In case you haven't figured it out by now, I am a huge BCS homer. I've made the case, right or wrong, that for years, the "mid-majors" have been getting screwed by the NCAA tourney system. I honestly believe, if you were to start a tournament and let in nine teams from the CAA and 1 team from the Big East or ACC or any other BCS conference, no matter what team it was, we would have a CAA Champion a vast majority of the times the tourney is played.
The BCS homers like Packer and Phelps will point to the fact that mid-majors don't win championships and the pedigree teams do, which is why they deserve more bids. Flawed logic at best, but you would expect no less from them. It's simply a numbers game. They let in 10-15 VERY low majors who have very little chance of ever winning a game (Hampton is the only one that comes to mind right now), then they let in 5-10 very good "mid-major" teams that are capable of pulling an upset or two. You usually get at least a couple every year, despite the fact that they are always high seeds and have to play the best teams right away.
Meanwhile, some of the high majors pretty much get byes into the round of 32. Then if a 1 or a 2 gets upset by a 7-10, its not considered THAT bad, even though its the first real team that 1 or 2 has actually played.
The overall point I am trying to make here is that the playing field is nowhere near level right now. Some of the BCS teams that are considered "bubble teams" right now aren't any better than teams like VCU, Siena, Creighton, BYU, UNLV, and perhaps even teams like George Mason, Northeastern, Northern Iowa, Ark. Little-Rock, etc. You give me a tourney with those teams and teams like Arizona, Kansas St., Cincy, Georgetown, Oklahoma St., Providence, Penn St. and Baylor and I am not only picking a mid-major team to win it, I'd pick 75% of the mid-major teams to win the first round games against the big boys.
You can say I'm crazy or claim I am a mid-major homer, but the fact is, it isn't any crazier than giving 85-90% of the at-larges to BCS teams and then claiming that they are "better" because they advance more teams to the sweet 16 and on into the Final games. Like I said, switch the tables and see what happens. There is a reason that BCS teams don't go on the road early in the season to mid-major gyms, they are scared and aren't confident of victory. The reason it doesn't "help them" is because d-bags like Packer and Phelps wouldn't acknowledge wins at VCU or at Siena as good wins, even though it is very tough to win in either of those gyms.
I'm sure I am rambling a bit, but this is something I feel very strongly about. Gonzaga can compete with anyone, Butler can compete with anyone, Davidson showed what they could do, VCU showed what they could do, GMU showed what they were capable of, I could go on and on. The point is, they need to realize that mid-major bubble teams deserve just as much right to be there as BCS bubble teams do.
I think the solution is simple. Move the tourney back a week or two weeks from the end of the conference tourneys. Probably two weeks works best. Then, have the "bubble teams", mid-majors and BCS teams alike, play for the last 10 at-large spots into the tourney. Let VCU play Baylor for that last at-large spot. Let Creighton and Cincy go at it. It would be like a second tourney INSIDE the NCAA tourney. Who wouldn't watch this? And by delaying the tourney an extra week or two, the teams will be able to rest and the game won't fatigue the winning team for the rest of the tourney. They already have a play-in game for the 16 seed, why not have play-in games for the 10-12 seeds? 24 teams, 12 spots, 1 game and you are in.
Nah, that makes way too much sense. Let's just move on. Here are the non-BCS teams I believe should be in the tourney and who are capable of doing some damage:
UAB - 16-8. Yes, I know what you are thinking. 16-8 in CUSA? You must be kidding. I'm not. I've watched them play. They are a VERY good team. Vaden is one of the best players in college basketball and most people have never heard of him. Look at their losses: Oklahoma, Boston College, at Cincy, At Louisville, at Butler, at Houston, at Memphis, and at Tulsa. Tulsa is 17-8, Houston is 15-7. Not a bad team on that list. They haven't lost at home all year. They probably won't even make the tourney, but they would be a dangerous team if they did. They are a 4 point road loss to Butler and a 1 point road loss to Tulsa from being 18-6. They would definetly be one of the teams I would invite to the 24 team "play-in" tourney.
Dayton - 22-3. This is a heck of a basketball team. I've been on Dayton from the getgo. They have been one of my favorite teams all season because they play basketball the right way. They've pulled off some great wins against George Mason, Marquette, Xavier, at Duquesne, St. Joe's among others. They definetly have a sweet 16 look to them. I wouldn't even put them in the 24 team tourney, they are surely in right now.
Xavier 20-4. They are well in. One of the best non-BCS teams in the country. But since everyone already knows about them, I won't waste the time talking about them. Could easily make the sweet 16 this year.
Buffalo 16-5. Buffalo! Shocking I know, but this team could be very dangerous if they were to get into the tourney. As the auto-qualified from the MAC, they could do some damage as a 12 or 13. Look at their losses: UConn (by 4 points!), Niagara by 4, at Siena, at Evansville, at Bowling Green by 4. They played some very good teams and were in it in every game. Staying within 4 of UConn is VERY impressive. Niagra and Siena are both very good teams that could win in March and we will discuss later in this post.
18-7 Northern Iowa, 20-6 Creighton. Lumping them together. Alot depends on how they perform in the Bracketbusters. If they both win and get some other MVC results to go their way, it could be a 2 bid league. If they lose, who knows. Both teams are very dangerous and the MVC is never fun to play in the first round of the tourney for BCS teams.
Will finish part two tomorrow, including looks at some MWC teams, some WAC teams and yes, even some CAA teams.
