The NCAA tournament, better known as March Madness, will have the attention of college sports fans from March until the first week in April. It has become a time to bet with friends on brackets. And nonstop basketball action for the month of March. One glaring observation that college sports fans always see is the fact that mid-major teams get the worst luck in the brackets.
Mid-major teams are schools that aren't big names like Duke, Kansas or UNC. They play in smaller conferences like the CAA, which the College of Charleston Cougars are apart of. They aren't powerhouses in terms of sports, but should that be enough reason to give them low seeding?
The College of Charleston Cougars won the CAA tournament championship which gave them an automatic bid to the tourney. Even with an amazing season and a good, solid team, the Cougars were given the 13th seed in the Midwest Region of the tournament. They will be playing in San Diego, California against 4th seed Auburn.
Now, for the people who travel a lot, a plane ride from South Carolina to California isn't just a skip and a hop as you know. I point this fact out because this happens too often to mid-major teams. They have to travel across the country to play a game. Traveling takes a lot out of you and it's no different with a basketball team.
This tournament does not let the little guy come out victorious unless they pull off miracle after miracle. You never say that Duke had a miracle finish against a team. They aren't the underdogs in almost any matchup. Whenever a team like CofC makes the tournament it isn't because of their record, which seems strange to me.
I can understand that you want the best of the best in this tournament. But, please explain to me how a team like Saint Mary's with a 29-5 record gets snubbed, but the Oklahoma Sooners team makes it with an 18-13 record. Not to mention that the Sooners were just terrible in their conference with a record of 8-10.
This selection committee shows bias towards teams that are in power conferences like SEC, ACC and Big 12. They neglect to look at teams whose resumes and records reflect the best the NCAA has to offer simply because they are in a mid-major conference.
You can not show bias to worthy teams because their schools are not able to be in the ACC's of the world. Even when these teams make the tourney, it is nearly impossible for them to have success because of unfair seeding. Alabama with a record of 19-15 gets a better seed than CofC because one plays in the SEC and the other doesn't. I feel that I have hammered this point enough for you to understand how unfair these selections are.
March Madness gives us some of the best moments in sports. The Cinderella runs are some of the best for sports fans regardless if you like basketball or not. People love to cheer on the underdogs.
But, we have too many unfair underdogs because of bias towards the power conferences. Some of these mid-major teams are just as good, if not better than the teams out of the other conferences. Give everyone a fair chance should be easy to do, unfortunately, things won't change for the little guy right now. Maybe in the future things will be different, but don't hold your breath on it.
