Smaller conferences deserve more NCAA bids

By Lew Freedman - Chicago Tribune     Mar 11, 2007

In the Sagarin Ratings Index of all-time great American debates, there is Lincoln-Douglas, Kennedy-Nixon and Big Ten-Big East. As in, should the sixth-place team in the Big Ten get in over the sixth-place team in the Big East?

Employing a blaze of purple prose, devotion undiluted by fact, and dedication undeterred by job obligations, the nation’s college basketball fans are compiling lists, sharpening vocabularies and honing closing arguments to tell the world just how the 65-team 2007 NCAA men’s bracket should be filled.

It is an annual debate, with the Big 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference frequently sharing lead actor roles with the Big Ten and the Big East.

Each season there are about 330 eligible bachelors seeking an invitation to the Big Dance come March. Reputations are made and jobs hinge on receiving bids to the tournament.

To me, however, the true March Madness is the debate. My answer to the Big Ten, Big East and the other so-called power conferences on the topic of sixth-place teams is: None of the above. Hello, NIT.

Major conferences are spoiled. They believe it is their John Wooden-given right to participate in March Madness as long as they are 8-8 in league play. Sorry, .500 league teams should not be rewarded. Their coaches should recruit better players.

The NCAA does not pretend to put the best 65 teams on the floor for its spirited, three-week free-for-all.

The NCAA invites champions of all Division I conferences and then fills at-large spots by locking a group of wise men in a room for deliberation. When a plume of white smoke is seen, we have a bracket.

Conference tournaments provide second chances, excitement and revenue, but they also diminish the value of the regular season, writing it off as four months of amusement.

I think the NCAA should change policies and invite teams that win a championship of any kind.

Continue to offer an automatic berth to each conference’s tournament champ. But also offer an automatic berth to the champion of the regular season.

Yes, reward both champions.

If that means the Patriot League gets two automatic bids and the ACC gets “only” five, tough. Those Patriot League coaches and players at least can say they accomplished something meaningful to get into the NCAAs.

The biggest name conferences do not operate on the belief that all schools are created equal. The rise of midmajor programs is costly to them. It is possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars out of their pockets if second schools from a Horizon League or Metro Atlantic advance to the NCAAs.

When the NCAA threatened to impose rules that would have crippled preseason tournaments like the Great Alaska Shootout and the Maui Invitational a handful of years ago, commissioners of power conferences were in favor. Why? Greed. Each school would have been permitted to schedule an additional home game and keep the bonus gate revenue. And the Dukes, Kansas’ and Ohio States could duck the icky specter of being forced to play a talented small-conference team on a neutral court it never would have scheduled willingly.

Many big schools won’t play mid-major teams. If they deign to schedule them it must be at their place, reducing the odds of an upset. If a big school agrees to play on the lesser-known school’s home floor it is usually a two-games-at-my-house-for-one-at-yours deal.

The NCAA could legislate a fairer college basketball playing field with one swoop, declaring all Division I teams play the same number of games home and away, then we’ll see who has the best records.

By the Final Four last season, the country was an oversized George Mason fan club. But during regionals, fans adopted and rooted for Monmouth against top-seed Villanova and for Albany State against top-seed Connecticut. The No. 1 seed is 88-0 against the No. 16 seed since the NCAA committed to its present tournament format, but few expect that perfect record to last much longer.

On the day the milestone upset occurs, more college basketball fans will cheer for that underdog than cry for the big dog.

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