NCAA Snubs: Green Bay, SEC Teams May Have a Beef
The NCAA Tournament now has 68 teams and yet there is always an argument for more, or at least a few different ones. Take the Horizon League regular season champions, the Green Bay Phoenix for example. The Phoenix went 24-6 in the regular season which included a 69-66 loss to the Wisconsin Badgers, a #2 seed and a win over the Virginia Cavaliers 75-72, a #1 seed. They also had a win over the NCAA Tournament bound Tulsa Golden Hurricane and a win over the NCAA bound Milwaukee Panthers 93-86. The NCAA selection committee may not look at a three point loss any differently than a 30-point loss, but maybe it should. This sounds like a team that maybe should have gotten in over someone like the Iowa Hawkeyes or North Carolina State Wolfpack.
The SEC boasts of the #1 overall seed in the Florida Gators who went 32-2 and 21-0 against the SEC. But the SEC got only three teams into the field of 68 which includes the Tennessee Volunteers who will have to beat those Hawkeyes just to get into the Round of 64. Was the SEC penalized for having the best team in the nation during the regular season? Let’s look at the ACC for example. The Virginia Cavaliers were 27-5 and 16-2 in the ACC. This earned them a #1 seed.
If Florida had gone 29-5 and 15-3 in the SEC and won the SEC Tournament, they would likely still be a #1 seed. Let’s say the three losses were to the Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee and the Arkansas Razorbacks. What would Kentucky’s seed be had they gone 25-9 with wins over the #1 seed Florida and the AAC Champion Louisville Cardinals, a #4? The Kansas Jayhawks have the same number of losses that the Cats would have and they are a #2 seed. And what about the Hogs? They are a #1 seed in the NIT Tournament. Surely a win over the Gators would have tipped the scales. So we have to wonder, is the SEC really bad, or is Florida really good. The NCAA seems to want to have it both ways.
If the Gators are the overall #1 seed, shouldn’t Arkansas get some credit for taking them to overtime? Shouldn’t Kentucky get some credit to playing them to a one point loss? Shouldn’t the Volunteers get some credit for being tied with them with under 3:00 to go?
This logic invites conferences to be concerned with having parity instead of striving to have the best team possible. The SEC could not be blamed for openly rooting against Florida to get more teams an invitation. That seems counter-intuitive. Florida is the conference’s best shot at winning the National Championship, which should be the ultimate prize. If something like this were to happen in the future, one would wonder if the SEC might send some orders to a team with the title clinched already to perhaps suggest that they rest their starters when facing a “bubble team.” This would set a bad precedent. It would be similar to what NASCAR went through at the end of last season with the Michael Waltrip Racing debacle. That prompted NASCAR to totally revamp how they decide their championship format.
Perhaps the NCAA needs a small tweak now to avoid a possible complete overhaul in the future. Perhaps teams should start getting a little bit of credit for a “moral victory.”
