(03-13-2017 02:46 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(03-13-2017 01:59 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  Champions shouldn't assume that risk, even if their conference is garbage. It shouldn't be the NEC's fault the C7 are a bunch of snobs who can't get along with public schools who play football. Or one of the HBC conferences' that a couple of front-range schools couldn't get accept having to share their schedule with their horribly planned 16-team conference.

Of course they can assume that risk when their conference is garbage. I know it's not PC to state around because of affinity for the "little guy", but the entire NCAA is funded on the backs of those "snobs" that enable the NCAA Tournament to make billions of dollars in revenue. A bunch of random schools getting together in a conference and then partaking in a multi-billion enterprise where they aren't the ones that bring in the revenue that enables this event to exist in the first place aren't "equal" partners.

What every other sport does besides men's basketball and football is irrelevant because NONE of those other sports exist without men's basketball and football. Are there different rules for men's basketball and football? Of course there are because those are the two sports that support every single other scholarship athlete out there.

I guess it all depends upon your definition of what's "fair". Is it equal access in and of itself (as you seem to suggest) or is it receiving a return that is proportional with the value that a league brings to the table? That can be debated endlessly among reasonable people, but as I've stated before, the NCAA Tournament actually does a pretty good job of balancing BOTH. The whole reason why I think the NCAA Tournament has a good format is that it is NOT just 100% one way or the other. There isn't complete "kumbaya" B.S. in pretending that every league is made equal, but the broad access is there to still allow such leagues to have a chance on the biggest stage (if only on paper). That's a really tough balance and the NCAA Tournament does it well.

But some of those schools have been around longer and even contributed more to the NCAA than some of those big schools. They deserve just as much access as the bigger schools and thankfully basketball is fair and not like football, otherwise the NIT would be the relevant tournament and schools like Gonzaga and Xavier would likely still be relative unknowns.