Insanity

It's that time of year again. When, for two weeks, everyone becomes a college basketball fan and expert. When NCAA coaches start petitioning for more temas to be allowed into their playoff system. The time of year when the number 65 annoys me like no other.

I hate the fact that there are 65 teams in the tournament. Everything the NCAA does is to appease the big schools. That's the reasom behind bowl games and that's the reason behind 65 teams. They can't have a football playoff because what if Boise State wins it? Where does that keace the big time schools. They reconcile that by deciding who plays whom for what title. Same idea with number 65.

If you don't know, college basketball has a tournament to decide it's champion. The winners of each conferance get in automatically and the rest of the field is filled out by the NCAA. For smaller schools to get into the tournament, they're only chance is to win their conferance. Bigger schools just need to be competetive and they'll be selected.

Now, a 65 team tournament doesn't work. So two of the weakest teams play each other to get into the main bracket. The problem with this is that the two teams playing the play in game are always small schools that won their conference titles. These teams that are told that if they win their conference titles they'd get in suddenly have to win another gane to get in. They play each other while another big school that couldn't win it's conference title gets to go in one of the two smaller school's stead. That just doesn't seem fair. These schools just were euphoric because they won their conference and would get a shot to be on national TV with the big schools, but suddenly they need to win another game.

Now, which ever school gets in has almost no shot to win a single game in the tournament, but that's not the point. They get natioal exposire. Their players who've no chance to make the NBA get to live out some form of their dreams. I remember a couple of years ago SUNY Albany made it in and went up against UConn, a one seed. For about 2/3 of the game, Albany stuck with UConn. Going shot for shot. Taking a few leads. Eventually, UConn was too much for them, but for that hour that school was as hyped as it'll ever be. For the rest of their lives those kids could the story of the time they hung with a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. That's what you're robbing one of these schools of. Tomorrow night Winthrop plays Arkansas-Pine Bluff on ESPN. I reccomend you watch it.

Now the NCAA says that those teams were in the tournament and, technically, that's true. But who are you fooling? Really. Noone cares about the play in game. It isn't even on CBS where all the other games are. The NCAA should make two bubble teams play in that game, but then you're not adding an extra bubble team.

A quick note on NFL free agency. Teams are really butchering their QB situations. Case abd pointL The Browns. They got rid of Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn and replaced them with Seneca Wallace and Jake Dellhomme. Not an upgrade there. The Browns must be thinking of taking a QB early in the draft, otherwise I've no idea what they're doing. What was the rush to get rid of Quinn anyway? He's played 14 games in his career. 14. Not even an entire season. He's thrown 10 TDs and 9 INTs. Not the worst I've ever seen. Last year, in 10 games, Quinn threw 8 TDs and 7 picks. Dellhomme, in 11 games, went 8 and 18. In Quinn's last five game, he went 7 and 2. I call that imrpovement. So why give up on him so fast? Instead, why not give him some weapons. Why didn't they make the deal for Boldin? Harrisson, Crubbs, and Boldin QB'ed by Quinn seems like a good start at developing an offense for some time to come.

Peace