Congratulations to the Oklahoma Sooners. Not only did they win the Orange Bowl, they also saved face for the Bowl Championship Series.
Note this reporter did not congratulate the Sooners for winning the national championship. In my eyes, there is no national champion in college football, nor will there be until every team that has a realistic chance to win it is included in the title process.
Which brings us to today's lesson, 10 reasons why college basketball is better than college football:
1. If the BCS ran college basketball, the Final Four teams would convene
in Minneapolis, ride in separate parade floats, then leave town without
actually playing one another. Fans of all four would immediately begin
ordering national championship commemoratives, shouting "We're No. 1" in
places like Norman, Tallahassee, Seattle and Miami.
2. If bracketologists ran college football, a playoff would be established in which every team with a reasonable chance to win the tournament is included. The argument that the last team left out of the bracket will complain is moot. The last team left out of the 64-team NCAA Tournament complains, too. But No. 65 doesn't have a realistic claim to the championship. Remember, the lowest seed to win the NCAA title was a No. 8 Villanova in 1985. At-large teams are included all the way down to the No. 12 or No. 13 seeds. This is a HUGE margin of error.
3. If the BCS ran college basketball, Duke (and others teams who've already lost like the Blue Devils) would already be eliminated from this season's national title hunt. The December loss at Stanford would have been fatal.
4. If bracketologists ran college football, the so-called "minor bowls" would be re-organized into the NIT of college football. A three- or four-week series would culminate in a mini-championship game at the highest rated bowl not part of the main playoff. Hey, people might even watch the Cotton Bowl again.
5. If the BCS ran college basketball, the nation's top teams would play their last regular season games in mid-February, then sit idle for 42 days awaiting a national championship game for which they'd be rusty and over-prepared.
6. If bracketologists ran college football, student-athletes with helmets would be allowed to compete in December the same way basketball players can. Why is it that football players can't leave campus for weekend games, while their basketball counterparts go anywhere, anytime during an allegedly pivotal academic month? If the response is the football season is too long, then stop playing games in August and early September when the weather is ridiculously hot.
7. If the BCS ran college basketball, any team seeded lower than No. 2 would play single games in random pairings as part of the Meaningless.com Invitational. Sites would include glamour destinations such as El Paso, Memphis, Detroit and Mobile, Ala.
8. If bracketologists ran college football, we would be subject to the same second-guessing, debate and projections that make basketball's Selection Sunday among the very best days in sports. We would then deliver a college football tournament that would shatter every record for ratings, exposure, interest and sponsorship dollars (not to mention office pools!).
9. If the BCS ran college basketball, 736 power ratings would be compiled to select and seed the NCAA Tournament field. Say what you want about the current NCAA men's basketball committee (and I have!!), but its members actually watch games and debate the merits of respective teams like human beings. They don't leave the job to computers, media members with axes to grind, sports information directors posing as coaches, and mathematicians who might not know one end of the football from the other.
10. If bracketologists ran college football, you'd get to read my bracket projections virtually year-round!
With that said, let's turn our attention permanently to a sport that truly understands how to determine its annual champion.
Media Watch: 'Dear Andy'
Since "Dear Abby" isn't available, let me direct these comments to my good friend Andy Katz.
If you read Andy's regular dispatches in these same cyberpages, you are treated to a volume of stories and college
basketball information unlike any in America. Andy is changing the way national college basketball is covered on a daily basis, and other major media are scrambling to keep up.
The best thing about being an ESPN.com colleague of Andy's is that the frequently heated debates we had years ago, when working together at Blue Ribbon, can now have a public forum. Call it the "checks and balances" approach to college basketball journalism.
For instance, in his otherwise excellent preview of the major conference races, Andy labels the following teams as "NCAA locks":
ACC: Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland.
A-10: Xavier, Dayton.
Big East: UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Seton Hall.
Big Ten: Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa.
Big 12: Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa State.
C-USA: Charlotte, Cincinnati, DePaul.
Pac-10: Stanford, Arizona, USC.
SEC: Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky.
It is possible that Andy is right. It is possible that these 33 teams will be included among the 42 bracket positions available to them (34 at-large spots, plus the automatic qualifier from each of the these eight conferences). It is possible that the rest of the country -- 31 conferences, 319 NCAA-eligible teams -- will produce only nine more at-large selections.
It is also EXTREMELY unlikely that each of these scenarios will unfold simultaneously. For a bracketologist, the definition of "NCAA lock" is evidently much tighter than it is for a beat reporter.
To us, "NCAA lock" means you are going to the Big Dance barring a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. It does not mean anointing the unproven before a single conference game is played.
I guarantee you that one (or more) of the following teams will be "unlocked" between now and Selection Sunday:
Virginia: I know the Cavaliers sprinted through the non-conference
schedule undefeated. I also know the Cavs beat only one RPI Top 50 team
in doing so. In its first real test of the season, UVa was hammered by
similarly undefeated Wake Forest. With seven games remaining against
Wake, Duke, North Carolina and Maryland, it is more than a bit possible
Virginia will have a losing conference record. Are they a tournament
team? Yes. Are they a lock? No way.
Dayton: The big wins are easy to remember: Connecticut and Maryland in the Maui Invitational. But how big were they? Those two "victims" were No. 73 and No. 74 on the RPI at the start of the week. The Flyers have also lost home games to Marshall and Old Dominion. If they're a lock, I'm Donovan McNabb.
UConn: Connecticut might be the most overrated team in the country, and I said that on ESPN Radio before the loss to Boston College. Somehow the Huskies have fooled the pollsters into a top 10 ranking by playing a non-conference schedule checking in at No. 284. Will they be in the tournament? Quite probably. Are they a lock? Not with 15 more Big East
games remaining.
Georgetown: Another Big East school with a joke non-conference schedule (SOS No. 268). Beat a real team without a hyphen -- Louisville doesn't count this year -- and then we'll jump on the bandwagon. There's a reason the Hoyas haven't been to the tourney since '97.
DePaul: The Blue Demons have two non-Division I wins, so their real pre-conference record was 6-4. They are also 0-3 so far against RPI top 25 opponents. This is hardly the resumé of an NCAA lock.
Alabama: This non-conference profile is a thing of beauty. The Crimson Tide's non-conference schedule ranks an embarrassing No. 314. They have not defeated a single RPI top 100 team. The Tide absolutely has NCAA Tournament talent, but there is the small mater of proving it. If memory serves, the Alabama football team had the same problem.
Box Score Banter
A quick look at the mail bag. We'll have a regular full batch of e-mails next week, so keep the e-mails coming. (jlunardi@home.com.).
"I just wanted to say I am a Villanova student, and you guys don't give enough credit to Michael Bradley. This kid is the best in the nation, hands down. He is so smart out on the court that it is incredible to watch.
It's a shame he came to 'Nova after Kentucky, because there is no way he is going to be around again next year. He is a lottery pick in my mind.
-- Justin DiGaetano
Not just your mind, Justin. The NBA scouts are at every Villanova game. And, in this space last week, we made a statistical case for Bradley as the national player of the year (to date). You must have missed it while recovering from final exams.
"I think your column is very interesting and informative, but I just wanted to point out something you said in your most recent column that I was both surprised and somewhat disappointed by. You said, 'Looking at the two charts, then, one could make a credible case for Villanova's Michael Bradley as the best player in the country to date.'
While it may be true that Bradley has been the best player in the country to date, your evidence only supports the idea that Bradley has been the most efficient and potent scorer thus far. It gives no idea of what he is like as a rebounder, passer, ballhandler, defender or team leader. I think that the point per shot analysis is very effective, but that in the end, you are making too big a leap without considering or mentioning other factors about Bradley.
Thanks for your time, and keep up the good work.
-- Richard Berger,
New York
Having seen almost all of Villanova's games either in person or on television, I can assure you that Bradley has elite skills as a
rebounder, passer and ballhandler. His man-to-man defense is average at best, which to me makes him an ideal NBA power forward.
But you are right, Richard. Next time I'll include all the numbers.
"Jacksonville State suspended seven players for that Charleston Southern game (in which five guys went all 40 minutes). We were at the tourney with them. Coach Mike LaPlante dressed all of the players, but only had six that he
was going to use. Of the five he played, two were walk-ons. Check the
line on one of them. He was 0-7 from the field and had 12 turnovers.
-- Mike Hirschman,
University of Delaware
Thanks, Mike. I knew someone would help us get to the bottom of this.
Joe Lunardi is a regular in-season contributor for ESPN.com. He is also
contributing editor of the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook,
www.collegebaskets.com. Write to Joe at jlunardi@home.com.
|
|
ALSO SEE
Chat with Joe Lunardi, Friday at 2 p.m. ET
Box Score Banter archive
|
