Tournament Worthy

(St. Louis, MO) – Murray State has knocked off more opponents than Jack Bauer and as the calendar flips over to March, it would be madness to want to play the Racers. Murray just finished off the fifth undefeated season in Ohio Valley Conference history.

With a 26 – 4 record (16-0 in the OVC) the Racers earned a double bye into the semifinals of Music City Madness. They own the nation’s second longest winning streak of  24 straight games. The OVC’s post-season tournament played in Nashville, is far from a home game for the regular season champion, but they are clearly the favorite to win the tournament and earn the OVC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

But what if they don’t? Will the selection committee be wise enough to give ‘the O’ two teams, if the second one is Murray State? If the unthinkable happens, and MSU would fail to nab the tournament title, they would find themselves fully on the the dark side of ‘the bubble’.

A 66 RPI is good for an OVC team, but not high enough to guarantee a dance card. But do we really want to see ‘money conference’ teams that can’t win on the road? Prognosticators believe UCLA and Oklahoma State are likely to be tournament teams. The Bruins (17-12) are 2-8 on the road. The Cowboys are 3-7 away from Stillwater and 177th in scoring and 262nd in assists.

How can we forget that just last season, Belmont finished the season with an RPI of 48, and the Bruins were left without a dance card.

Would you rather watch the slow motion Cowboys or a Murray State team that scores 78.8 ppg (13th nationally)? With the entertainment value of one of the best guards in the country in Cameron Payne, a double-double machine in Jarvis Williams and one of best young coaches in America, what would be wrong with offering an invite to the Racers? Murray plays an exciting brand of basketball that distributes the 23rd most assists in college basketball. OSU? They are 262nd in helpers.

When will the NCAA rules require that a team at least breaks even in their own conference to be eligible for their tournament. Think of the implications. Every conference game would have very real ramifications. For those that love the ‘money conferences’, more of them would earn opportunities in the other post-season tournaments, AND more mid-majors would go dancing!

Why would basketball fans want to see the ninth place team in some ‘money conference’ rather than the regular season champion of the Ohio Valley Conference, or from the Horizon League? It’s time for the governing body of this great sport to take some initiative.

Smaller conferences would earn more money from post season play and thus the programs would have more resources, exposure and recruiting possibilities. The NCAA needs to level the playing field, not by penalizing power conference teams, but rewarding smaller conference schools for actually winning the games they’ve played. This change would only affect a few teams each year, but what business does a sub-.500 team have playing for the national championship unless they win their conference tournament?

If this rule was in force, maybe teams like Creighton (MVC), Butler (Horizon) and Saint Louis (C-USA) wouldn’t be chasing a bigger league and ruining rivalries just to gain some more exposure, when they could receive great exposure by playing more post-season games! Right now Xavier (8-9), Oklahoma State (7-9) and North Carolina State (8-8) would be at risk under my proposal.

Murray State is as deserving as more than one third of the proposed field. We are hoping the Racers don’t have an uncertain chair at the table on March 15th, but if they do, we’re calling on the Selection Committee to make the right choice. Don’t forget, Jack Bauer always gets even.

Do Good