RE: MBB: Story from ESPN.com about the NCAA selection process
We all know by know the NCAA is crooked. A gang of corporate and academic bureaucrats getting paid millions to funnel billions into the privileged programs, conferences and media partners. Blatant fraud, recruiting violations and, often, minimal emphasis on athletes being students at the top schools is allowed. Schools without power who get caught trying to cut a few corners are pummeled with sanctions. And schools that compete at a high level, have actual student athletes, and aren't huge business operations are consistently squeezed out of home games and tourneys.
Clearly, the NCAA could mandate home and away series between all levels of D1. They could organize early or mid season neutral court regional tourneys to gauge more fairly the value of teams. And they could actually follow their own guidelines and common sense in selections. I mean, forget the mid-majors, Oklahoma State getting snubbed was horrible. They beat Kansas twice, WVU on the road, swept Oklahoma, etc... all in the final half of the season. Oklahoma was good early but really fell off and didn't look like an NCAA team down the stretch. Syracuse played the vast majority of it's games at home, had a losing conf record, and lost to all the really good teams they played. Arizona St had a super start but totally fell off, had a low rpi, finished 9th at 8-10 in a 3 bid league, and lost early in their conf tournament. How do you pick them over the #2 team in that league? The team that finished 13-5 and went to conf tourney final. As for the mid majors Middle Tenn played a great mid major schedule, 5 top mid majors, 5 P5 teams on road/neutral courts, solid mid major league 16-2, but they lost 3 close games to NCAA type teams (Miami, USC, Auburn). So, even though they had a great year they are excluded because of a few close losses to strong teams. So, isn't the point of the play-in first four to give a team like that (or St Mary's) the chance to prove themselves? Clearly, they are on the borderline.
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