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Dcr36I was/am feeling under the weather today, so I spent most of the afternoon/evening plopped on the coach watching BracketBuster games. It was the first time I gave the event any real attention, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed watching games like Oral Roberts-Akron and LBC-Creighton.
When it comes to college sports, I'm a football fan first and foremost. I find the college football season more compelling from start to finish, due to the "every game (usually) counts" nature of the regular season. But I think a case could be made that, starting around this time, college basketball becomes more compelling. Both have teams scrambling for position to receive a favorable post-season position, but college hoops has the benefit of having more teams involved without feeling overly inclusive.
120 teams play college football at the FBS level. Of those 120 teams, only 10 will get the chance to play in the NC game or a BCS bowl (8.3%). However, there are 35 bowl games, allowing 70 FBS teams to advance to the "post-season" (58.3%). I've always hated that bowling and BCS appearances are the two major metrics of a successful season. Bowling is far too inclusive, and as far as late-season drama goes, I don't think too many people tuned in to see if a 6-6 Hawaii team could lock up their bowling dreams against BYU last season. On the other hand, the BCS is too high of a standard and excludes many very successful seasons. BYU has played at a good level for the last 6 years but can only point to end-of-season rankings as bragging rights.
Meanwhile, college basketball has 344 teams playing at the Division 1 level. Of those 344, 68 get the opportunity to play in the post-season tournament (19.76%). I think that's close to the perfect number. It's inclusive enough that you don't have to have an elite, virtually-no-mistakes season to get in, but it's exclusive enough that good teams still get left out and going to the dance feels like a genuine accomplishment.
This leaves me thinking two things. First, I wish the FBS would pair down the number of bowl games. Make 8 wins the requisite number, or develop a selection committee a la basketball that picks the 30-40 best teams based on merit (not anticipated ticket sales). Second, those proposed plans I've heard about to expand the tourney to 96/128 teams are the worst ideas currently proposed in all of sports. Keep the tourney as it is.
When it comes to college sports, I'm a football fan first and foremost. I find the college football season more compelling from start to finish, due to the "every game (usually) counts" nature of the regular season. But I think a case could be made that, starting around this time, college basketball becomes more compelling. Both have teams scrambling for position to receive a favorable post-season position, but college hoops has the benefit of having more teams involved without feeling overly inclusive.
120 teams play college football at the FBS level. Of those 120 teams, only 10 will get the chance to play in the NC game or a BCS bowl (8.3%). However, there are 35 bowl games, allowing 70 FBS teams to advance to the "post-season" (58.3%). I've always hated that bowling and BCS appearances are the two major metrics of a successful season. Bowling is far too inclusive, and as far as late-season drama goes, I don't think too many people tuned in to see if a 6-6 Hawaii team could lock up their bowling dreams against BYU last season. On the other hand, the BCS is too high of a standard and excludes many very successful seasons. BYU has played at a good level for the last 6 years but can only point to end-of-season rankings as bragging rights.
Meanwhile, college basketball has 344 teams playing at the Division 1 level. Of those 344, 68 get the opportunity to play in the post-season tournament (19.76%). I think that's close to the perfect number. It's inclusive enough that you don't have to have an elite, virtually-no-mistakes season to get in, but it's exclusive enough that good teams still get left out and going to the dance feels like a genuine accomplishment.
This leaves me thinking two things. First, I wish the FBS would pair down the number of bowl games. Make 8 wins the requisite number, or develop a selection committee a la basketball that picks the 30-40 best teams based on merit (not anticipated ticket sales). Second, those proposed plans I've heard about to expand the tourney to 96/128 teams are the worst ideas currently proposed in all of sports. Keep the tourney as it is.