March Sadness: NCAA Fails Again to Give Fans Proper Tournament

The NCAA has proven once again to be incapable of doing its job. This year, as always, the selection committee for the men’s basketball tournament has shown how bad it is at determining which teams deserve to play for the national championship.

Every year, we see the same sad narrative play out. People clamor for “upsets” and “cinderellas,” when they are missing the point. The selection committee continues to reward teams who don’t deserve to be celebrated.

The committee comes up with some bizarre, roundabout ways of determining which teams are better than the others. They latch on to advanced metrics like “strength of schedule,” “wins vs. Top 50 opponents,” “points per game,” and all the other sabermetric nonsense that is ruining sports. They fail to consider the most important test of all: the eye test.

Consider Virginia. While many fans were stunned when they became the first #1 seed to lose to a #16 seed, anyone who had paid attention all year could have seen that coming. Virginia cruised into the tournament playing in a weak and overrated ACC conference. So, the conference had nine teams in the tournament – if they were any good, how come none of them made the Final Four?

If you had watched Virginia all year, you would have seen that they were a “defensive juggernaut,” which is code for “can’t score any points.” All of a sudden, casual viewers who have never seen UMBC play basketball – REAL basketball, unlike what those frauds at UVA do – they’re shocked when the better team wins. Virginia barely even belonged in the tournament to begin with if you ask me, and they showed why.

Are people really surprised that Loyola Chicago is in the Final Four? They haven’t lost since January, and every team they’ve played along the way had lost within just a week or two of the tournament.

Not to mention Sister Jean, the team’s chaplain, is a literal saint, meaning they have God on their side, and God has never lost a game of basketball before. Some call that “divine intervention.” I call it the best sixth man a team could have on its roster.

Usually, college football is the focus of scrutiny when it comes to playoff selection, but basketball should be no exception. Even on the court, the committee showed the same bias for the SEC that it does on the gridiron.

Alabama didn’t play in its conference championship game, yet still made it into the playoff field – sound familiar? Nick Saban must be the basketball coach and the football coach the way Alabama sports are given the benefit of the doubt.

It is more than apparent that the NCAA is intentionally rigging the seeding of the tournament for one reason – ratings. They want to make sure people are watching, and what better way to do that then by fabricating these stories of David v. Goliath every week. If nobody were watching, how would these schools be able to afford to pay these kids in school work and valuable life lessons?

Virginia, Xavier, Cincinnati, Michigan State – anyone with a brain would have seen that these teams were being overhyped for attention. If the NCAA were honest, they wouldn’t have made Loyola or Michigan play any games before the Final Four.

The NCAA, a bastion of integrity and fairness in sports, is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. While usually free from mistakes or wrongdoing, these actions leave a stain that may be too deep to wash out.