Dreamer's World March 17 2015 - March Madness

    March Madness is officially upon us and it begins this evening with the first 4 games in Dayton. I am not a fan of this arrangement, it adds an extra burden to teams that are already competing at a disadvantage since the winners will play again either Thursday or Friday. If I were in charge of the NCAA, I would just add another weekend to the tournament and have all the D1 teams play.

    I watched the tournament selection show on Sunday and was disappointed to see teams like Texas, Oklahoma State, and UCLA in the field at the expense of teams like Murray State and Colorado State. I really have an issue with Texas and Oklahoma State in particular. Both of those teams play in the Big 12 conference, and that has been one fo the very best conferences all season long. However, both Texas and Oklahoma State have losing records in that conference, and I believe that should disqualify them from consideration in the NCAA tournament.

    I have heard the arguments that they each played a tough schedule based solely on their conference, and yet they failed to win half of those games. At what point does a team playing a tough schedule and not doing well finally matter? Murray State and Colorado State do ont have the luxury of playing in the Big 12. It is entirely possible that they would also have losing records if they did play in the Big 12, but that is not the point. The point is that Murray State and Colorado State DID handle their business during the regular season, where as Texas and Oklahoma State did NOT!

    Of course there will always be teams that feel they were overlooked unfairly. Unless the tournament is expanded to cover every team, this is inevitable. However, teams that do well during the regular season SHOULD be in the NCAA and those who do not should not! This would not take spots away from teams with respectable records from big conferences, but it would stop the JOKE of having teams with losing conference records in the tournament. I understand and support the concept of any team winning a conference tournament getting in, regardless of record, but Texas and Oklahoma State couldn't even manage that!