March Mediocrity

 Word out of college basketball today is the NCAA is about to expand its cash-cow men's and women's basketball tournaments to 76 teams, and, oh, goody. I can't wait.

I can't wait to see eight play-in games instead of four, which is the current plan for the expanded tournaments. I can't wait to see, on the women's side, Geno Auriemma pound a couple more teams 70-12 in the early rounds. 

Now, I'm sure there are folks out there who think this wouldn't be such a bad deal. More March Madness is more March Madness, right? Especially if it means more of those fan-favorite Power 4 mids get in. 

Which of course is what this is all about.

It certainly isn't about the Ivy League, the Patriot League or the MEAC getting another team or two into March Madness, even if that team goes 27-2 and then stubs its toe in the conference tournament. Oh, hell, no. Let 'em continue to eat NIT cake, the posers.

No, this is so the selection committee can wedge even more Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 teams into the show, whether or not they deserve to be there. The Power 4 poobahs -- most notably Greg Sankey from the SEC -- have been bitching and moaning 'til hell won't have it about how these small-conference automatic bids deprive some of their back-marker schools from getting in. It just tain't fair.

 "We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers (from smaller leagues), and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of (conference) expansion ..." Sankey said in 2024.

This was right before his conference got a record 14 teams into last year's NCAA Tournament.

Fourteen teams! And I bet some of 'em actually breached the .500 mark in conference play.

The SEC put 10 teams into the Madness this time around, leaving out the likes of Auburn (7-11 in conference) and Oklahoma (ditto). Add another eight teams to the pile, and they'd have likely gotten in. 

Ditto the Big Ten, which was represented by nine teams but left Indiana (9-11 in conference), Minnesota (8-12) and USC (7-13) curbside. Again, add eight more teams, and at least two of those might have squeezed through the door.

The ACC? Eight teams this year, including an SMU squad that went 8-10 in conference. 

Big 12? Also eight teams, including Central Florida, BYU and Baylor, which finished a combined 24-30 in conference play.

To reiterate: Oh, goody.

Look. The Blob has been shouting this to the heavens until it's blue in the face, which is nothing anyone needs to see: The first two days of March Madness are what sell the whole deal, and no one's tuning into them to see some crud Big 12 school play some crud SEC school in that riveting 8-9 matchup. No, sir. They're tuning in to see, I don't know, Hofstra take down North Carolina or some such thing. 

The little guys are the heartbeat of the Madness. So now we're going to add eight more Power 4 cruds to the mix? How does this do anything but let the Power 4s stuff even more cash in their already bulging pockets?

It certainly doesn't make the tournament more attractive. Or maybe adding even more March Mediocrity to March Madness is some genius-level strategy mere mortals fail to grasp.

Nah.