Over a year ago, I wrote a column pillorying the NCAA for taking away auto-bids for regular season conference champions in the NIT tournament. This had the effect of shutting out low majors for the benefit of mediocre high majors.
The defense of the decision at the time was that it was survival move. You see, FOX was threatening to create their own consolation tournament involving the conferences they had broadcast rights to, and this was the only way to keep FOX's tournament dreams at bay.
Well, you will be shocked, shocked when I tell you that despite those appeasements, FOX went ahead with their own postseason tournament anyway, indeed including a bunch of Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 teams. The NIT, as a result, has a field this year including just four high-major teams: Georgia Tech, Stanford, SMU, and Oklahoma State, who of course is in the Big 12 and I can only assume are playing here because the FOX tournament (the College Basketball Crown, they are calling it) didn't extend an invite to them.
But sure, there may not be many big names in the NIT, but it does include 15-19 San Jose State!
When will people learn? You can't save yourself from the excesses of the moneyed class (Fox, in this case) by acting more like the moneyed class. They'll still eat your lunch anyway.
* More of me fighting for the little guys of college basketball: I have an idea for the NCAA tournament that I think would be just lovely, and get more cinderellas in the field.
First, however, we have to define what a cinderella is. One thing that annoys me is college basketball analysts who claim to champion the mid-majors, but have too generous of a definition of mid-major. If you have a great season (say, 5 or fewer losses) out of the Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley Conference, West Coast Conference, American, or (especially) the Mountain West, you're getting in even if you fail to win your conference tournament. Maybe Conference USA, too. I'm thinking about the guys below that.
You could call them low majors, but a term I like better, which I've seen used by college basketball bracketeer "T3 Bracketology" is "traditional one-bid leagues."
Onto my plan: each year, two at-large bids must be reserved for teams in conferences that received no more than a single bid in at least five of the last 10 years.
I'm not a big ego mouth-breather, but that's a great plan, isn't it? It rewards the teams that had dominant seasons and hiccuped in their conference tournaments. The only people against it would be the high major bubble teams, which of course would be more than enough to kill this idea if someone important ever saw it.
*I am placing just one bet (at this point at least) in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and it's this: Alabama State +19.5 in the first half over Auburn. Alabama State is spunky and led by a guy, T.J. Madlock, who is a high-major talent but plays here because his dad is the head coach. Then there's Amarr Knox, their leading scorer with ice water in his veins who hit the winner against St. Francis in the play-in game.
Mostly, though, I like this because they didn't draw just anybody in the first round of the tournament, but Auburn, an in-state foe just 55 miles away. This not only means it would extra meaningful for them to play a competitive game against them, but they probably already know them a bit more than they know, say, Michigan State.
You'll notice, however, that I made this a first half bet only. It's important to cut this bet as short as you can make it. The Hornets, playing with nothing to lose, are more likely to keep this close-ish in the beginning than keeping it close-ish throughout. If you can get a line on Alabama State in the first 10 minutes or the first five minutes of the game, take that instead.
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