'BCS-ization' Threatens March's Marvel

It is a good thing that the folks who now run the NCAA tournament didn't run the Indiana high school basketball tournament back in the day. If they had, Hoosiers would be just another goofy Midwestern nickname and Gene Hackman's resume would be less one memorable role.

That's because the NCAA tournament selection process is increasingly biased nowadays. It favors the haves and discriminates against the have-littles. It is turning the college basketball championship into just another weekend of games on ESPN or CBS. It is slowly but surely exorcising the marvel of madness from March.

It is, you could say, BCS-izing what has been the most widely anticipated playoff in all of sports, college or pro.

After all, what made the NCAA Tournament a must-see event wasn't so much the seemingly ubiquitous buzzer-beating game-winning shot like the one that gave N.C. State its title against Houston. It was more the possibility of seeing some little college with an oxymoronic name like Cleveland State knock off a legendary powerhouse like Indiana with Bob Knight at the bow.

We were reminded of that Sunday when Cleveland State was returned to the 64-team (I don't count the ridiculous play-in game) tournament for the first time since its appearance in 1986 against Knight's Hoosiers, when it was the last team to get into the tournament with an at-large invitation rather than one of the automatic conference champion's tickets. That year, Cleveland State did, indeed, trip up Knight's Hoosiers. It made it all the way to the Sweet 16, where it lost to another surprising survivor, Navy, led by a sprouting Midshipman named David Robinson.

Bracket Busters

Florida State Seminoles: How tall are the Seminoles? Let's just say they could change every light bulb in your house without borrowing a ladder. They're long and athletic and have Toney Douglas, a dynamic guard who is exactly the type of player you want to avoid in the NCAA tournament.

Kevin C. Cox, Getty Images

American Eagles: Coach Jeff Jones says he hasn't watched the whole tape from last year's opening-round loss to Tennessee, but the Vols might not have either. American put a scare into Tennessee last year and return with seven seniors, including Garrison Carr, the school's all-time leading 3-point shooter.

Evan Vucci, AP

Siena Saints: How do we know Siena can turn your brakcets into scrap paper in a single game? The Saints did it last year, dispatching Vanderbilt as a No. 13 seed. Led by Kenny Hansbrouck, they return their three top scorers from a year ago and played a schedule that took them to Kansas and Pittsburgh.

Tim Roske, AP

Virginia Commonwealth Rams: Mike Krzyzewski couldn't stop this team in the opening round two years ago, and the Rams have only gotten better. Back is point guard Eric Maynor, who almost single-handedly beat Duke and this time he's part of one of the best inside-outside combos in college basketball with double-double forward Larry Sanders. They don't have the depth of a power conference school, but they've probably got better coaching with Anthony Grant, Billy Donovan's former right-hand man.

Scott k. Brown, AP

Boston College Eagles: The Eagles seem to be a team in need of motivation. They knocked off North Carolina in Chapel Hill only to lose to Harvard. They beat Duke only to lose to N.C. State and then came within a single point of knocking Duke off again in the ACC tournament. Needless to say, no one takes teams lightly in the NCAA tournament, so good luck stopping a fired up Tyrese Rice.

John Bazemore, AP

West Virginia: You might like the Mountaineers, but the computers love them. A year after their surprising run to the Sweet 16, West Virginia is one of only three teams with efficiency ratings in the top 16 on both offense and defense, a great sign that they'll outperform their seed. The other two? Duke and Gonzaga.

Julie Jacobson, AP

Gonzaga: Gonzaga turned a Cinderella 1999 run into a regular spot in the NCAA tournament and has now almost made the leap in the public's mind to overrated major. But this year, the 'Zags are for real. They've lost just once since January and are the only team in the nation in the top 10 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.

Jae C. Hong, AP

North Dakota State Bison: They punched their ticket to the dance in their first opportunity (Take notes, Northwestern) and have a great formula for mid-major success, an excellent senior core and a great touch from 3-point range. The Bison shot better than 40 percent from long range, 10th best in the nation.

Eric Landwehr, AP

BYU Cougars: The Cougars are rated 18th in the nation by Ken Pomeroy, which suggests they could vastly out-perform their seed. They haven't lost a game by more than six points since Jan. 17 and do the single most important thing in basketball well, shoot. They're effective field goal percentage is seventh in the nation.

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Michigan Wolverines: The Wolverines have already proven they can beat the nation's best, ousting UCLA on a neutral court in November and dumping Duke at home in December, and they're exactly the kind of team that can cause trouble in any one-game scenario -- nearly half of all Michigan shots are 3-pointers. Don't pick them to win six, but watch out in the first round.

Jonathan Daniel, Getty Images

There hasn't been a more unlikely pairing so deep in the tournament since Cleveland State versus Navy and there isn't likely to be one anytime soon with the way the selection committee is handing out berths now. For what it did on Sunday was almost fraudulent if the committee is selling us that this is college basketball's top division championship tournament that is about to tip off.

In truth, it looks like what is about to commence is college basketball's top football conference basketball tournament. Others need not register.

To be sure, a whopping four schools from conferences other than those that run college football's championship cartel called the BCS were invited to participate in this year's basketball tournament as was Cleveland State almost a quarter century ago, with one of 34 at-large invitations. The lucky four became Xavier, Dayton, Butler and BYU.

Saint Mary's of the WCC couldn't get in despite a 26-6 record, a third of it put together despite losing to injury its All-America guard Patty Mills. It did lose three times to its league champion Gonzaga, a perennial small fish in the NCAA Tournament's big pond. But Maryland lost three times to ACC tournament champion Duke, didn't have a winning regular-season conference record, and got in.

San Diego State sported a 23-9 record, and a top 40 mark in the supposedly all-important RPI measurement, and didn't get in. It even played but lost its league tournament title.

"This tournament is about the best teams," explained SEC commissioner and current selection committee chair Mike Slive during a Monday teleconference. "It's not designed to social engineer college basketball.

"Our job is to pick the best 34 teams, not to protect or hurt any particular grouping of teams."

But most of the teams come from the same conferences more and more now, just like they always have in the arranged marriage college football stuffs down our throats as a legitimate championship called the Bowl Championship Series.

This is a trend and it is not a good one. In 2004, a dozen so-called mid-major schools won at-large bids to the basketball tournament. In 2005, there were nine. Last year, half a dozen were lucky. At this rate, the small conferences may as well secede and start their own playoff, which I suspect the big conferences wouldn't step up to stop.

There has been lots of justifying in recent years why smaller schools can't catch the same breaks as the bigger schools. They don't play as tough of schedules is one of the most-echoed lines, and it is true. But why reward big schools with less-than stellar records against tough schedules they inherit, and penalize smaller schools with stellar records against weaker opponents they inherit?

Latest College Basketball Images

Temple's Dionte Christmas, right, T.J. DiLeon, left, and Micheal Eric, center, run drills during practice in Philadelphia on Monday, March 16, 2009. Temple faces Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA college men's basketball tournament Friday. (AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek)

American University coach Jeff Jones, right, watches practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Washington. American faces Villanova in the first round of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

American forward Jordan Nichols, left, talks with guard Derrick Mercer, right, during practice at American University to get ready for their first round NCAA basketball game Monday, March 16, 2009 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Northwestern's Craig Moore participates in a shoot around Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

From left, Northwestern's Matt Steger, Craig Moore, and Ivan Peljusic chat before practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Northwestern's Kevin Kobel talks with the media before practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT basketball tournament, on Wednesday, March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Northwestern's Kevin Kobel talks with teammates before practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT college basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Northwestern head basketball coach Bill Carmody watches Davide Curletti shoot during practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Carmody's Wildcats will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT basketball tournament, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Northwestern head basketball coach Bill Carmody watches his team practice Monday, March 16, 2009, in Evanston, Ill. Northwestern will play Tulsa in the first round of the NIT college basketball tournament on Wednesday. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Ontario Lett (R) of Jordan's Zain looks at Lebanon's Al-Riyadi coach Fuad Abou Chakra during their West Asian Clubs Championship basketball game in Amman March 16, 2009. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (JORDAN SPORT BASKETBALL)

Reuters

Also, big schools can pick and choose what schools outside of their conferences they play, while smaller schools are at the mercy of bigger schools to find bigger, stouter opponents. It is a situation not unlike the unequal terms of trade between the West and the developing world that keeps the developing world forever in a cycle of development.

"There really isn't much data that the committee doesn't think about or look at when we evaluate a team," Slive said. "Again, it's by team. We're not identifying or branding any school because they come from a particular conference. That is another element of fairness that we add to this mix."

It certainly doesn't seem fair. Aristocracy is being allowed to trample meritocracy. It is time some affirmative measure be taken to restore the fighting chance for the little guys that made March so marvelous.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Silver Spring, Md.