Now that we are done with a strange but exciting/anticlimactic BCS Championship Game, the sporting world can turn its attention to college basketball, a sport that lacks the constant number-crunching to see if being undefeated is good enough to get you a shot at the title, but often gets the short end of the stick from much of the media. To celebrate this, we are going to borrow an idea from Nick Bakay and break down how the two sports decide their champion with a “Tale of the Tape” comparison. We are counting the entire college bowl season as the BCS to try to give college football a fighting chance instead of making it five games against 67.
The warm-up
NCAA Tournament: First Four
BCS: New Mexico/Humanitarian/New Orleans Bowl (on December 18th)
Advantage: Push. Both sides have potential but are ultimately letdowns. We would support the “First Four” if it featured the last eight at-large teams to make the NCAA Tournament instead of splitting it up between the four lowest-seeded teams and the last four at-large teams to qualify, which makes us feel for the littlest guys in the field. As for the December 18th bowl games, we have to admit a strange fascination with the Humanitarian Bowl, which is played in Boise meaning one last chance to see that atrocious blue field that rivals anything that we featured in our old ugliest courts post although even it can’t hold a candle to Phil Knight’s monstrosity at Oregon.
Memorable Moments Early On
NCAA Tournament: Ali Farokhmanesh, Bryce Drew, Tyus Edney. . .
BCS: Carson Coffman gets called for excessive celebration leading to Kansas State trying a 17-yard two-point conversion?
Advantage: NCAA Tournament. BIG. This category may reflect the popularity of March Madness with the general public that goes crazy over their brackets, but it is nice to have something that keeps you on edge for three weeks instead of having significant moments being relegated to random SportsCenter clips and dumbfounding decisions and calls.
Championship Game Site
NCAA Tournament: Houston/Dallas, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Minneapolis or New Orleans
BCS: Miami, Los Angeles, Tempe, or New Orleans
Advantage: BCS. College football has an edge here as it is happens in early January when most of the country is freezing cold with the exception of the areas near BCS bowl games (for the most part). All of the Final Four cities are potentially interesting cities, but we would take Miami and Los Angeles over any of them if we had to make a trip out of it. When you consider the possibility that you could be headed to Indianapolis or Minneapolis in April where it could still be near freezing, college football wins this one in a laugher.
Warning to Fans
NCAA Tournament: Be careful buying scalped tickets.
BCS: Don’t cross the border (see Sun Bowl).
Advantage: NCAA Tournament. Some NCAA Tournament games are played in less-than-desirable locations, but we can’t remember anything as ridiculous as what happened to Notre Dame and Miami at the Sun Bowl where both teams were instructed to hand over their passports and avoid going into Mexico because of concerns over increasing violence in the area. As much as we would be upset about getting scammed out of a few hundred dollars, we will take that over the threat of head-in-a-box drug cartel violence.
Your Coach’s Dream Job
NCAA Tournament: Boston Celtics
BCS: Maryland?!?
Advantage: Push. Maryland is a pretty nice place for a college basketball coach, but not for a college football coach. Normally we would give the Celtics the edge here, but as Rick Pitino said “Larry Bird is not walking through that door…” The lesson here is to not ditch your program and try to show a little loyalty since you preach about it in every recruit’s living room when you are making your pitch to his parents.
Small, Undefeated School Complains About
NCAA Tournament: Getting stuck with the best #2 seed in their region.
BCS: Not getting a chance to play for the title.
Advantage: NCAA Tournament. No-brainer. Give us the slightly tougher road with a shot at title over some essentially meaningless “other national championship” game with a hope of backing into a #2 final ranking and an occasional #1 vote.
Climactic Moment
NCAA Tournament: One Shining Moment
BCS: Wondering if (a) another undefeated team deserved a shot and (b) if how long it will take for the NCAA or BCS to try to take back the National Championship trophy.
Advantage: NCAA Tournament. Even with the awful Jennifer Hudson version, college basketball wins big here. Give us the Teddy Pendergrass or Luther Vandross version and it is college basketball in a runaway.
Final Score: The NCAA Tournament win this one pretty handily by a score of 4-1-2. We love football — particularly college football — as much as any sane sports fan, but they are playing on an uneven field with something as ludicrous as the BCS. The NCAA Tournament in its current form isn’t perfect, but at least you end up deciding who the best team is on the court. We are sure the college football fanatics will be ready to challenge us, but as they say… the tape never lies.
View Comments (1)
Very nice post. Although, I've got to think that the "Climactic Moment" last year was Hayward's half-courter, especially when Jennifer Hudson was the final act.
God bless the NCAA Tournament.