D-Light [Click to embiggen]Is there a better way to start the day than by finding out that Mr. Buckeye, David Lighty, graces the cover of Sports Illustrated's NCAA Tournament issue? I'll give you a hint: Nope.
Like Evan Turner last season, Lighty is featured on one of several SI regional covers, along with BYU's Jimmer Fredette, Kansas' Marcus Morris, Duke's Nolan Smith and UConn's Kemba Walker.
The easy pick would have been Wooden finalist Jared Sullinger, but it's fitting that Lighty represented the Buckeyes. For as much as he means to this team -- just ask Bruce Weber -- and for everything he's put into the program (leading to a school record 127 career wins and counting), the honor is a fantastic send-off to his final tourney run.
Le'ts honor Lighty by heading over and voting for him for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, shall we.
[PRO TIP: If you want to do some ballot bombing, you can use Chrome's Incognito Mode or similar tech for your favorite browser and then voting, closing and repeating.]
It's a Big East dance party. Sure, the Buckeyes, Kansas and Duke (especially with news of a potential Kyrie Irving return to action) and other teams are earning pre-tournament love from the punditry, but the 16-team conference that stretches from Milwaukee to Providence is doing its annual mesmerizing just fine, thank you. On the heels of another made-for-TV event at Madison Square Garden to conclude things, the Big East sent a record 11 teams to the tournament and you're liable to hear the names of at least five of those teams as potential Final Four candidates.
There's only one problem with this ritual fapping to the Big East: The recent results don't tend to back up the adoration.
Two years ago, the league was awarded three #1 seeds, but only one of those teams, UConn, made it to the Final Four and the championship game featured North Carolina and Michigan State.
That showing was positively awesome compared to how the Big East fared last year. The conference sent eight teams to the tournament, including #1 seed Syracuse and four other teams seeded either second or third, but would go on to record a first-round collapse of epic proportions. #3 Georgetown suffered a double-digit defeat at the hand of Ohio and #6 Notre Dame went down to Old Dominion. The Big East went 3-5 in the opening round despite having the higher seeded team in seven of the eight games played. Only West Virginia, a two seed out of the East, made it out of the Sweet Sixteen, carrying the shredded banner for the league.
Revisiting the F7U12 Region. Alpha nerd Nate Silver thinks Ohio State, despite being the #1 overall seed in the tournament, has the second-unluckiest draw in the tournament:
Ohio State, despite being the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, also ranks high on the list of teams with tough draws. The Buckeyes’ weekend matchup, against either George Mason or Villanova, could be challenging, and their prospective third game against Kentucky is a major obstacle. Although the No. 2 seed opposite them, North Carolina, is not extraordinarily strong, it could get No. 3 Syracuse instead, a tough game since it would be played in Newark.
His pick for the luckiest draw in the tourney: No surprise here, the Gators.
Looks great. Let's do it. It's no secret that I'm a huge proponent of a playoff for FBS football. Through the years, I've seen plenty of proposals that would potentially work, but the key to getting from a system where 2010 TCU does not have a crack at the national championship to one where it does is to ease into it. We're dealing with staid old unviersity presidents, after all. Though I think the process will be an evolution of sorts, taking us to a plus-one system and then a four-team before finally growing out into an eight or 16-team field, Dr. Saturday has a plan that just might get us to where I'd like to be without all of that messy Darwinism:
The ultimate goal of any playoff is to crown an undisputed champion on the field, with as little influence as possible from the kind of arbitrary opinion polls that have lorded over college football for the last 75 years. The sport has too many teams playing too few games against too wildly varying levels of competition to eliminate some kind of external filter aside from the standings — no one believes all 11-1 seasons are created equally — but its influence can at least be scaled back. My system aims to fulfill the following priorities, in order:
1. To determine an undisputed champion on the field.
2. To allow reasonable access to every deserving team, regardless of its history or conference affiliation, based on its merit in a given season.
3. To impose a higher bar for entry to limit access to undeserving teams that threaten to water down the field and undercut the results of the regular season.
4. To propose a system that is logistically and politically feasible, and could conceivably exist in the real world with as little disruption to the existing structure and traditions as possible.
Not listed among his goals, but stated elsewhere in his plan is his concept of limiting the field to 10 teams. This serves to keep the BCS relevant -- the same 10 teams selected for BCS bowls under the current structure would qualify for the playoffs -- and I believe, would serve as a bridge from old and busted to the new hotness of a playoff.
Random bits: Sad face: Greg Oden says he's still a long way from returning... Your iPhone just got better, because the Villain has a new app... ESPN says the NCAA is rolling in cash. The NCAA says "whatevs"... Google has the NCAA Tournament mapped up... The clock is ticking on entries for our bracket contest. You do like fresh threads, don't you?... And then, This.
