Andy Rooney is more important to college basketball than Kevin Durant. At least, that's the inference you'd have to draw from the comments of NCAA Selection Committee Chairman Gary Walters.During the CBS Selection Sunday show, Walters acknowledged that the Texas-Kansas Big 12 championship game had no impact on the Selection Committee's seedings, and that the Committee slotted Kansas as a No. 1 seed without bothering to see how that game turned out. That has many commentators asking a simple question today: Why didn't the Selection Committee take its time, watch all the games, and make its choices after careful consideration?
The answer: Because CBS doesn't want anyone tinkering with its schedule. CBS wants to put the Big Ten championship game on the air in the afternoon, follow it immediately with the Selection Sunday show, and have that show finished in time for 60 Minutes to start so Rooney can make his curmudgeonly complaints about why margarine doesn't taste as good as butter by the time the network's entertainment lineup begins at 8 p.m. ET.
All sorts of problems could arise. For instance, what if both the Big Ten and Big 12 championship games go into double overtime, and both of them include a team that won't get an at-large bid? There's just no way the Selection Committee has time to weigh every team's merits in the tiny window allotted them by CBS. But don't expect anything to change as long as CBS is paying the bills.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-12-2007 @ 6:43PM
The Big Picture said...
i think this is a big reason for some oversights, MDS.
And as I wrote earlier, some things are clear, like the 'cuse and drexel being left out in favor of say stanford and arkansas.
but more minor things, that could end up being a big deal, seemed to get passed over by the committee -- likely because of the time crunch.
for example, l'ville at the six is playing its first two games in lexington where rick patino is adored. if i'm an A&M fan, i'd be up and arms about being a 3 and having a second-round game virtually on the road.
things like that would probably get mitigated if the committee had more time.
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3-12-2007 @ 7:25PM
Rocco said...
Maybe it's because the committee figured out Kansas was one of the 4 best teams in the country based on what they've done the entire season, and weren't going to rely on the results of a team's third game in three days in judging a team. It's slightly different than if one team needed the automatic bid to get into the dance.
You also forgot to mention that, according to Andy Katz' conversation with committee members, UT could have moved to a 3 seed if they won. So they were paying attention. The committee deserves kicked around, but not for figuring out that Kansas is really good and was a #1 seed no matter the result yesterday.
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