Oh, you think we need to expand the NCAA Tournament? Let’s ask this year’s bubble.
(Prolonged, embarrassed, resounding silence.)
Talent accumulating at the top, giving us more excellent teams that look capable of deep runs, has to hurt somewhere. And right now, the NCAA men’s selection committee would be pained to place 37 at-large bids in the field and come away satisfied.
Let’s take last week’s 10 seeds, 11 seeds, first eight out and others in consideration from the high-major conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC). Last week’s combined record: 16-18. Take out big, unbeaten weeks from Indiana, NC State and Seton Hall, and it’s 10-18.
This is no way to make a push, and there’s no excuse in many cases. Sure, some of those losses came at the hands of teams such as Duke, Houston and Illinois. But TCU lost at Colorado. LSU got thumped at home by Mississippi State. Creighton lost to Marquette. Baylor lost at Cincinnati. And Stanford and Cal both fell to the mighty, now 10-12 Florida State Seminoles.
Miami (Fla.) also recently suffered an upset to FSU and lost a home heartbreaker on Saturday to Cal. The Hurricanes fell out of this week’s bracket in favor of the Hoosiers, whose wins against Purdue at home and at UCLA were enough to give them a bit of distance from the bubble.
And if you think a 17-5 Miami team not being in the field may speak well of said bubble, consider: Miami has no wins against teams currently projected to be in the field. Well, outside of SWAC leader and No. 16 seed Bethune-Cookman.
The good news is that February brings tons of opportunities for all these teams. The bad news for the mid-majors hanging around the bubble right now — New Mexico, San Diego State, Santa Clara — is that their opportunities will be more scarce.
Which is how we often end up with too many mediocre teams from power conferences. Which may be more pronounced this year. Which should, but won’t, deter the misguided and shortsighted who will soon succeed in bloating this thing with more empty calories.
First four outNext four outLast four inLast four bye
Cal
VCU
Virginia Tech
USC
Miami (Fla.)
Missouri
San Diego State
Indiana
Texas
George Mason
Ohio State
New Mexico
Seton Hall
Washington
Santa Clara
UCLA
Last four outNext four outLast four inLast four byes
Cal
VCU
Virginia Tech
USC
Miami (Fla.)
Missouri
San Diego State
Indiana
Texas
George Mason
Ohio State
New Mexico
Seton Hall
Washington
Santa Clara
UCLA