Kansas versus Northern Iowa. Huh?

by MaconDawg on Mar 20, 2010 7:16 PM EDT

Will someone please tell me that I am not the only one currently watching tournament overall #1 seed Kansas trailing by double digits midway through the second half to Northern Iowa? Please? Because this is the kind of thing that, when you think you witness it, you really need some confirmation from someone else. Because otherwise no one is going to believe you.

I think this game is also further proof that, while it's no way to pick a champion, a 64 team tournament is athletic theater of the highest order. And that every center in the country should grow muttonchop sideburns, because there just aren't enough 7'0 Charles Dickens characters walking around. Just a humble suggestion.

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This is a perfect example of what a bad idea a playoff would be in football.

This is the equivalent of an 8-4 Louisiana-Monroe beating a 12-0 Alabama in a college football tournament, thereby giving ULM a legitimate shot at playing for a national title in a few games.

by vineyarddawg on Mar 20, 2010 8:17 PM EDT reply actions

I agree 100%

but I stand by the muttonchop comment. That would be, what is the technical term? Oh yeah. Badass.

And while I generally root for SEC teams in the tournament, I would giggle maniacally if Wake takes down Kentucky, who I fear is just too young to get to the tournament final. Kansas however was my pick to win it all, so I can now watch without having to worry about the effect on my bracket. That sucker is so much birdcage lining now.

by MaconDawg on Mar 20, 2010 8:46 PM EDT up reply actions

I thought this guy

Was actually this guy…

Maybe we should recruit some sideburn sportin’, X-men lookin’ midwestern boys, too.

"If we score, we may win. If they never score, we'll never lose."
-Erk Russell

by DavetheDawg on Mar 20, 2010 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions

TOO GOOD! 10000 sticks of butter!

"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker

by tankertoad on Mar 20, 2010 10:28 PM EDT up reply actions

i thought the same thing today Vine - when are people going to realize this ARENT THE SAME SPORTS!

"One thing I will never do as long as I’m at Georgia is lose to Florida." - Herschel Walker

by tankertoad on Mar 20, 2010 10:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Exactly,...

and it’s one where a physically overmatched team can win a single game easier. In football, 8-4 Louisiana Monroe beats a 6-6 Alabama, not a 12-0 version. You are making a mountain out of a molehill, and also there has never been a playoff scenario in college football that I’ve seen where a 8-4 team, let alone an 8-4 Louisiana Monroe, would be involved.

by Mr. Sanchez on Mar 21, 2010 7:46 PM EDT up reply actions

That's true . . .

. . . but the same was also true of the NCAA tournament when it was first established. It began with eight teams in 1939—-the same number many Division I-A college football playoff proposals use—-and expanded to 16 in 1951, 22 in 1953, 32 in 1975, 40 in 1979, 48 in 1980, 52 in 1983, 53 in 1984, 64 in 1985, and 65 in 2001, with a straight-faced proposal now extant to expand the tournament to 96 teams, twelve times the size of the original tournament field.

A Division I-A college football playoff would expand, as well (as proven by the fact that the Division I-AA college football playoff has grown similarly). An 8-4 Louisiana-Monroe team would never get in, but, within two decades of the implementation of a Division I-A college football playoff, you can be darned sure a 10-3 or 9-4 SEC runner-up would make the field.

March madness is a wonderfully fun entertainment spectacle. It isn’t even remotely legitimate as a method for determining a national champion.

Go 'Dawgs!

by T Kyle King on Mar 21, 2010 7:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not so sure of the 64....

the one thing basketball can do that football can’t is group multiple games into a week, and multiple games in a single facility over the weekend. The football field would get destroyed if someone ran 6 games over 3 days on one field.

Not saying the NCAA wouldn’t eventually move to a huge field, cause we can all see their loyalties lies with maximizing money, and this might be their way to wrestle back complete control of TV revenue. But the nature of the games would almost certainly lead to a different style spectacle. How different is something only time could tell.

by Mr. Sanchez on Mar 21, 2010 10:35 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, thanks a lot, Mr. Mayor.

Kyle stole all of the thunder in my comment. :-)

In a hypothetical 64-team football tournament, virtually every team that currently goes to a bowl could be in the national championship tournament. (In the 2009 season, there were 34 bowls, for 68 teams. Only 4 teams from this year’s bowl slate would need to be dropped.)

I might come up with a bracket, just to show how absurd this could be were it translated to football 30 years or so down the road.

by vineyarddawg on Mar 21, 2010 8:02 PM EDT up reply actions