBA postseason. In college sports, there is generally a 24-hour outrage period after Selection Sunday, a brief window in which The Last Four Teams Out (usually, sixth-place teams from the mega conferences, like Clemson and Minnesota) cry for justice.
And then they go into the NIT and lose to the College of Charleston.
How can anyone rightly contend that not enough teams get in, or that the Little Guy does not get very far.
Didn't George Mason get to the Final Four? Hasn't Gonzaga gotten bigger, faster than Barry Bonds _ and without being accused of a single misdeed?
The NCAA tournament is squeezed into a tight 22-day cycle, with 64 games, a perfect symmetry that stretches across the country and touches every geographical region, except maybe Alaska. It works so well that the NCAA uses a similar model for its volleyball, softball and baseball postseasons.
Walters suggests that his 10-member committee, which meets June 26-30 in Orlando, Fla., is likely to discuss expansion of the tournament field. That's about as necessary as directing Mike Krzyzewski to attend a Henry Bibby coaching seminar.
The NCAA tournament, 65 teams across 22 days, is in perfect harmony. Don't you dare mess with it. We'll all be watching.
View source article here.
BY GREG HANSEN
The worst college sports ideas of the last decade:
_ Sticking with that blue artificial turf at Boise State's football stadium when they replaced the turf in 2002.
_ George O'Leary deciding not to redo his risumi upon being hired as Notre Dame's football coach.
_ Oregon spending $140,875 for a single football recruiting weekend, after which Ducks AD Bill Moos attempts to blow it off, saying, "we can afford it."
_ Alabama's Mike Price deciding to blow off some steam at a Pensacola, Fla., bar.
And now comes Gary Walters, incoming chairman of the NCAA men's basketball selection committee, informing USA Today that "we're going to have some serious discussion" about changing the format of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Walters, who is the athletic director at Princeton, acknowledged that the National Association of Basketball Coaches recently discussed expanding the NCAA bracket from 65 teams to an undetermined number. 66? 80? 260 perhaps? Something divisible by 65? Something ridiculous for sure.
Oh, well. Maybe Arizona State can get in.
What's wrong with 65? With the possible exception of Billy Packer's attitude, there is no cry to change a single piece of the inimitable NCAA basketball tournament. It cannot be improved.
"I don't know if we should be influenced by whether there is an outcry or not," Walters told the newspaper, further declaring that the selection committee should act in the "best interests as stewards of the game."
In that sense, it is frightening that Gary Walters considers himself a steward of our fine madness.
The NCAA basketball tournament is untouchable, an American heirloom, bigger than the Super Bowl, better than an Ali-Frazier fight.
And now someone from Princeton is talking about tweaking it? What will the NCAA do next, put the Rose Bowl in Laramie, Wyo.?
As it now sits, 334 schools own Division I basketball status. That means 19 percent of all teams qualify for the NCAA tournament. What perfect math. One in five. Not too many. Not too few. And we all know how it works _ even the librarians and rocket scientists.
We have seen postseason models that do not work. The NHL, for example, allows 16 of its 30 teams into the playoffs, identical to the bloated NBA postseason. In college sports, there is generally a 24-hour outrage period after Selection Sunday, a brief window in which The Last Four Teams Out (usually, sixth-place teams from the mega conferences, like Clemson and Minnesota) cry for justice.
And then they go into the NIT and lose to the College of Charleston.
How can anyone rightly contend that not enough teams get in, or that the Little Guy does not get very far.
Didn't George Mason get to the Final Four? Hasn't Gonzaga gotten bigger, faster than Barry Bonds _ and without being accused of a single misdeed?
The NCAA tournament is squeezed into a tight 22-day cycle, with 64 games, a perfect symmetry that stretches across the country and touches every geographical region, except maybe Alaska. It works so well that the NCAA uses a similar model for its volleyball, softball and baseball postseasons.
Walters suggests that his 10-member committee, which meets June 26-30 in Orlando, Fla., is likely to discuss expansion of the tournament field. That's about as necessary as directing Mike Krzyzewski to attend a Henry Bibby coaching seminar.
The NCAA tournament, 65 teams across 22 days, is in perfect harmony. Don't you dare mess with it. We'll all be watching.
