The SEC thumb on scale now extends ruining March Madness, which once was the purest tournament in college sports.
Fourteen teams from the SEC, five with losing records in the conference made the tournament, including Texas at 6-12. Six and twelve!
That should be an air horn in a library for the media. Six and twelve. But instead of crying foul, we get
fawning over the SEC.
Ten years ago the tourney had 34 mid majors (or teams that aren’t in Power 4 in football). This year, 29. Guess who got the other five berths? SEC teams underwater in their own conference.
The experts will say the "metrics" support it regardless of abysmal conference performance. I call BS. Actually BCS. Remember what "metrics" got us in the BCS era?
The vaunted metrics in football and now basketball both now seem to tilt things in favor of the SEC.
Maybe sportswriters should quit accepting this claptrap and investigate how this once wonderful tournament has been perverted.
Just like in football their SOS gets them in because they are ranked high to begin the season then they only play each other or weak weak weak teams. They already proved in their conference play that they are not near the best. The rules should be changed to state you must have a record over .500 in your conference otherwise you have already proven you are nowhere near the best. When Oregon State made its Elite8 run they got in by winning the conference tournament. That is the only valid method if you are not over .500.
You are dead right about the access argument. Sadly, in this era of lies and propaganda, access has become a real issue across journalism. A half century ago the White House didn’t dare shut out media it didn’t like. Elected officials knew stories would be favorable and some not. Today, it’s all fealty to the leaders and leaders have thin skins. Any bad press costs your news org dearly in access.
That said, the national sports media should be looking at degradation of the tournament. The NCAA and the SEC really can’t get by without CBS and ESPN.
The SEC thumb on scale now extends ruining March Madness, which once was the purest tournament in college sports.
Fourteen teams from the SEC, five with losing records in the conference made the tournament, including Texas at 6-12. Six and twelve!
That should be an air horn in a library for the media. Six and twelve. But instead of crying foul, we get
fawning over the SEC.
Ten years ago the tourney had 34 mid majors (or teams that aren’t in Power 4 in football). This year, 29. Guess who got the other five berths? SEC teams underwater in their own conference.
The experts will say the "metrics" support it regardless of abysmal conference performance. I call BS. Actually BCS. Remember what "metrics" got us in the BCS era?
The vaunted metrics in football and now basketball both now seem to tilt things in favor of the SEC.
Maybe sportswriters should quit accepting this claptrap and investigate how this once wonderful tournament has been perverted.
confederate mind set...smacks of oligarchism.
Just like in football their SOS gets them in because they are ranked high to begin the season then they only play each other or weak weak weak teams. They already proved in their conference play that they are not near the best. The rules should be changed to state you must have a record over .500 in your conference otherwise you have already proven you are nowhere near the best. When Oregon State made its Elite8 run they got in by winning the conference tournament. That is the only valid method if you are not over .500.
Real journalism is dead. I read a column yesterday about the fawning reporting to maintain "access" is the norm. Uugghhh!
There are some folks out there trading access for their integrity. You can easily spot it.
You are dead right about the access argument. Sadly, in this era of lies and propaganda, access has become a real issue across journalism. A half century ago the White House didn’t dare shut out media it didn’t like. Elected officials knew stories would be favorable and some not. Today, it’s all fealty to the leaders and leaders have thin skins. Any bad press costs your news org dearly in access.
That said, the national sports media should be looking at degradation of the tournament. The NCAA and the SEC really can’t get by without CBS and ESPN.