Moments ago, Sports by Brooks posted this update to its earlier report that expansion of the NCAA Tournament from 65 to 96 teams — an unspeakably dumb, absolutely ridiculous, totally insane, utterly indefensible, wolf-face crazy idea — is a “done deal.” The new report, which links to a Fox Sports story, involves weasel-word contradictions of the “done deal” notion that, frankly, make the initial report sound even more plausible. These are by no means Shermanesque denials. To wit:
The NCAA continues to investigate the possibility of expanding the NCAA tournament, but NCAA senior vice president Greg Shaheen told FOXSports.com that no decision has been made.
“Nothing is a done deal,” Shaheen, who oversees the tournament, told FOXSports.com on Monday afternoon. “We’re talking with parties who have interest.” …
Shaheen said that there has been continuous dialogue about the potential of going from 65 to 96 teams.
“It’s part of our due diligence,” Shaheen said. “We have to look at what our membership wants.” …
“We are looking into all the possibilities,” Shaheen said. “We have to look into it, but we don’t even know if we’d do it. Just because we’re checking into it doesn’t mean we’re going to do it.”
“We have to assess everything,” he added. “Have we talked to people in our membership about expanding? Absolutely.”
Translation: they’re going to do it. Idiots. Oh, and then there’s this, from SbB:
After I posted my report earlier today and saw the almost unanimous negative reaction from fans, I asked one of my original sources if fan and media backlash could kill the move to 96 teams.
My source said, “no.”
As Andrew pointed out via e-mail, this is a classic “Life imitates The Onion” moment:
Picking up on the support for David’s anti-playoff stance in the other thread, the main argument levelled against David is that the 2-team playoff is “not fair”. It is not fair to deny TCU their deserved shot at a national championship, the argument goes. FWIW, I give that argument a fair bit of credence.
What the “not fair” argument misses (channeling Allen Iverson talking about “practice”) is that this is sports. It’s not real life. Its not your job. Its not your family or your friends. Its sports. Its entire purpose is to provide you with mystique and aura to entertain and amuse you, and also to distract you from the fact that real life in so many ways sucks. That’s all it is.
So after Garrett Gilbert completed that second improbable long touchdown pass to Jordan Shipley, and somehow got the ball back deep in his own territory with three minutes left and down 3, every non-Crimson Tide sports fan was ready for the mystique and aura of the possible all-time great second half underdog performance from Gilbert. Many of those same fans previously argued vehemently that TCU should have been there, not Texas. When Gilbert took over with 3 minutes to play, none of those fans cared.
To the 96-team NCAA, will this finally kill the conceit of the “One Shining Moment?” If they show the point guard from 20-seed Missouri State going end to end to knock off 13-seed San Diego State at the buzzer over Luther Vandross’ crooning, will you throw your beer at the tv?
Finally, back to baseball – back in the day, when games mattered, historic moments used to acquire legendary monikers to attest to their significance. In 1951 Bobby Thompson hit a famous home run to win a pennant, which homer actually received TWO nicknames: “The Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff” and “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”.
Who couldn’t use a little Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff in times like these? Nowadays the best you can hope for is the Shot Inaudible More than 100 Feet From the Metrodome, which decided last year’s AL Central championship. Sigh.
This is a stupid idea. It’s stupid pie with a side order of stupid sauce. With a heaping glass of moronic cocktail to wash it all down.
As far as football goes, I’m for a playoff. But the US pro sports are unique with their desire for a postseason tourney. Soccer overseas doesn’t have their most important titles up for grabs like this. The winner of the Premier League is the team in first place at the end of the year. They have tourneys, but they aren’t as important. Well, the European league is a tourney, and the national teams have tourneys. But the pro regular seasons are more important.
But yeah, we still need more of one in NCAA football.
Point of order, Mr. Minich: The Champions League is far and away more important than any domestic league (the second-tier Europa League less so) with tens of millions of dollars and the title of Europe’s best club at stake. Also, the World Cup and European Championship take precedence over domestic matters (you could also argue for the Copa America). In all of these competitions, the decisive rounds are knockout play, not round-robin.
In any case, I’m not sure comparing Euro soccer with US college football and/or basketball is worthwhile. Clubs play every other team in their division home and away during league play, something you can’t say for CFB and CBB.
It’s also worth pointing out that almost every pro sport down here in the Antipodes (soccer, rugby, basketball, Aussie Rules football, etc.) has its championship decided via a playoff.
What the hell? This is just dumb… Dumb dumb dumb dumb… Dumb…. Did I mention, dumb?
an unspeakably dumb, absolutely ridiculous, totally insane, utterly indefensible, wolf-face crazy idea
You forgot “profitable,” or at least, “likely profitable enough to justify the risk of alienating fans who like it this way.”