The NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney is a microcosm of our society at large.

[taterguy]

The only reason we tolerate such vast inequality is that we buy into the myth that everyone has a chance.

News flash: It's A MYTH

How many #1 seeds have lost in the opening round since they started seeding 25 years ago?

NONE

There are a few token upsets in the early rounds. A hot team vs. an overrated team, or maybe a team whose star partied too hard the night before the game.

As for actually winning the thing? You have to be one of the schools that's already rich and powerful.

UNC-Charlotte came close in 1977 when they were a podunk school just because they lucked into Cornbread Maxwell, the last real talent that wasn't heavily recruited.

Since then it's been nothing but the biggest and the baddest winning.

American dream my ass.

[kentuck]

1. Then my KY Wildcats are like Citigroup...

Nothing they try works this year. They are yelling for the coach's head. Unless they win the SEC tournament, they are out for the first time since 1992. They are a microcosm of our economy.

[tridim]

4. Ouch!

I've been a satisfied Kansas fan for years. :)

[taterguy]

6. Take something that works fine and screw it up

Just to placate a few deeply disturbed but influential folks.

Yep, just like the US economy.

[Bake]

21. How long do you think Gillespie keeps his job?

The Big Blue faithful aren't accustomed to losing. I heard someone at the UK-Georgia game had a sign that read, "Where's Tubby When You Need Him?"

Pitino, by the way, is doing a GREAT job at my alma mater!! (Sorry, I had to get that in!)

:hi:

Bake

[Burma Jones]

2. George Mason made it to the Final Four a few years back

[taterguy]

11. One fluke Final Four appearance in 60+ years of the Tourney

I take it back.

Everyone does have a chance.

[Cant trust em]

3. Only difference

The "biggest and baddest" in the NCAA are largely African-Americans frequently from underserved areas.

Compare that to the nation as a whole when the top of the social pyramid are white kids from exclusive backgrounds.

[taterguy]

10. How much do the African-American athletes get paid?

That's a semi-rhetorical question.

[Cant trust em]

13. I'd give a school my basketball services for a free education

I don't know why I'm bothering with this. I totally get your point.

Basketball typically has the worst graduation rates of any college sport. Some of these athletes are just beasts of burden who aren't being given the education they were promised.

[taterguy]

16. Would any school want your basketball services?

I'm gonna go out on a limb:

Odds are you're a not particularly athletic white guy.

I could be wrong but I doubt it.

[Cant trust em]

17. You're way off.

I'm a not particularly athletic asian guy.

[ender]

5. Villanova.

'nuf said.

[taterguy]

8. Played in a League with a giant TV contract that gave them plenty of resources

Besides, one of their best players got a hold of some fine blow that helped his performance tremendously during the Final Four.

It was the year after 'Nova that drug testing became extensive. They weren't concerned about athletes. They just didn't want the point spread disrupted by recreational drugs.

[Drunken Irishman]

7. Utah played in the 1998 National Championship...

[kentuck]

9. That was the last time Kentucky won the national championship...

Rick Pitino had left the Kentucky Wildcats to coach the Boston Celtics for a measly $80 million dollars and the fans never forgave him. Tubby Smith inherited Pitino's last team and won the national championship with it. Kentucky never made it back to the Final Four since that time. For the first decade in history, Kentucky will not make the Final Four. They are too big to fail! But they are anyway.

[Drunken Irishman]

27. Utah hasn't made it past the Sweet 16 since 1998.

But we'll probably be playing in the tourney this year.

[Deja Q]

12. NCAA... No Class At All?

:shrug:

[islandmkl]

14. you probably don't know much about Danny Manning...

[taterguy]

15. I know he went to a school that gave his dad a job just so he'd play there

Sort of reverse nepotism.

[islandmkl]

18. like i said...you don't know much about Danny Manning...

[taterguy]

22. Attended one of the winningest schools in the history of the game

What else is there to know as far as the point of my OP is concerned?

[Drunken Irishman]

28. He had an awesome shot against the Mavs in the 2001 NBA Playoffs.

The Jazz were down five with the ball and only 50 or so seconds left. It looked like game one was going to Dallas and then Manning stepped up and hit a huge three to cut the lead to one.

The Jazz won! :)

But lost the series in five. :(

[Raskolnik]

19. So..let me understand your point: you're upset because schools that traditionally put a lot

of resources into their basketball programs usually do well in the tournament if they happen to put a very good team together that year, and schools that don't put a lot of resources into their programs don't traditionally do very well if they don't put a very good team together in a particular year?

Alert the President!

[taterguy]

20. I'm upset about the myth that anyone can win

Success is only possible for a privileged few

[Raskolnik]

23. Who the hell thinks "anyone" can win? There are a handful of very good teams each

year that are more likely to go deep into the tournament, and there are usually a handful of upsets that go deeper into the tournament than people expected.

I'm really not understanding why you are somehow surprised that success breeds success in something like this. Duke and North Carolina are really good, so the best players often want to go to Duke and North Carolina. That's life. That's also what makes it so sweet when a school like George Mason does well, or when a team no one outside their conference ever saw play wins a couple games on national tv.

[Botany]

24. Davidson beat Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsion last year

:shrug:

or Bradley beating Kansas then Pitt? the year before

[Cant trust em]

25. The only reason we tolerate such inequality is because we realize that it's just basketball

Actual inequality in America is something that has me outraged, but not in the NCAAs. I'm perfectly contented watching a small school go crazy and make it to the sweet sixteen.

[Burma Jones]

26. So maybe it's just good enough to make it to the Tourney

There's what? about 5,000 institutions of higher learning in the US....

I don't know how many of them have Basketball Programs

I suggest that "The American Dream" should not mean being THE biggest and baddest, but in this winner take all culture we have, you're right.

[onenote]

29. what are you babbling about?

No one thinks that "anyone" can win. So does that mean that some teams shouldn't be invited? How many? Should the "tournament" consist of two teams? Four? Eight? Sixteen? Thirty-two?

One of the reasons that the tournament was enlarged is that each of the conferences that make up Division I gets an automatic bid for their conference champion. That means that some weaker teams will get bids while the number two or three or even four team from a stronger conference -- a team that actually has a shot at knocking off higher seeds and making it relatively deep into the tournament would be left out.

Yes, number one seeds are more likely to end up in the final four than number two seeds and number two seeds are more likely to make into the final four than three seeds, etc etc. But over the past ten years, over 20 percent of the final four teams have been four seeds or higher, meaning that going into the tournament they were not considered in the top twelve.

In the past 30 years, 9 teams seeded fifth or higher have made it to the final four and 9 number ten seeds have made it to the regional finals.

If you were king of the world, how would you structure the tournament? Give us something to shoot at.