A major-ly dumb idea

 A few dates for you now, as college buckets start gearing up for another season:

March 18, 2005.

March 21, 2014.

March 18, 2016.

March 16, 2018. 

All of which are entered into evidence as proof West Virginia coach Bob Huggins may be a future Hall of Fame coach, but he's not a present Hall of Fame thinker. This after he floated the old idea at the Big 12 basketball media day of the Power 5 conferences breaking off from the NCAA and playing their own March Madness.

"I think it's more 'Why wouldn't they?' than 'Why would they?'" Huggins said. "And then, the other people, they can have their own tournament."

Um ... no, Bob. And you know why?

Because "the other people" are the ones who put the Madness in March Madness. 

Because no one tunes in to see the seventh-best team in the Big Ten "upset" the fourth-best team in the ACC.

Because the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is what makes the NCAA Tournament, and that goes directly back to the dates mentioned above.

On March 18, 2005, see, Bucknell knocked off Kansas.

And on March 21, 2014, Mercer kicked Duke to the curb.

And on March 18, 2016, 15-seed Middle Tennessee State stunned  2-seed Michigan State -- and two years later, on March 16, 2018, 16-seed UMBC went Middle Tennessee one better, becoming the only 16-seed in the history of Da Tournament to upend a 1-seed (Virginia).

That's why people watch. 

That's why they fill out brackets, why they sneak around behind their bosses' backs to organize office pools, why the first two days of the Madness are America's official Hooky Days.

The Bucknells and Mercers and Middle Tennessees and UMBCs, they make March what it is. Send them off to play their own tournament, and, yes, you might get more colossal matchups among the Power 5s. But it wouldn't be nearly as much fun. 

It wouldn't be March, you get right down to it.

So, thanks, Bob, but no thanks. And watch out for Bucknell.