The NCAA is considering messing things up.
The group doesn’t do that as much as people think, but folks like to grumble. So some feel the heads of the NCAA are Stalin, Nixon, Khrushchev and somebody who has it in for Jerry Tarkanian.
We’ll not get into assorted tales of woe regarding the NCAA and how it has messed up football by not being part of it after the first week of December except for cashing checks.
The NCAA is considering expansion of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
The NCAA should instead consider medication and a trip to a psychiatrist.
Oddly, expansion sort of adds to what makes the tournament so great: underdogs.
But we don’t need more underdogs. We need a little better job on selections, although it’s nowhere near as bad as, again, the populace growls.
That populace changes its mind on topics like it changes lanes on the highway, and the same ones espousing expansion would be the first to bellyache about the quality of the field and the de-emphasizing of the regular season.
A better job of not giving powerhouses major home-court advantages would balance things out.
Not automatically giving the BCS conferences the higher bids would help. Paying attention to the lower majors and assorted mid-majors is advisable.
The networks already bombard us with brutal announcers during March Madness because so many games means they have to dip deep, deep into the pile of hairpieces, er, mouthpieces to call games.
Penalizing prominent names for failing to play good non-conference schedules — which means playing quality mid-majors from some one-bid conferences — is a thought.
Now, I could handle a play-in per region. Yes, that’s expansion, but not to 96 teams. That adds three games, and does so per region, which increases interest, will make money and cuts down on some travel.
Of course, that would only add to the idiocy that is bracketology in January, let alone the changing of guesses every 14 minutes once this month arrives.
But it’s so hard to even tinker with the tournament any more.
As those who showed up for three nights at Mercer can attest, even lower mid-major conferences can have superb March atmospheres, with high intensity and crazy fans.
Saturday night wasn’t a 16-16 team vs. a 19-win team. It was a little “Lost” with a dash of “American Idol” thrown in there.
And it was a superb appetizer for the grandest of buffets, the NCAA tournament.
There’s something unifying about the tournament. People have teams and coaches they hate and those they like.
A weekend at a host site is absolutely electric, as is the city with a team in the tournament. Of all the events that good fortune has led me to cover, an NCAA weekend — no matter the round or location — might be the most fun, regardless of how much work is involved.
People rally around underdogs and tend to be less belligerent — except when screaming at refs despite having no vantage point or rules knowledge — than at big football affairs. It’s glorious.
To mess with it at all is a gamble, but there are a few ways to perhaps do so without screwing it up.
And bruising or botching the NCAA tournament is enough to make a grown man cry, just as winning the NCAA tournament can.
Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com
