|
|
Home
- The Crime of 65
|
|
|
|
|
The Crime of 65
|
|
|
 From
1985-2000 the NCAA tournament operated on a 64 team basis. The number
made a lot of sense. The games are played down from rounds of 64 to 32
to16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1. The teams in the tournament could be eligible
in one of two ways. Teams could automatically qualify by winning their
league championship. Anyone who didn’t win their league would go into
the pool of at large candidates and would be filled by a committee.
(There are 31 conference champions receiving automatic births and 34
at-large births.)
In 2001, a new conference was added to Division-I
basketball. This meant that from now on there would be one more
automatic birth going to a conference champion and one less birth go to
an at large team. This would not stand with everyone.
Primarily, the at-large teams came from the so called “power
conferences”. Essentially they are the conferences with the bigger
schools and have more money and influence. These schools did not want
to lose one of “their” at-large births the tournament to an upstart
small conference.
The solution became to add a play-in game between
the 64th and 65th rated teams in the RPI (a statistical rating system),
with the winner getting into the field of 64. For a college
competition, this really sends the wrong message. Kids at Alabama
State, Drexel, and Florida A&M already feel like they don’t belong
in the system and this decision just reinforces that. No matter what
they do teams like UCLA, North Carolina and Kansas will always be able
to recruit the best players. But, they still should have to earn their
accolades on the court. All the smaller schools want is a shot on the
biggest stage.
It should be noted that the Women’s NCAA tournament, which typically
parallels the Men’s, did not adopt the 64 vs. 65 play-in game.
|
|
|
|
Our
Partners
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
|
|
