The sporting event of the year began last night with the announcement of the brackets. What makes March fun is that at least for a short while, there's a rooting interest school for almost everyone. This year, however, Missouri has no teams in so that state is kind of out of luck and fans there will be forced to root for Illinois or Kansas.
The CBS commentators, Jim Nantz and Billy Packer had a hissy fit over the selection process, griping that their favorite conference the ACC only got 4 teams in, the same as the Missouri Valley, a conference they then denigrated. The question that should have been asked by the critics was why the Big East got 8. 8!
Packer said,
"I'm really not an expert on the Missouri Valley, but . . . it doesn't
make any sense to me," he said. "You put Florida State and Maryland
into their league, I'd like to know where they'd end up (in the MVC
standings). Do you see any of those four teams taking Duke to overtime,
at Duke (as Florida State did this year) and beating them on their home
court?"
"What's going to be great about this first week is what those six bids
actually do in the first round," he said. "I don't know how many
they'll be favored in."
I would counter with a look at where the MVC teams were seeded. These 4 teams may have gotten in, but their seeds (13, 11, 10, 7) make it very difficult for them to move on. Give them a higher seed which should come with some advantage in the first round and things would be different. The big time conferences, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Big East, etc have fairly high seeds. It is no wonder they always do well.
- Want to play the brackets? There are many online sites in which to make your picks and see how you do.
- CBS has their annual Bracket Challenge up where you can make your picks and possibly win $5000
- ESPN has a Tourney Challenge with a grand prize of $10,000.
- Dummocrats blog has a fun bracket contest for the average Joe. Create a team with your friends and compete against other teams. This worked very well last year. I'd recommend it as a first or second bracket challenge.
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