CBI on CBS?

Let me start off by saying that I can't stand NCAA football bowl games. Can't stand 'em. If there's one phenomenon in sports that just screams "I'm made for the sole purpose of milking as much money out of this as I can", its the Papajohns.com bowl (Rutgers over NC State 29-23). That's not to say I don't appreciate NCAA football. On the contrary, in many ways, it surpasses the NFL in my opinion (a topic for another post), but its just a shame that such a promising program ends each year the way it does.

The playoff system is what makes organized sports different from a pickup game. The idea of qualifying for a playoff is what motivates teams to play hard and what keeps long seasons flavorful. Wild card teams and at-large bids add a dimension to sports that make them all the more exciting to follow. So why is the NCAA football playoff system so awful?

Well, because it doesn't exist! Think about it. College football teams play a whole season with the hopes of qualifying for a bowl game, while there is only a limited scope of teams that could ever get there. I will always point to Florida State University football as the ultimate you-get-what-you-work-for program. A lack of success before long time head coach Bobby Bowden took over as head coach in 1976 resulted in a massive turnaround for the team. A college that was not known for its football became known for it, and it took decades of work to make it that way. Yet, FSU has only won two national titles, with their first coming in 1993! A full six years earlier, in 1987, FSU held a record of 11-1 going into the post season, one win shy of their 12-1 mark in 1993, and yet they didn't even get the chance to play for a shot at the championship game. They were banished to the Fiesta Bowl, which they won, but it must have been a painful shot for a team with such promise to not have any chance to claim top spot in the country.

FSU is a great example of what happens when teams work hard, but even in 1987, they were no Cinderella team working for the shocking upset that makes sports so interesting to watch.

All the possible Cinderella stories in college football get watered down to the point where they are playing, at best, in the who-knows-what-get-a-deal-on-your-next-tire-rotation-by-calling-this-number-# bowl. If they had qualified for the NCAA championship game, they wouldn't be considered a Cinderella team at all! The two teams that are chosen for the championship game are shoo-ins based on power conferences and season records, where in a true playoff match-up, unlimited story lines are possible. By lacking a playoff system, NCAA football becomes one dimensional at best. Instead of handing teams their destinies in one on one football combat, teams go into seasons with the blurry goal of doing well enough to be picked by a bunch of computers for a shot at a national championship.

But we're not in the midst of that painful selection process right now. Instead, we find ourselves watching No.5 Butler University knock off No.1 Syracuse University to advance to the elite eight in the ultimate playoff showdown of the year, the NCAA basketball tournament. Now, this is a playoff you can really sink your teeth into.
It has become clear this year since the 65 teams first took the floor just why it is better to be the NCAA basketball champion than the NCAA BCS championship bowl winner. It's because you know, when you're cutting down the nets after that last game, that everyone that ought to have had a shot at bringing you down got that shot, and that you turned them all aside.

So, what is the CBI, and why should it be broadcast on CBS? Well, I guess I'm exaggerating (a lot) by making this claim, but hear me out. This year marked a pivotal time for Boston University men's basketball. For a University immersed in hockey tradition, basketball has always been the secondary sport. I'm not suggesting that it shouldn't stay that way. I love hockey. But the attendance at home basketball games at BU is discouraging. The team boasted eight seniors this year, a brand new head coach fresh out of a team that knows how to win in Villanova University's old assistant coach Patrick Chambers, and what should have been a boost in fan support. If there was going to be a year, this was it. When you're a basketball team in the America East Conference, when a year was "it", it means you qualified for a No.16 seed in the NCAA basketball tournament by winning the Conference championship. Ironically, you're playing for the rights to play a team like Duke Univeristy, Syracuse, or Kentucky University in the first round. It sounds kind of anticlimactic, as you're almost guaranteed a squashing at the hands of a program that is leagues better than you, but the important thing is that you got the shot at being the biggest Cinderella story in the history of sports. The fact that nothing has come from a 16 seed in the NCAA tournament as of yet should not be discouraging, because instances like Butler's downing of Syracuse and Northern Iowa University's defeat over Kansas this year should be enough to keep hope of an upset alive.

Long story short, BU lost the AE conference championship to University of Vermont in one of the most passionate games I've ever seen played. Vermont got to dance for a night to the tune of crushing from then high-and-mighty Syracuse, and the Terriers received a berth in the College Basketball Invitational.

The CBI. It'd definitely not March Madness, but there is something to be said for the sixteen teams that get a chance to shine in NCAA basketball's tertiary postseason playoffs- after the the National Invitational Tournament. These are the teams that, like FSU's football program in 1976, could be aiming for a big turnaround over their next years. Maybe they are celebrating the careers of a bunch of long time seniors. Maybe they have a new, exciting head coach. Sound familiar?

I am sure that BU would love to put its basketball program right alongside its pristine hockey program. Lucky for them, the basketball team gets a chance at the NCAA champion title every year, unlike in football, where teams need years of success before being picked to play in the national championship game. If the basketball version of the Terriers ever get to where FSU was in 1987, they won't have to wait another year for glory, they will get their shot at it right then. This is what makes the College Basketball Invitational so important. It is not to the point where it is on par with the lowliness of the Meineke Car Care bowl, and yet it represents the teams that came so close to the big dance, but didn't make it. In other words, the CBI pits the possible Cinderella teams of next year against each other, and with great success.

In the quarterfinal round, the CBI saw three overtime game, two of which went to double overtime. BU was able to knock off Morehead State University for a trip to the semifinals against Virginia Commonwealth University. Though they lost to VCU, they stuck with them the whole game, leading them by a point at halftime. These games are for real, and they have real implications on the future of basketball. Should the CBI be broadcast on CBS? No. Does it deserve better than HDNet? Yes.

Who knows where BU basketball will be next year. Maybe they'll lose their momentum and return/remain in the land of the no-names, maybe they'll get crushed by UConn in the first round of the big dance, or maybe they'll wind up cutting down the nets in late March, talking about the biggest string of upsets the world has ever seen. No one knows what will happen, and that is what makes NCAA basketball so much juicier than NCAA football. Because at the very least, each team will know that they started neck and neck with everyone else, and that if they wanted it, all they had to do was take it.