This past season, Bruce Pearl gave new meaning to March Madness.
Pearl, the former coach of Auburn and the father of the current coach, started the month by angering everyone, advocating for the inclusion of his middling Tigers over the possible at-large bid for Miami (Ohio), which was undefeated at the time and remained so until the Mid-American Conference tournament.
“They’re not built for the grind of a Big Ten or even a Big East,” Pearl told “Wake Up Barstool” on FS1. “In the Big East Conference this year, they’d finish in the lower half. They may not finish last. But I tell you what: I’m not so sure.”
Later, he would walk back his anti-MAC sentiment, but would continue to campaign for Auburn, which finished its season with a 17-16 record, 7-11 in the SEC, a perfectly forgettable team that belonged in the Not Invited Tournament, not the First Four in Dayton and certainly not the Field of 64.
“They played the toughest schedule in the country,” he said. “Don’t know that they were rewarded for it.”
Cue the tiny violins.
Everyone ridiculed him for this take. It was a unifying moment in an ever-fractured country. He was the Wicked Stepfather, harassing Cinderella for being poor and touting the beauty of the subpar stepsister.
We love the NCAA Tournament for several reasons, from the communal aspect of filling out brackets to the flattening of the field where the Davids can fell the Goliaths with a flurry of 3-pointers.
And now, the NCAA wants to take that away from you. Or at least make it worse.
Under a misguided plan that seems destined to pass, the NCAA Tournament could be expanded for the first time since 2011, adding eight (!) more teams to increase the field from 68 to 76.
Under that concept, Auburn, which finished as one of the “first four out,” would’ve made the tournament along with, likely, seven other big conference teams hovering around the .500 mark. For the most part, these are not the unjustly snubbed. These are the kinds of teams that even their own fans don’t like to watch.
No one wants this. The NCAA Tournament works just fine.
So of course, it’ll happen.
Expansion is growth. It means more games on TV, more Capital One commercials starring Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee, more money trickling down to the schools, who are all for this proposal because they now operate in a world where the players want to get paid too, just like the coaches, athletic directors and school presidents.
But the fans don’t want it. We want action, upsets and brackets. No one wants a “First 12,” a battle royale of teams with losing conference records.
A main part of the tournament’s allure is filling out a bracket. It’s the last wholesome gambling-related activity left in the American monoculture, a collective act everyone can participate in, from Vegas sharps to tiny grade schoolers.
Legalized sports betting has affected how we consume sports, and not in a positive way. As someone who grew up around gambling, I agreed with the legalization of it, but from advertising overkill — no, I don’t want to bet a same-game parlay — to athlete betting scandals, I get why people hate it and think it’s ruined sports.
And yet, the bracket remains pure.
Like most people, I start filling mine out Sunday night. While I’ve been in charge of an online pool for 20 years, I also still print one out and fill it out by hand. I always revise it throughout the week, but the “First Four” has complicated the process and tarnished the experience. You have to wait until Wednesday night to finalize it. It’s not the end of the world, but it is annoying.
We’ve had the “First Four” since 2011, so we accept it now. I like that it’s in Dayton every year, and at least it allows some teams to win a game before spring break.
Now, under this scheme, we’d have a “First 12” and two host sites. Bleh.
We know who belongs in the tournament and who doesn’t. You don’t need to be Ken Pomeroy to figure it out, and if everyone makes the NCAA Tournament, then what value does making it have?
I admit my biases. I’m a Mid-American Conference enthusiast. And despite being an Ohio University alum, I rooted for our arch-rival Miami RedHawks to make the tournament. It was well-deserved that the MAC received two teams in the dance for the first time since 1999, but I also understand that inclusion isn’t always earned and that expansion wouldn’t help our cause anyway.
This plan is nakedly designed to help mid-major teams like Auburn, not mid-majors like Miami.
The upside of Pearl’s argument and the debate that ensued was the spotlight on a MAC team. The RedHawks’ “First Four” game against fellow No. 11 seed Southern Methodist drew big numbers on TV. Miami didn’t fare as well against Tennessee in the real tournament. They weren’t alone. High Point scored the only true David vs. Goliath upset of the tournament.
Unfortunately, this past season’s tournament, like the one before it, lacked the underdog drama that makes “The Big Dance” such an enduring part of our sports calendar. It’s likely an unfortunate byproduct of the free-for-all-transfer portal and NIL paydays. I hold hope that the real upsets — Iowa over Florida doesn’t really count — will return. We’re still talking about college athletes who are prone to error and excitement.
The beauty of the one-and-done tournament is that every game promises chaos. But making it is a victory in itself. The process and the result reward the survivors, both the winners of the small-conference tournaments and the teams that claw their way through months of games in newly bloated super-leagues.
Expanding the field won’t make the NCAA Tournament more exciting for fans, and it won’t reward the truly deserving teams.
It isn’t fixing a problem. Instead, it will weaken one of our last great sporting events.
It’s good for the coaches of 17-16 teams and their fathers. For the rest of us, it’s another sign of the decline of our times.
