After a frivolity-filled night highlighted by VCU’s fourth win in nine days, I’m feeling pretty good. VCU is indeed elite, and another three wins will put them on top of a very significant mountain. The city of Richmond will be throttled back into sports relevance with its first national champion of significance. VCU’s recruiting will be insanely good. Shaka Smart will undoubtedly get a raise. People will actually be proud to represent the 804 once again. All of that is well and good- and even if VCU gets demolished by Kansas on Sunday, they still will have made a great run that the University can be proud of.
Now let’s look at a not-so-great impact that VCU will eventually have regardless of where they finish in the tournament. I’m talking about tournament expansion.
You know, it really feels like just yesterday that we were all going on and on about how bad expansion would be. In fact, I think it’s pretty safe to say that never has a suggested course of action been hated by so many people yet still been dangerously close to happening. Of course, it all comes down to the almighty dollar and how much money can be earned. While all the millions of fans can’t imagine how watered down the college basketball postseason might become with 96 teams instead of the current 68, the people that stand to profit from the additional 28 teams are the ones ultimately calling the shots and making the decisions- the NCAA, CBS, and now Turner broadcasting.
Throughout the course of the upset-prone regular season, we all heard the messages that were beat into our heads by journalists, commentators, and fans alike. With such a weak bubble this year, a 96-team tournament would be astronomically boring. It was said repeatedly, over and over and over until I wanted to scream. Imagine a team like UAB, who was embarrassed by Clemson in the first of the four play in games, actually favored to win a game. That could be the world we someday live in if the 96-team tournament comes to fruition, and believe me, it’s not a pretty one. Imagine becoming prematurely bored of March Madness, mentally favoring replaying the Modern Warfare 2 campaign for the eighth time over watching 10th seeded Wichita State take on 19th seeded Tennessee Valley Tech. I don’t know about you, my wonderful readers, but that potential future game doesn’t exactly make me want to start microwaving some popcorn and call the guys over. Yet it could happen. Justification, thy name is VCU.
Even with all the criticism and scrutiny revolving around the selection committee’s choices this year, here we sit in the first year of the “First Four” with one of the teams firmly entrenched in the Elite Eight. VCU sits three wins away from the national championship, and many people didn’t even think they deserved a bid. What if they hadn’t gotten one, though? What if a team that could potentially end up winning the national championship was left out of the entire NCAA tournament? No one would think twice if VCU had been left out 13 days ago, but knowing what we know now, it would be an absolute travesty if the Rams were playing in anything but the Big Dance this month. If you’re the NCAA, and you’re looking at a national championship-contending team that could easily have not even have been selected for this tournament, wouldn’t you at least consider the possibility that tournament expansion must happen simply out of respect for all the future VCU’s of the world? You can certainly make the case. And if you’re a money-hungry organization that is already looking to make a profitable change to how things run, all you’re looking for is justification. Overall consequences be damned, as long as you can make $100 million more.
This is the conversation that I fear will happen sometime in the very near future. And frankly, it’s ludicrous.
Honestly, did any of you not know that teams can get hot? I feel like its common sense. Cleveland State, Hofstra, Montana, Long Beach State, Portland- these are all teams that you may have never even heard of, but they could have won a game in the NCAA tournament. They could have won multiple games in the NCAA tournament. They also could have fell flat on their faces and got blown out by 40 points. The greatest part of March Madness is that anything is possible year in and year out, but that doesn’t mean that you should include every team simply because they could potentially win a game! On paper, VCU is a team that finished fourth in the CAA on a slide, yet reached the title game of the CAA tournament. On paper, you could easily argue that VCU cut someone else in line for their NCAA bid. On paper, VCU has been outmatched in every game they’ve played in and should not have won a single game in the last nine days.
Luckily for us, and despite what you’re bracket is printed out on, March Madness does not occur on paper. It happens in real, living color. As the drama unfolds in front of our eyes every third month of the year, we are shocked by upsets because the upsets shouldn’t happen, but it doesn’t mean they can’t happen. For this reason, VCU is an anomaly; they are the exception that proves the rule. A team that does not prove themselves during the regular season does not belong in the NCAA tournament, and the men with all the power should NOT expand the tournament to bail them all out. Teams that do not belong should stay on the outside and work their way in, and the experience will mean all the more to them by the end.
But every once in a while… a team might come around that, in the general public’s eyes, does not belong. And they remind us of why we love March.
1 comment:
Thiss was great to read
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