Sports The Bedlam of College Basketball

By: Faith Thomas

Posted: 2/17/09

It's March…that means the birds are chirping, flowers are blooming and College Basketball Season is underway. During the month of March, there is one thing on everyone's mind, which's getting in to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, also known to all fans as MARCH MADNESS. The definition of the terms that I'm about to speak are of knowledge to those who partake in this episodic event seriously, but if you're not a college basketball fan, then these will seem like nuances to you. The selection process determines which 65 teams [the actual number of teams is between 64-65] will be entered into the tournament.
There is a ten member selection committee, which is made up of both athletic directors and commissioners throughout Division I [schools like Syracuse University, Duke University, and the University of Connecticut; basically your upper echelon of sports schools is used to ensure that all conferences [South Eastern Conference; which has it's schools allocated in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee] Atlantic Coast Conference [Duke/North Carolina], West Coast Conference [that caters to schools like Gonzaga University and Saint Mary's], Big 12 [which houses schools such as Oklahoma University, Oklahoma State University, Texas University and Texas Tech University and finally the Pac 10 [which is a division that is allocated between the universities on the West Coast; Arizona, Oregon, Washington and California], is more centered around USC [University of Southern California], UCLA [University of California Los Angeles], University of Arizona, Arizona State, University of Washington and Washington State.
The selection committee then has to make the decision of which teams will actually compete in the tournament. The field is allocated as such; thirty teams qualify automatically by winning the conference tournament. The only team that doesn't have to win it's conference tournament, thus receiving the only true automatic bid is the winner of the Ivy League tournament, which doesn't have a conference tournament [which I think is stupid because the Ivy League shouldn't even be involved with basketball, because they're known for brains]. This rule thus ensures that every Division I school has at least one representative in the tournament. Then there are the at-large bids meaning that a team can be considered even though they didn't win their division. Making the brackets [a term likely referred to as "bracketology'] is an arduous task because you have to follow a distinct procedure which includes fairly placing each team in a specified bracket [North, South, East and West], with the "better" teams getting the lower seeding. Teams are spread out according to their conference. The better a team is the more priority they have in competing in a game that's close to home.
Then comes the big day…Selection Sunday, after all of the debating and arguing, this is the day that makes it official. It always gets massive coverage on stations like ESPN and CBS. The station that has official rights to cover the selection special is CBS, which also covers every game except for the play-in game [which is a game that pits two teams that should be in consideration, which is usually played on ESPN]. Then once all of the discussion is done…there's nothing left to do but enjoy the games. The action usually starts on a Thursday which means that "Survivor" is relegated to show on Wednesday's instead, and all that's left is to enjoy watching the games. There is one major rule that comes with this tournament [especially in my household]; the rule is "Don't Disturb Anyone Who Is Watching A Game, because You WILL GET IGNORED".
The championship can go to any school big or small, but the bigger schools have won more basketball championships. The school with the most championships is UCLA with 11, followed by [the school I want to go to], Kentucky with 7, Indiana University is next with 5 championships, North Carolina has 4 championships and Duke University has 3 championships. It can even go to a school not known for basketball or football at all; in fact last year's champion was the University of Kansas Jay hawks, who knew a school in the middle of practically nowhere could have a good basketball team. Hope you enjoy the bedlam that is College Basketball for the next few months because I know I will.