March Madness: Fixing the First Four
I try to mention this as often as I possibly can, but I have a deep-seeded hatred for the First Four. It’s the finest example of the NCAA’s ability to ruin perfection in favor of another opportunity to grab fist fulls of money. However, I should probably clarify by explaining that I am not against tournament expansion. I’m just not a fan of how the the transition from 64 to 68 teams was carried out. Here’s a few of my primary gripes and a couple of solutions that might fix the worst thing to happen to college basketball since Christian Laettner.
The name doesn’t make sense!
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The Final Four is a weekend event that serves as the culmination of the four regional tournaments that preclude it. The Final FOUR includes FOUR teams. The First Four features eight teams, because the NCAA doesn’t respect the intelligence of college basketball fans enough to think that we would even know the difference. In theory, the Final Four represents the last four teams remaining in the tournament, while the First Four is a nod to the first four games of the tournament. Just call it the “Opening Round” and stop trying to sell t-shirts for once in your lives.
Location. Location. Location.
The University of Dayton has done a masterful job hosting the First Four since it’s inception. The games always have an excellent atmosphere and feature first rate accommodations all around. Whenever I make my pitch for Dayton (and St. Louis) to be invited into the new Big East, I always point to their handling of the First Four as an excellent indication of their readiness to move towards the big time in college basketball. Still, the Dayton location is less than ideal for two reasons:
- The game should be played in a central location. Dayton is technically considered to be in the Midwest, but you could definitely consider it to be a cross-country flight if you’re leaving from LAX (I still can’t believe that the Bruins are not only in the tournament…but somehow not playing in Dayton). Selecting a location in America’s heartland would present a more neutral situation.
- DAYTON IS PLAYING IN THE FIRST FOUR ON THEIR OWN HOME COURT! Seriously? Nobody considered the possibility of this happening and thought to themselves, “Wow, this is extremely unfair. We should probably make sure that never happens. Let’s move the game to Northwestern’s gym.” Instead, Boise State, a team who won the regular season championship in the Mountain West is being rewarded with a true road game to open up the tournament (while UCLA gets to skip the First Four and gets to play SMU…cushy gig). These games are too important to be held on the campus of a school who could possibly end up in the First Four almost every year.
Here’s the solution. The First Four should be held at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. It’s the only state-of-the-art NBA-caliber arena that doesn’t house an NBA team and it doesn’t serve as a secondary home court for another college basketball team. The building also serves as a mecca for the college hoops world, housing the College Basketball Hall of Fame and the interactive College Basketball Experience. The First Four in KC is a dreamy two-day getaway for any college basketball junkie. That sort of beats spending the night in Dayton, doesn’t it?
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Bubble Teams Get the Shaft
My biggest qualm with the First Four is that it forces teams closer to the MIDDLE of the field to play in opening round games. According to the seed listing made public by the selection committee, the four bubble teams sent to the First Four were seeded 43-46 in this year’s bracket. Shouldn’t the opening round feature the worst eight teams in the field?
Instead of putting additional obstacles in the way of teams that could legitimately make a run in the tournament, maybe the First Four should offer an opportunity to see the teams 61-68 facing off. This would give more small schools an opportunity to win games in the tournament, and also heightened our chances of eventually seeing a 16-seed beat a top seed by weeding out less talented 16-seeds (all 16-seeds are not created equal, there’s probably a 20-point difference between Manhattan and Lafayette).
The games may not do as well on television, but the ratings bonanza that will happen later in the week will be enough to dry any watery eyes. This would actually be a decision based on what’s good for college basketball. That can’t be the worst thing in the world, can it? Let’s give it a try next year. Eight teams fighting for four 16-seeds…we could call it the “Four to Play One More” live from the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
OK, that new name sucks, but the rest of this plan is brilliant.