NCAA's little guys need to prove they deserved their bids

[ORUTerry]

This article makes me sick. How are the 'little guys' supposed to win when they are given high seeds every time? The cry-baby attitude by the power conferences (and the media) is pathetic.

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Commentary: NCAA's little guys need to prove they deserved their bids

By JIM LITKE Associated Press Columnist

3/14/2006

For the longest time, college basketball's little guys have tried everything to get their bigger brethren to give them a game. They've bargained, begged, even taunted and threatened lawsuits and barely made a dent.

But with control over the NCAA basketball selection committee -- at last -- and the memories still fresh of how powerhouse leagues such as the ACC and Big East plundered other conferences some 21/2 years ago to lock up an even bigger share of the TV loot, the little guys finally had their one shining moment.

"If there's a message," committee chairman Craig Littlepage said, "it would probably be that the larger schools, the larger conferences ... around the country really do have a choice of who they play nonconference."

Whether the message is worth the time it took to deliver, of course, won't be known until next weekend. That's when we'll have some idea whether handing an at-large bid to George Mason of the Colonial Athletic Association, the league's first since 1986, was worth snubbing Cincinnati, which went through the nation's toughest regular exam, the Big East, with an 8-8 record, or similarly second-tier ACC members Maryland

and Florida State.

What made that decision even tougher to take for backers of the power conferences is the feeling that it was just part of a larger theme. To squeeze George Mason in, the committee had to ignore one of its unspoken rules -- docking a team when its star can't play the next game. In George Mason's case, that was because Tony Skinn was suspended for punching a Hofstra player in the groin during a CAA tournament semifinal game.

Yet even that didn't seem as obvious a stretch by the committee as carving out a place for Air Force.

In addition, the committee's decision to give the Missouri Valley Conference four spots in the tournament, the same number awarded the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-10, raised more than a few eyebrows.

The four ACC teams were No. 1 overall seed Duke, No. 3 seed North Carolina, No. 4 Boston College, and No. 10 North Carolina State. By contrast, only one MVC team was seeded better than a No. 10 -- No. 7 Wichita State -- and the other three were Northern Iowa (10), Southern Illinois (11) and last-minute choice Bradley (13).

"With regards to records in the past, we do not take into account the history of individual schools, nor the history of a conference in past NCAA tournaments," Littlepage said.

It's a good thing, too. The fact that all those mid-majors have little to show for the past says as much about opportunity as it does about results. The last time a school came from outside the power conferences to win it all was 1990, when UNLV turned the trick.

The selection committee was right to invite more fresh faces to the tournament. It's one reason why, during the past five years, we've seen at least one No. 12 seed take out a No. 5. Most often, it's the champion of a little conference taking out its frustration on an also-ran from a big conference.

But one or two memorable victories every March isn't going to hold the little guys' place at the table for long. They're making powerful enemies by the minute.

"I'm open to anyone telling me a justifiable reason as to why this team did not get to the NCAA tournament other than, 'Andy we can't let nine teams from one league get in," Cincinnati coach Andy Kennedy said. "It sends the wrong message."

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke@ap.org

[Stl VU Fan]

This article makes me sick. How are the 'little guys' supposed to win when they are given high seeds every time? The cry-baby attitude by the power conferences (and the media) is pathetic.

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But one or two memorable victories every March isn't going to hold the little guys' place at the table for long. They're making powerful enemies by the minute.

This one small paragraph in the article draws only one rational response from me: unmitigated mockery. What does he think this is, organized crime or something????? What excrement.