The Storm Before the Madness
-John Scognamiglio
I know this is a Truman Sports board, and there are plenty of things I could be discussing, for example, the women's swimming team's 6th-straight national championship, or the Bulldogs falling in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. But on the eve of the first day of the Div. I NCAA tournament (all apologies to Monmouth), I feel it is my duty to report on something that has really made me mad ... No, furious.
After the loss to Central Missouri, I came home Sunday looking forward to Selection Sunday and watching the show, something of a tradition for me the past couple of years. This year, I was really pysched about how much love mid-major conferences got from everyone. One conference this year just leapt off the charts this season: the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Valley last year got three bids to the Big Dance, and this year, Conference Commissioner Doug Elgin said he thought six teams could get into the tournament. Most people thought the Valley was good enough for five bids, including ESPN.com's bracketologist Joe Lunardi. The odd man out was supposed to be Creighton, and even they had a respectable RPI.
Imagine my surprise when they are announcing the last 16 teams when I saw Northern Iowa announced as the 10 seed in the Minnesota region. It was not as much a surprise as Northern Iowa, because they've had a good season. It was the immediate thought that Missouri State was going to get snubbed.
I feel for Coach Barry Hinson and the Bears. All they did was put together a top-25 RPI team, and they now have the rather dubious distinction of having the highest RPI rating ever to not be invited to the Big Dance. Their RPI was 21.
The real firestorm occurred after the pairings were announced when Billy Packer, that bastion of unbiased tournament opinions (cough cough), lit into Committee Chairman Greg Littlepage for not inviting more teams from major conferences. The world is going to end since the MVC got the same number of bids as the ACC. Oh no ... Start stocking up on bottled water and canned goods.
It's quite simple. The Valley this year played by the NCAA's rules to maximize their chances. They scheduled tough non-conference games to build up their RPI standings, and when conference season rolled around, they just ran into each other, creating one of the most competitive conferences in all the NCAA divisions ... except maybe the MIAA.
For Billy Packer to just go to bat for teams like Cincinnati and Maryland and Florida State while pushing down other deserving teams is exactly why this tournament is so great. Everybody likes an underdog, and who are the underdogs? Mid-major teams are the underdogs. There is only one way to make everyone happy, and that's have a mega-tournament with all 326 Division I teams.
The fact of the matter is this: We are finally starting to see parity in all conferences, and almost anyone can win. It's been 20+ years now since 8th-seeded Villanova upset the top-ranked Hoyas of Georgetown, and there have been teams that have gone to great postseason success. Now that teams in the Valley have proven they can hang with almost any team, don't be surprised next year if more mid-major conferences call on the big dogs for games. Maryland head coach Gary Williams opened a can of worms when he called out Missouri State for not playing them. Now he can expect calls from all the Valley schools seeking games. Other conferences may come calling.
So when someone asks where you were in 2006, you can say you were at the birth of the greatest era of parity in the NCAA.
I know this is a Truman Sports board, and there are plenty of things I could be discussing, for example, the women's swimming team's 6th-straight national championship, or the Bulldogs falling in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. But on the eve of the first day of the Div. I NCAA tournament (all apologies to Monmouth), I feel it is my duty to report on something that has really made me mad ... No, furious.
After the loss to Central Missouri, I came home Sunday looking forward to Selection Sunday and watching the show, something of a tradition for me the past couple of years. This year, I was really pysched about how much love mid-major conferences got from everyone. One conference this year just leapt off the charts this season: the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Valley last year got three bids to the Big Dance, and this year, Conference Commissioner Doug Elgin said he thought six teams could get into the tournament. Most people thought the Valley was good enough for five bids, including ESPN.com's bracketologist Joe Lunardi. The odd man out was supposed to be Creighton, and even they had a respectable RPI.
Imagine my surprise when they are announcing the last 16 teams when I saw Northern Iowa announced as the 10 seed in the Minnesota region. It was not as much a surprise as Northern Iowa, because they've had a good season. It was the immediate thought that Missouri State was going to get snubbed.
I feel for Coach Barry Hinson and the Bears. All they did was put together a top-25 RPI team, and they now have the rather dubious distinction of having the highest RPI rating ever to not be invited to the Big Dance. Their RPI was 21.
The real firestorm occurred after the pairings were announced when Billy Packer, that bastion of unbiased tournament opinions (cough cough), lit into Committee Chairman Greg Littlepage for not inviting more teams from major conferences. The world is going to end since the MVC got the same number of bids as the ACC. Oh no ... Start stocking up on bottled water and canned goods.
It's quite simple. The Valley this year played by the NCAA's rules to maximize their chances. They scheduled tough non-conference games to build up their RPI standings, and when conference season rolled around, they just ran into each other, creating one of the most competitive conferences in all the NCAA divisions ... except maybe the MIAA.
For Billy Packer to just go to bat for teams like Cincinnati and Maryland and Florida State while pushing down other deserving teams is exactly why this tournament is so great. Everybody likes an underdog, and who are the underdogs? Mid-major teams are the underdogs. There is only one way to make everyone happy, and that's have a mega-tournament with all 326 Division I teams.
The fact of the matter is this: We are finally starting to see parity in all conferences, and almost anyone can win. It's been 20+ years now since 8th-seeded Villanova upset the top-ranked Hoyas of Georgetown, and there have been teams that have gone to great postseason success. Now that teams in the Valley have proven they can hang with almost any team, don't be surprised next year if more mid-major conferences call on the big dogs for games. Maryland head coach Gary Williams opened a can of worms when he called out Missouri State for not playing them. Now he can expect calls from all the Valley schools seeking games. Other conferences may come calling.
So when someone asks where you were in 2006, you can say you were at the birth of the greatest era of parity in the NCAA.
posted by Anonymous at Wednesday, March 15, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home