The NCAA basketball tournaments are so cool on so many levels. I'm a band geek. Each team in the tournament brings their basketball band with them, on the charter, staying in the same hotel, etc. The bands play their team out of the hotel when they leave for the arena, play their team into the arena, and play at the game along with the opposing band. It's a (friendly) battle of the bands at each venue. It's a hoot. These kids work so hard at their craft and make it a real college atmosphere.
On a different note, I appreciate you giving credit where credit is due. University of Portland women in the tourney is great for the state of Oregon. I for one am tired reading about the other two school. Especially the one with all the money. Congrats to all involved at UofP.
Well that’s how you really feel? I was about to congratulate the PU women. Indeed, the team and coaching staff deserve praise and the fine press Mr. Canzano has given them.
However, your snark regarding the U of O will make me cheer on the Sooners this Saturday! Enjoy the short tournament ride but until you can field a football team stay in your lane.
Wow, Brenner, try getting up on the other side of the bed tomorrow Grumpy Gus! Really, you would cheer against an Oregon team that deserves everyone's support after the effort they put in because one person posted a subtle dig at your alma mater, I thought by the time we passed 70 years of age everyone would stop acting like they are in a schoolyard. I'm just waiting for you to post, "I know you are, but what am I?" 😉 You think because U 0f P doesn't choose to invest the inordinate amount of money required to field a competitive football squad somehow they are a lesser institution than U of O and therefore should, "Stay in their lane"? Get a soccer team and get back to us. In the meantime, I'm sure the team would rather not have you jump on the bandwagon - we have real sports fans here.😎
Calm down Cowboy or Marlboro Man, sorry Maverick. I apologize, you “real” fans there at U of P are new to the lime light. Having from what little I know or care to know about your institution’s athletic history done very little in the past. I was guilty of punching down.
String a few seasons like this one together and get back to me. Until then, welcome to the dance you guys punched your ticket this year, something the Duck teams were unable to do.
Apology accepted, hey, everyone gets up on the wrong side of the bed occasionally. And I appreciate the acknowledgement that the Pilots outperformed Ducks this year. Then, dang it, you come back with another low blow. Punching down? Get a football team (not American college ball) but a real football (stay with me , you yanks call it soccer) and then compare notes. The U of P women's team is among the best ever... your education continues. Punching down? 😂 Get back in your lane. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/university_of_portland_pilots_women_s_soccer/#.ZA_AqC-B1mA
Totally agree Farrier Irene. Every sports outlet in Oregon is non-stop U of O and O State. Baseball in the winter, football during basketball season... on and on (Yawn). The U of P women's team is a force. Imagine how pumped they will be if they start to command front page coverage and front page sports sections leading to their showdown with Oklahoma. The girls outperformed every boys college team for the past year. Hope we see the coverage reflect that!
1) Non-power 5 conferences retain their auto-bids.
2) Auto-bid teams do not have to be in “play-in” games.
3) A bracket principal that regular season conference champs that don’t win their conference tournament receive some type of enhanced consideration. (This would help smaller schools since Power 5 regular season champs always get in.)
4) At-large teams must have a conference record above .500 (to reduce Power 5 dilution)
But yes, left unchecked, the Power 5 conferences would be self-serving piranha’s feasting on all additional at-large slots. —Which would add nothing positive to the tournament.
This is exactly what I was coming here to post. If the field expands we know what it means for the power 5. But how many at-larges will be open for mid and low-major schools? I don’t really trust their intentions.
Do you think there's any parallel with the downturn of Oregon women's basketball and the loss of Mark Campbell (and Xavier Lopez) to Sac State? Sac State is in the NCAA tournament while Oregon struggles to be a mid-Pac 12 team. I think Campbell was the glue on Oregon's successful run beginning in 2015-16. I know Kelly Graves is a fine coach and good guy, but Campbell was the lead recruiter and defensive coach. It's obvious those areas have fallen off, especially the defensive performances. At Sac State he has taken a team that was 3-22 in 2020-21 to 25-7 and an NCAA berth two years later. When Graves decides to retire, Campbell should be at the top of Oregon's list of replacements.
Agree with all of this — except Sankey’s sanctimony. It’s my impression that expansion of the field beyond 64/68 is a scheme to expand at-large bids for power conference programs. I’m not philosophically opposed to expanding the field — hell, you could convince me the field should include EVERYONE and eliminate the insipid conference tournaments that ESPN invented to generate $.
And I can’t blame them. It’s their disingenuousness that bugs me. Always has. I attended USF, during the Bill Cartwright era, when the Dons were pretty good. I still maintain a soft spot for schools that are screwed by metrics that reward power conference programs for playing 18 games against each other while the rest swim in the kiddie pool from January thru March.
Hats off to the Portland U women's CBB team. You go girls!
But how to make a guy feel old? I was around when there was no women's tournament and the men's field was 16 teams. And growing up in Boston no one who didn't make a phone call out west knew the scores from the west-of-the-Mississippi Saturday games until reported in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald in Monday morning's newspaper.
Man the Pac-10's men's CBB teams need to up their game. 2 invites for the Pac-10 men with one, ASU, being a play-in invite. This is no fine.
I do hope the CBB field goes to 80 and I expect that come 2026 we will see a 16-team CFB field.
PS - An additional reason to feel old. I knew Harry Reid very well. Litigated against Harry's law firm on several occasions before Harry entered politics. Closer to home, Harry's son dated my daughter. Time passes by.
Depends what kinds of teams you're adding for me... the bracketologists like Jerry Palm hate the idea because they know it's going to end up with mediocre P5 teams in the field.
Is Oklahoma State mediocre? They're 18-15 this year but 12 of their losses were against ranked teams in the best basketball conference in the nation, Big12. Besides UCLA and Arizona, the whole Pac12 is mediocre... and the fans show it by not even coming to watch the games.
That's potentially an argument for why OSU may have deserved a tourney berth, but to me, not an argument for expanding the tournament. Whether you let in 16, 32, 64, 68, 76, or 128, SOMEONE is going to have an argument for why they belong, rather than Southwest Eastern Polytechnic or Nevada Institute of Technology and Makeup Artists.
Just like in the NFL and NBA, it annoys me that teams with losing records make the playoffs. Sure, an 8 - 9 NFL team could get hot and reach the Super Bowl - but then again, so could a 5 - 12 team. I just think the more teams make the playoffs/tourney, the cheaper that accomplishment is.
What’s the latest on the Pac-12 media deal? I heard the CU Board of Regents held an emergency session to discuss the school’s future in the Pac-12 and Big-12 schools are now openly courting the four corner schools. They’re now saying a deal won’t come until late March? There’s no chance this delay can mean anything besides doom for the once conference of champions. George Kliavkoff has been a disaster.
Why does any UCLA fan give a whip about schools the Bruins are leaving behind? Leaving behind after 100 or so years of partnering together.
GK has a lot on the line with this media deal no doubt. But unlike B1G commissioner Warren, GK did not lie to his Pac-12 and ACC contemporaries. He did not hide negotiations with the B1G under the rug as did UCLA and USC.
Not all of us UCLA fans feel the same way. I want the Pac to survive and thrive, not get swallowed up by other conferences. And I’ve already commented on the LA schools’ role in why the Pac was perceived as weak the last ten years or so.
We don’t owe the Pac-12 anything. Also, you act like this is some unprecedented historic move. It’s not. Pac-12 schools have been at each others throats since the 1950s. There’s no “100 years partnering together”. UCLA and USC left the old PCC and created the Pac-12 along with Washington and Cal when they kicked Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, and Idaho to the curb. It was only years later they allowed those schools to join the Pac-12. Arizona and ASU have only been in the Pac-12 since like 1980 and Colorado and Utah 2011. In any case, Cal, Stanford, and Washington will likely eventually join the Big Ten anyway, recreating the original AAWU Big Five, only now as a division of the Big Ten Conference. Those are the only schools we have any regard for (if any) in this conference.
John, GREAT ARTICLE ON MARCH 13, 2023; It is your stories that make college sports so facinating, Amigo, you need to reach a wider audience. But, perhaps, you are content with the depth of your readership? I know I was when I wrote Opinion articals for my college rag I was content with a very limited readrship of 30,000. I think your wife had me on TV about one of my articles many years back. Good Cheers. Dr. Jim McHugh
There will ALWAYS be a "first team out," unless every single D1 team is in the tournament. Mediocre 17 - 15 teams belong in the NIT or CIB, not March Madness.
Oklahoma State was 18-15 in the Big 12 this year and didn't make the tournament. 12 of their losses were against ranked teams. That's how hard the Big 12 is this year. I would guess that they would beat every team in Pac12 except UCLA and Arizona. Of course, if they played them as away games, no one would be there to watch.
Being retired, "I got time...." so i have re engaged with March Madness. That said, no more teams. If Stankey said it is ".....about the competition.....", then no more teams. Why not go nuts and make it 128 and cancel non conf schedules? MLB has too many games and too many teams make the playoffs, 40%!. Fifty three (53) % in 2020, laughable. You want in, play better and win more. I'd also like to see the attendance of the early rounds, how well do they draw? Good coverage John.....
Great column, JC. Speaking of football.... Eighteen years ago I spent much of a month with the former head basketball coach of North Carolina State, Les Robinson. He was about to retire as an athletic director in Charleston, S.C. and once he stepped down, he said he would work to bring basketball tourney magic to Div 1 football. Can you imagine what a 16 or 24-team field would do for the sport? he asked. And he wasn't talking just about money (which would be substantial). The 4 team playoffs followed not long after, and now it goes to 12. But FCS football does 24 teams. Why not FBS?
When I was in middle school, Coach Robinson paid me to run the scoreboard at ETSU's high school team camp. He was always really nice to me and didn't treat me like a little kid. Good memories!
I love the guy. Honest, nurturing and a classic southern storyteller--the kind that has you in stitches long before the punch line. That stint at Eastern Tennessee landed him in the Tennessee sports hall of fame.
Thanks for the report on The Women Pilots John. How cool will it be when they beat Oklahoma if they face UCLA in the next round. It would be awesome if they upset the team from LA and give them the boot out the door of the Pac12. They play team ball, they never quit and the coach feels part of the team! I'm all in!
The NCAA basketball tournaments are so cool on so many levels. I'm a band geek. Each team in the tournament brings their basketball band with them, on the charter, staying in the same hotel, etc. The bands play their team out of the hotel when they leave for the arena, play their team into the arena, and play at the game along with the opposing band. It's a (friendly) battle of the bands at each venue. It's a hoot. These kids work so hard at their craft and make it a real college atmosphere.
Yes, another band geek! I told the tuba line at an Oregon State women's game they have way more fun than I did in the orchestra!
On a different note, I appreciate you giving credit where credit is due. University of Portland women in the tourney is great for the state of Oregon. I for one am tired reading about the other two school. Especially the one with all the money. Congrats to all involved at UofP.
You got that right Irene. "especially the one with all the money". Always the of hype of the Nike/Media machine.
Well that’s how you really feel? I was about to congratulate the PU women. Indeed, the team and coaching staff deserve praise and the fine press Mr. Canzano has given them.
However, your snark regarding the U of O will make me cheer on the Sooners this Saturday! Enjoy the short tournament ride but until you can field a football team stay in your lane.
Oregon Alum ‘74
MY remark had nothing to do with UP. It was responding to U of O getting all the press and hype.
Every year the are ranked in Football and Basketball. Plus ink on their top recruits.
My mistake. Still hope U of P gets more press! These women are for real... reading positive stories about them upon their confidence. ❤️
Wow, Brenner, try getting up on the other side of the bed tomorrow Grumpy Gus! Really, you would cheer against an Oregon team that deserves everyone's support after the effort they put in because one person posted a subtle dig at your alma mater, I thought by the time we passed 70 years of age everyone would stop acting like they are in a schoolyard. I'm just waiting for you to post, "I know you are, but what am I?" 😉 You think because U 0f P doesn't choose to invest the inordinate amount of money required to field a competitive football squad somehow they are a lesser institution than U of O and therefore should, "Stay in their lane"? Get a soccer team and get back to us. In the meantime, I'm sure the team would rather not have you jump on the bandwagon - we have real sports fans here.😎
Calm down Cowboy or Marlboro Man, sorry Maverick. I apologize, you “real” fans there at U of P are new to the lime light. Having from what little I know or care to know about your institution’s athletic history done very little in the past. I was guilty of punching down.
String a few seasons like this one together and get back to me. Until then, welcome to the dance you guys punched your ticket this year, something the Duck teams were unable to do.
Apology accepted, hey, everyone gets up on the wrong side of the bed occasionally. And I appreciate the acknowledgement that the Pilots outperformed Ducks this year. Then, dang it, you come back with another low blow. Punching down? Get a football team (not American college ball) but a real football (stay with me , you yanks call it soccer) and then compare notes. The U of P women's team is among the best ever... your education continues. Punching down? 😂 Get back in your lane. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/university_of_portland_pilots_women_s_soccer/#.ZA_AqC-B1mA
Does UP have a choice? Would UP reject PK's $ if offered?
I very much doubt it.
You mean on football? Phil knows the heritage of this school well. He's too smart to offer. Walk that campus one time and you will know what I mean.
I guess I hit a sour note. What football team are you referring to? I assume OSU
U of O.
Totally agree Farrier Irene. Every sports outlet in Oregon is non-stop U of O and O State. Baseball in the winter, football during basketball season... on and on (Yawn). The U of P women's team is a force. Imagine how pumped they will be if they start to command front page coverage and front page sports sections leading to their showdown with Oklahoma. The girls outperformed every boys college team for the past year. Hope we see the coverage reflect that!
The Pac-10 needs the money from more than just Arizona and ASU making the playoff. Probably another good reason to add San Diego State.
Unless you spend the money you cannot compete at the highest levels. See CAL.
Adding more spots is fine. But, the most important part of the March Madness secret sauce is maintaining the small conference automatic bids.
As long as those spots go to some small college and interesting teams... yes. But if they're putting Colorado in the tournament... is that great?
My quick-take tweaks with expansion:
1) Non-power 5 conferences retain their auto-bids.
2) Auto-bid teams do not have to be in “play-in” games.
3) A bracket principal that regular season conference champs that don’t win their conference tournament receive some type of enhanced consideration. (This would help smaller schools since Power 5 regular season champs always get in.)
4) At-large teams must have a conference record above .500 (to reduce Power 5 dilution)
But yes, left unchecked, the Power 5 conferences would be self-serving piranha’s feasting on all additional at-large slots. —Which would add nothing positive to the tournament.
This is exactly what I was coming here to post. If the field expands we know what it means for the power 5. But how many at-larges will be open for mid and low-major schools? I don’t really trust their intentions.
Do you think there's any parallel with the downturn of Oregon women's basketball and the loss of Mark Campbell (and Xavier Lopez) to Sac State? Sac State is in the NCAA tournament while Oregon struggles to be a mid-Pac 12 team. I think Campbell was the glue on Oregon's successful run beginning in 2015-16. I know Kelly Graves is a fine coach and good guy, but Campbell was the lead recruiter and defensive coach. It's obvious those areas have fallen off, especially the defensive performances. At Sac State he has taken a team that was 3-22 in 2020-21 to 25-7 and an NCAA berth two years later. When Graves decides to retire, Campbell should be at the top of Oregon's list of replacements.
Graves, Altman Tinkle goodbye. Rueck next ....
Agree with all of this — except Sankey’s sanctimony. It’s my impression that expansion of the field beyond 64/68 is a scheme to expand at-large bids for power conference programs. I’m not philosophically opposed to expanding the field — hell, you could convince me the field should include EVERYONE and eliminate the insipid conference tournaments that ESPN invented to generate $.
You're probably right. The p5's want more $$.
And I can’t blame them. It’s their disingenuousness that bugs me. Always has. I attended USF, during the Bill Cartwright era, when the Dons were pretty good. I still maintain a soft spot for schools that are screwed by metrics that reward power conference programs for playing 18 games against each other while the rest swim in the kiddie pool from January thru March.
(Sorry for the lecture.)
Hats off to the Portland U women's CBB team. You go girls!
But how to make a guy feel old? I was around when there was no women's tournament and the men's field was 16 teams. And growing up in Boston no one who didn't make a phone call out west knew the scores from the west-of-the-Mississippi Saturday games until reported in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald in Monday morning's newspaper.
Man the Pac-10's men's CBB teams need to up their game. 2 invites for the Pac-10 men with one, ASU, being a play-in invite. This is no fine.
I do hope the CBB field goes to 80 and I expect that come 2026 we will see a 16-team CFB field.
PS - An additional reason to feel old. I knew Harry Reid very well. Litigated against Harry's law firm on several occasions before Harry entered politics. Closer to home, Harry's son dated my daughter. Time passes by.
4 actually. USC was the last at-large announced.
Due to the bracket it is playing in.
USC is not a Pac-10 team.
No such thing as the "Pac-10", either...
OK, Scott. But I hope you get 'it' or I am concerned for you.
In 2024, this just in, SC/UCLA will not be members of the Pacific Conference. Ergo, 12 minus 2 = 10.
You included 3 teams in your last response, so you would have left one of USC or UCLA out.
? 2 Pac-10 teams were invited, AZ, ASU. So far these 2 plan to play in the Pac-10 in 2024.
In 2024, UCLA and USC will be playing in the B1G.
Have I made myself clear? In my last response to Scott Smith, I referenced the 2 LA schools.
I could have sworn that your original post said “3 schools.”Otherwise I wouldn’t have commented.
And yes, I’m well aware of the schools leaving the Pac.
No problem. If I was in error it is neither the first time nor most likely the last time.
No more teams need to get in. Then the regular season doesn’t matter.
Depends what kinds of teams you're adding for me... the bracketologists like Jerry Palm hate the idea because they know it's going to end up with mediocre P5 teams in the field.
Is Oklahoma State mediocre? They're 18-15 this year but 12 of their losses were against ranked teams in the best basketball conference in the nation, Big12. Besides UCLA and Arizona, the whole Pac12 is mediocre... and the fans show it by not even coming to watch the games.
I get your take but I've heard the same every time any playoff field expands. Last season college football attendance was up.
The NFL has expanded its playoff field many, many times and plenty of folks show up for regular season games. Ditto for the NBA and MLB.
I think Commissioner Sankey is spot on. All regions need to be represented in every post-season tournament.
Nice piece. I thought you reported on PNW teams not only Oregon. I get it.
Go Cougs! WSU women did an outstanding job.
Yes. Agree. WSU is such a great story.
That's potentially an argument for why OSU may have deserved a tourney berth, but to me, not an argument for expanding the tournament. Whether you let in 16, 32, 64, 68, 76, or 128, SOMEONE is going to have an argument for why they belong, rather than Southwest Eastern Polytechnic or Nevada Institute of Technology and Makeup Artists.
Just like in the NFL and NBA, it annoys me that teams with losing records make the playoffs. Sure, an 8 - 9 NFL team could get hot and reach the Super Bowl - but then again, so could a 5 - 12 team. I just think the more teams make the playoffs/tourney, the cheaper that accomplishment is.
Great perspective by the SEC commissioner. He is right that the playoff is about students, parents & fans for everyone, not just the perceived elite.
What’s the latest on the Pac-12 media deal? I heard the CU Board of Regents held an emergency session to discuss the school’s future in the Pac-12 and Big-12 schools are now openly courting the four corner schools. They’re now saying a deal won’t come until late March? There’s no chance this delay can mean anything besides doom for the once conference of champions. George Kliavkoff has been a disaster.
Why does any UCLA fan give a whip about schools the Bruins are leaving behind? Leaving behind after 100 or so years of partnering together.
GK has a lot on the line with this media deal no doubt. But unlike B1G commissioner Warren, GK did not lie to his Pac-12 and ACC contemporaries. He did not hide negotiations with the B1G under the rug as did UCLA and USC.
I hope you enjoy the Judas money.
Not all of us UCLA fans feel the same way. I want the Pac to survive and thrive, not get swallowed up by other conferences. And I’ve already commented on the LA schools’ role in why the Pac was perceived as weak the last ten years or so.
We don’t owe the Pac-12 anything. Also, you act like this is some unprecedented historic move. It’s not. Pac-12 schools have been at each others throats since the 1950s. There’s no “100 years partnering together”. UCLA and USC left the old PCC and created the Pac-12 along with Washington and Cal when they kicked Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, and Idaho to the curb. It was only years later they allowed those schools to join the Pac-12. Arizona and ASU have only been in the Pac-12 since like 1980 and Colorado and Utah 2011. In any case, Cal, Stanford, and Washington will likely eventually join the Big Ten anyway, recreating the original AAWU Big Five, only now as a division of the Big Ten Conference. Those are the only schools we have any regard for (if any) in this conference.
John, GREAT ARTICLE ON MARCH 13, 2023; It is your stories that make college sports so facinating, Amigo, you need to reach a wider audience. But, perhaps, you are content with the depth of your readership? I know I was when I wrote Opinion articals for my college rag I was content with a very limited readrship of 30,000. I think your wife had me on TV about one of my articles many years back. Good Cheers. Dr. Jim McHugh
There will ALWAYS be a "first team out," unless every single D1 team is in the tournament. Mediocre 17 - 15 teams belong in the NIT or CIB, not March Madness.
Oklahoma State was 18-15 in the Big 12 this year and didn't make the tournament. 12 of their losses were against ranked teams. That's how hard the Big 12 is this year. I would guess that they would beat every team in Pac12 except UCLA and Arizona. Of course, if they played them as away games, no one would be there to watch.
Being retired, "I got time...." so i have re engaged with March Madness. That said, no more teams. If Stankey said it is ".....about the competition.....", then no more teams. Why not go nuts and make it 128 and cancel non conf schedules? MLB has too many games and too many teams make the playoffs, 40%!. Fifty three (53) % in 2020, laughable. You want in, play better and win more. I'd also like to see the attendance of the early rounds, how well do they draw? Good coverage John.....
Great column, JC. Speaking of football.... Eighteen years ago I spent much of a month with the former head basketball coach of North Carolina State, Les Robinson. He was about to retire as an athletic director in Charleston, S.C. and once he stepped down, he said he would work to bring basketball tourney magic to Div 1 football. Can you imagine what a 16 or 24-team field would do for the sport? he asked. And he wasn't talking just about money (which would be substantial). The 4 team playoffs followed not long after, and now it goes to 12. But FCS football does 24 teams. Why not FBS?
When I was in middle school, Coach Robinson paid me to run the scoreboard at ETSU's high school team camp. He was always really nice to me and didn't treat me like a little kid. Good memories!
I love the guy. Honest, nurturing and a classic southern storyteller--the kind that has you in stitches long before the punch line. That stint at Eastern Tennessee landed him in the Tennessee sports hall of fame.
Thanks for the report on The Women Pilots John. How cool will it be when they beat Oklahoma if they face UCLA in the next round. It would be awesome if they upset the team from LA and give them the boot out the door of the Pac12. They play team ball, they never quit and the coach feels part of the team! I'm all in!