Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Too Many Big East Conference NCAA Bids

I thought the Big East Conference Tournament was last week, but apparently the tournament lives into the future some call the NCAA tournament.

The NCAA selected 11 Big East teams for its tournament. That is 24 percent of the entire 68-team field. Is the Big East that worthy? Are the teams that good? Can you say East Coast bias?

Yes, the Big East is rated the No. 1 power conference. But really are its 9-9 conference teams better than someone else’s 9-9 conference teams?

Connecticut finished 9-9, but won the Big East tournament. So yes, the Huskies should qualify. But what about the only 9-9 teams, Villanova and Marquette? Villanova finished on a long losing streak; Marquette was 20-14 overall. I guess if you are Villanova and Marquette, membership does have its privileges.

The NCAA is robbing fan interest. The NCAA should not be giving mediocre teams bids from power conferences. I know I live in a glass house, but isn’t the beauty of the NCAA tournament upsets from smaller schools? You limit the number of smaller schools; you limit the possibility of upsets.

Just ask a school like Missouri State that has been repeatedly a NCAA snub—including this season.

2 comments:

Pythagoras said...

"The NCAA selected 11 Big East teams for its tournament. That is 24 percent of the entire 68-team field."

Math is hard.

Paul Delger said...

The math really doesn't matter now. There is only one team left.