MylesKnight
03-15-2006, 06:28 PM
Funny article from the Orlando Sentinel.. A member of the BCS Cartel whining about fairness.. :D
COMMENTARY
No free pass for big schools into NCAA tourney
Mike Bianchi
SPORTS COMMENTARY
March 15, 2006
Forgive Dave Hart.
He cannot help who he is.
He is an athletic director at a football school who doesn't get why the NCAA basketball tournament isn't run like the Bowl Championship Series. He doesn't quite grasp why the six BCS power leagues don't get a free pass into the NCAA Tournament like they do into major bowl games.
"If the agendas have become more political in nature then somebody needs to step up and admit it," said Hart, the Florida State AD who seems to think the mid-major conferences conspired to keep his Seminoles out of the NCAA Tournament.
Can you say Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Can you believe we are actually hearing a respected athletic director at a big BCS school claiming that there is an unjust system in place that rewards the small schools?
Everybody all at once now: Awww, those poor big schools!
Let me say this: I disagree with Florida State's exclusion from the NCAA Tournament and thought the Seminoles did enough to merit an invitation. But, please, stop the ridiculous rhetoric about how these poor, mistreated big conferences are being ganged-up on by those mean ol' mid-majors. That's as silly as the pitbull owner complaining about the vicious, bloodthirsty chihuahua that lives next door. Everybody knows the mid-majors have been getting shafted for years in football and basketball.
Incredibly, Hart called a news conference Monday to protest the inordinate amount of mid-majors receiving bids. That's not only ludicrous, it's misleading. Major conferences received 26 at-large bids this year. Only eight went to mid-majors.
I might have been willing to pay more attention to such nonsense if Hart had called a similar news conference last December after his football team won the ACC with a pedestrian 8-4 record and announced: "We haven't earned the right to go to the Orange Bowl to get paid $15 million. We're giving our bid to TCU, a deserving mid-major team that finished the season 10-1."
That would never happen because the BCS boys have an arrogant sense of entitlement. The power leagues control the lucrative football postseason and it's driving them nuts that they can't get their grubby little mitts on every penny of the basketball billions, too.
We can only pray that the NCAA Tournament -- the most exciting and inspirational postseason in all of sports -- never mimics the BCS -- the most inept and corrupt postseason in all of sports. Just because BCS conferences have seven bowl tie-ins and can get their football teams into the postseason with mediocre records and weak non-conference schedules doesn't mean it should be the same in basketball.
Hart and FSU basketball Coach Leonard Hamilton knew their non-conference schedule would be a major criterion considered by the selection committee. Still, the Seminoles' non-conference schedule was ranked 316th out of 334 teams. Why? Because Hamilton admitted he didn't think he would have a very good team and scheduled sure wins to give his players confidence. Hamilton made a conscious decision and knew the potential consequences.
"It seems some people in automatic-qualifying BCS conferences feel that their basketball programs should get the same treatment as their football teams," says Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson, former NCAA Tournament Selection Committee chairman. "Basketball's different. In basketball, the postseason is open for everybody and the teams that have had the best seasons generally get in."
This is why we love the NCAA Tournament so vehemently.
This is why we hate the BCS so violently.
This is why Dave Hart is Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Mike Bianchi can be reached at [email protected].
COMMENTARY
No free pass for big schools into NCAA tourney
Mike Bianchi
SPORTS COMMENTARY
March 15, 2006
Forgive Dave Hart.
He cannot help who he is.
He is an athletic director at a football school who doesn't get why the NCAA basketball tournament isn't run like the Bowl Championship Series. He doesn't quite grasp why the six BCS power leagues don't get a free pass into the NCAA Tournament like they do into major bowl games.
"If the agendas have become more political in nature then somebody needs to step up and admit it," said Hart, the Florida State AD who seems to think the mid-major conferences conspired to keep his Seminoles out of the NCAA Tournament.
Can you say Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Can you believe we are actually hearing a respected athletic director at a big BCS school claiming that there is an unjust system in place that rewards the small schools?
Everybody all at once now: Awww, those poor big schools!
Let me say this: I disagree with Florida State's exclusion from the NCAA Tournament and thought the Seminoles did enough to merit an invitation. But, please, stop the ridiculous rhetoric about how these poor, mistreated big conferences are being ganged-up on by those mean ol' mid-majors. That's as silly as the pitbull owner complaining about the vicious, bloodthirsty chihuahua that lives next door. Everybody knows the mid-majors have been getting shafted for years in football and basketball.
Incredibly, Hart called a news conference Monday to protest the inordinate amount of mid-majors receiving bids. That's not only ludicrous, it's misleading. Major conferences received 26 at-large bids this year. Only eight went to mid-majors.
I might have been willing to pay more attention to such nonsense if Hart had called a similar news conference last December after his football team won the ACC with a pedestrian 8-4 record and announced: "We haven't earned the right to go to the Orange Bowl to get paid $15 million. We're giving our bid to TCU, a deserving mid-major team that finished the season 10-1."
That would never happen because the BCS boys have an arrogant sense of entitlement. The power leagues control the lucrative football postseason and it's driving them nuts that they can't get their grubby little mitts on every penny of the basketball billions, too.
We can only pray that the NCAA Tournament -- the most exciting and inspirational postseason in all of sports -- never mimics the BCS -- the most inept and corrupt postseason in all of sports. Just because BCS conferences have seven bowl tie-ins and can get their football teams into the postseason with mediocre records and weak non-conference schedules doesn't mean it should be the same in basketball.
Hart and FSU basketball Coach Leonard Hamilton knew their non-conference schedule would be a major criterion considered by the selection committee. Still, the Seminoles' non-conference schedule was ranked 316th out of 334 teams. Why? Because Hamilton admitted he didn't think he would have a very good team and scheduled sure wins to give his players confidence. Hamilton made a conscious decision and knew the potential consequences.
"It seems some people in automatic-qualifying BCS conferences feel that their basketball programs should get the same treatment as their football teams," says Mountain West Conference Commissioner Craig Thompson, former NCAA Tournament Selection Committee chairman. "Basketball's different. In basketball, the postseason is open for everybody and the teams that have had the best seasons generally get in."
This is why we love the NCAA Tournament so vehemently.
This is why we hate the BCS so violently.
This is why Dave Hart is Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
Mike Bianchi can be reached at [email protected].