The second annual EMUTalk.org College Basketball Tournament Pick’em pool kind of ended in the form of a massive tie, mainly because all 10 participants picked either Kentucky or Kansas for the win. Regardless of our collective lack of pick ‘em prowess, congratulations to MyBracket and Mehmet’s 2010, the tied winners at 63 points and thus edging out most of the field that tied at 62 points.
Now, a couple of observations about the NCAA tournament this year in general:
- Neither Butler nor Duke has a football team worth mentioning (I’m not sure Butler has one at all), and both universities are on the whole much better known for their academics than their sports.
- If you look at the list of winners of the NCAA tournament, you will see some of the usual suspects from the big conferences, the same kind of schools that have big-time football programs. But you’ll also see a lot of smaller school/surprises on this list, too.
- This year’s tournament had many examples about how the nature of the sport means that upsets are a lot more possible in basketball than they are in football.
- And hey, the NCAA tournament is a lot more exciting than the Bowl Championship Series.
So, with that in mind, it seems to me that the moral of this year’s tournament (as it the moral for me with every year’s tournament, actually) is that EMU ought to really concentrate on basketball and let football die on the vine. I mean, I’m no sports expert, but I think it’s a no-brainer. Basketball is dramatically cheaper to run than football. We have a terrible football stadium, but a pretty decent basketball arena. Heck, we’ve even had some version of good men’s and women’s basketball teams in the past.
If we have to continue to have a football team, well, fine. But let’s try to hire us a decent coach, let’s do some real recruiting, and let’s put a little energy into basketball, both men’s and women’s. What do you say?
Just one key player can make a huge difference in a basketball season. A basketball player playing 30 minutes a game (reasonable for a starter) makes up 15% of his or her team’s minutes played (5 players x 40 minutes/game = 200 minutes played). A football starter will usually play 20-40 minutes (offense or defense, but rarely both) and is one of 11 players, so he would contribute a maximum of about 6% of his team’s minutes played.
Also, in FBS (formerly D-I-A), you have 120 teams giving 85 scholarships each, for a total of 10,200 (approximately 1/2 of which go to “power conference” teams), and given EMU’s historical performance, we’re probably getting players nearer the bottom than the top of that 10,000 person list. D-I basketball has about 256 men’s teams offering up to 13 scholarships each for a total of 3,328 scholarships (with about 27% going to “power conference” teams). A school like EMU has a much better chance of landing good basketball players than football players, and each basketball player means more to a program than each football player.
Duke spends $13.9 million/year on basketball (they win for most $ spent). It might be “easier” for a smaller school in basketball, but historically, it’s rare to find a George Mason or Butler. Usually it’s a one a done year or a short term success (remember UNLV). Still, I’ve always been a proponent of building through bb instead of football. Less players, less expenses (uniforms, etc), and, it takes fewer players to make a difference.
Another way to think of it: Eastern’s men’s and women’s basketball team were each one player away from making the NCAA tournament this year. It’s going to take a lot more than one player to get the football team to a bowl.
Plus there’s another key difference once teams make it to the post-season. In basketball, a team like Butler has the opportunity to play for the championship. If basketball’s post-season were run like football’s, Kansas would have played Kentucky for the national championship and Butler would have been matched up with New Mexico. (See 2009 college football: Alabama v. Texas and Boise State v. TCU). Actually now that I think of it, New Mexico was an at-large team in the Mountain West, so they wouldn’t have been in the BCS; Butler probably would have played Temple.
The NCAA will never devise a playoff system for football. Key reasons why:
1. Controversy = Cash. The NCAA is making so much money as it is off of the BCS. No reason to upset the apple cart now. Especially when there’s so much buzz around either system.
2. You can’t play more than one game a week (or two within the span of 2 weeks if you think Lions and Cowboys on Thanksgiving). Basketball teams can play 2-3 times a week.
3. How would you pick who goes to the Big Dance? Who would watch the first couple of rounds? Who wants to see USC, Texas, or Ohio State stomp all over EMU?
If we really want to have an honest conversation about how money is being spent at EMU….and I keep hearing the faculty talk about abolishing football….then I think we need to talk about professors salaries and benefit programs. Although I am aware of the fact that EMU professors make on average less than many of their counterparts at other public universities I beleive that the comparison is roughly equated to UAW members at Ford comparing themselves to Chrysler. The point is that it is a skewed point of reference due to the fact that they are insulated from the true forces of the marketplace. Many, Many workers were forced to talk 10-20% pay cuts in many disciplines over this past year if they maintained their employment at all and I have seen faculty upset over not negotiating better raises and fighting for a one time budgetary surplus. The process by which professors are selected and educated needs to change in the same fashion as the world has changed. Labor Unions in higher education are behind the times in their believes and are forcing the hands of the universities in them same way the UAW bound the Big 3. Football is not the problem.
Carterman, I don’t really think you know what you are talking about in terms of the faculty thing, so I’m not going to go there.
As far as football goes: I personally am pretty ambivalent about it all. It wouldn’t bother me if the program was canceled at EMU and I’d like to see the whole MAC drop down a division, but none of that is going to happen so it is what it is. What could happen though– what I think should happen– is EMU could put a lot more emphasis on trying to build quality basketball programs.
This clip from today’s INSIDE HIGHER EDUCATION. EMU leaders are modeling their hopes for EMU football on the experience, and staff recruits from, the UofM football program; let us hope that EMU officials will hold EMU football leaders to a higher standard of truth telling than what UofM is doing…..
U. of Michigan Punishes Itself for Football Violations
The University of Michigan acknowledged Tuesday that its football program had committed several major violations of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules, and said it would restrict the activities of its coaching staff and limit practice time in coming seasons as self-imposed penalties for the rule breaking. The announcement came as the university sent to the NCAA its formal response to allegations that it had exceeded limits on the time its athletes are allowed to spend practicing and playing sports and on the number of allowable coaches in football. Michigan officials contested an NCAA allegation that its football coach, Rich Rodriguez, had “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the football program.” The case now goes to the association’s Division I Committee on Infractions, which will decide whether to accept the university’s findings and proposed penalties, or perhaps add to them.