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Insights and Observations
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Henry's Highlights
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
By Henry Hinton
Broadcaster & Owner
of Greenville Cable 7 |
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Football chiefs hide from
method in the 'Madness'
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AUDIO: Midweek
Tip-Off
with Henry Hinton, Mike Steele, Kevin Miller & guests
Jerry Wainwright (Richmond coach), Joe Cravens
(Butler coach) and Todd Lickliter (Weber State
coach):
Select clip... |
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©2004 Bonesville.net
If the great crooner Andy Williams will forgive me,
it’s the most wonderful time of the year. The Ides of March have come and
gone, conference tournaments have all finished and spring is in the air (kinda).
Yes, it’s March Madness.
For all that is wrong with college sports — scandal and
murder at Baylor, incessant cheating and recruiting scandals, drug use by
student athletes, schools willing to cheat or otherwise take the low road to
win at all costs… the list goes on and on — the NCAA basketball tournament
is the BEST thing about college sports.
Think about it. The end of the season has come, and
while there might be a few raised eyebrows that a certain team here or there
didn’t make the field and Billy Packer can complain that St. Joe’s should
not be a number one seed, the controversy is minuscule compared to that
associated with the elitist-controlled system in football.
Instead of following the gridiron model which reserves
the opportunities for big postseason dreams to a self-anointed class of
privileged schools, the NCAA Tournament is an uplifting affair for the big
and small.
And that's the way it should be. The nation's
collegiate basketball championship is about to be decided…. ON the court.
Not IN the courtroom. Or by a computer system.
That the powers in college football don’t get it
continues to be an amazing thing. Of course the truth is that they do
understand that an all-inclusive tournament to determine the best in the
land is the way to go. They just can’t find it in their hearts to level the
financial field by eliminating or adjusting the bowl system in football.
When the balls are tossed up to start the games on
Thursday there will be some teams, like Illinois-Chicago and Air Force, who
have the same mathematical odds of becoming national champion as Duke and
Kentucky.
Monmouth, Texas-San Antonio and Vermont will get the
same amount of television coverage as Kansas, North Carolina and Syracuse,
as long as they win.
Of course they have to win the same number of games as
those powerhouse programs to get to the national championship game, but they
wouldn’t have the added handicap of having to beat the computer or the
slanted system to make it there.
And perhaps their chances aren’t very good. But that is
just the point. They do have a chance, no matter how slim, to prove their
merits on the court.
Who will be this year’s “Cinderella?” What traditional
powerhouse will fall in round one? What will be the biggest upset? All of
these things make March Madness the best show in town for the next few
weeks.
It is such great drama for the sports fan. And more
importantly, it draws in those who aren’t normally inclined to sit and watch
a sporting event. The story lines that develop are worth the effort to watch
and enjoy.
The personalities and the cast of characters that will
emerge as household names remind one of the affinity America develops for
Olympians.
Office pools are hopping all over the country. Friends
are phoning and emailing friends from across the country to offer the
challenge. Radio and television talk shows are full of chatter about who
will make the “Final Four.”
And when the smoke clears there will be no controversy
about who the champion should be.
It’s all decided face to face, man to man (or perhaps
an occasional zone).
It’s madness alright. The most wonderful time of the
year.
Andy, himself, might even agree. In fact, he probably
already has his brackets filled out.
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Henry Hinton.
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02/23/2007 10:13:18 AM |
