Every year, the casual fans cheer wildly for underdogs and upsets at the NCAA tournament. But when we end up with underwhelming matchups in the later rounds (Butler-VCU, anybody?) is it really worth it? Wouldn't we rather the top teams make it to the end so we can see some blockbuster games? Check out what our writers think and then sound off below.
Reid Forgrave, national writer
So it’s tourney time, and what better occasion for America to turn its back on the top-seeded teams, also known as the teams who’ve achieved more than the others all season long?
After all, conventional wisdom goes, what’s better for college basketball fans than when David beats Goliath? What’s better than 11th-seeded George Mason over top-seeded UConn in the 2006 Elite Eight? What gets more hearts thumping than 6th-seeded NC State over top-seeded Houston in the 1983 title game, or 8th-seeded Villanova over top-seeded Georgetown in the 1985 title game? What’s more special than March Madness starting with Steve Nash and 15th-seeded Santa Clara beating 2nd-seeded Arizona in a first-round stunner in 1993?
Sorry, but I really hope this year’s Final Four doesn’t feature a Butler-sized underdog. My bracket this year is going to feature Kentucky, Ohio State, North Carolina and Missouri — two apiece of the one seeds and two seeds — and I think that’s what’s best for college basketball.
Why? For the same reason I’d rather have Tiger Woods battling it out with Rory McIlroy on the back nine of the Masters instead of Joost Luiten hot on the tail of Francesco Molinari. For the same reason I don’t want a Super Bowl featuring the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or a World Series with the Baltimore Orioles and the San Diego Padres. Simply put, the best teams in the hunt is what’s best for a sport.
Yet every year, college basketball fans go against that way of thinking.
I get it: That’s what’s special about March Madness. Every team has a chance. And nearly every year, a giant falls early. Rare is the time when all the giants hang around until the end.
Only once since 1985, when the NCAA tournament was expanded to 64 teams, has a Final Four featured all four top-seeded teams. That was in 2008. And only three times has a Final Four featured three of the top-seeded teams. The most likely scenarios are that either one or two top seeds are still around come New Orleans, although there have been two times since 1985 that no top seeds have made it that far.
Personally, I’d prefer a repeat of 2008, when the top seeds hung around until the end. Talk as much as you want about the Cinderella stories, but what’s best for college basketball fans is for the best teams to go far. That’s right: When it comes to this NCAA tournament, this forever fan of the hopeful underdog would rather see a bunch of great basketball than a bunch of great stories.
Bill Reiter, national writer
Huh. I'm a little surprised, to be honest, that Forgrave fancies himself part of the 1 percent, particularly having seen how he dresses. But if he's going to throw his lot in with the haves, allow me, still firmly ensconced in the 99 percent and my low-key Midwestern roots, to lend a small but firm voice to the have nots.
Go VCU. Godspeed to Frank Martin and his Kansas State Wildcats. Do your thing, Creighton and Davidson, and embarrass your bigger and richer brethren. Turn this tournament into the everyman's proving ground, Montana. And please, please, Detroit, prove Bill Self right and be unlike no other No. 15 seed we've ever seen.
None of this is to say I don't have a rooting interest in some of the big boys bullying their way to New Orleans. As a proud graduate of the Missouri Journalism School, I'm all-in with the hope my Tigers can earn a first-ever Final Four berth. But I'm just as interested in seeing Kansas go down in flames, early — and in watching little guys wreak havoc on brackets from coast to coast.
Those last two are emotional reactions. I like Self, respect him a ton, and think his teams are full of great players who are fun to root for because they're mostly good guys. They're also from Kansas, and I'm from Missouri, and so this time a year I still hope for their demise. I also happen to like great basketball from teams such as Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke and other blue bloods. A lot. But just like with Kansas, it's also nice to see the big guys flail and fail and struggle against lesser names. It's a healthy reminder that in America, when actually given a shot, anyone really can make their dreams come true. Just ask Butler. The Bulldogs know.
So no, Reid, I can't get down with your need to appease. Come back to the fold. Remember your roots. Celebrate the little guy. Root for 12 and 13 seeds. You're not a the "1 percent" kind of guy. Don't act like one just because you went all No. 1 seeds on your bracket.
Jen Engel, national columnist
Who are these NCAA underdogs y’all speak of? Butler? Virginia Commonwealth? Iona?
Because Butler and VCU were playing in the Final Four a year ago, and I am typing this as I watch Iona battle BYU (nice try, Gaels). All of this while UCLA again failed to land a dance invite and Illinois just fired another coach.
This is not college football where the company you keep is more important than the game you play. It is not always an upset when the smaller school wins and they always determine who is better on the court. This is why I love college basketball, and especially March Madness. It is the ultimate example of sports egalitarianism and proof is provided every March by some team we have never heard of knocking off some team we never expected to lose. They are not underdogs as much as unknowns.
And of course, I am rooting for unknown No. 14 against oversaturated No. 3. I am actually shocked — shocked, I say — to discover that you, Forgrave, are not.
If you are rooting for chalk, you are doing sports wrong.
Unless that chalk is repping the place you spent four years toiling then, by all means, do as I do and hope Norfolk State implodes. My love and money go to Mizzou, and my boys back up my theory that not all underdogs have low seeds. Yes, our Tigers are seeded No. 2 in the West but they have never been to a Final Four and I am still scarred emotionally from watching in person as UCLA’s Tyus Edney went the length of the floor so many years ago.
So never forget, one man’s One Shining Moment is another’s kick in the you know where. And underdog is relative.
Greg Couch, national columnist
These Cinderella teams now have a regular spot on the mountaintop, and are expected to be there. We want some little guy to cheer for, as if it has never been done before. Why? Because it’s done that way every year.
In the past few years, the underdogs have changed the nature of the entire NCAA tournament, which is to say that they’ve changed the nature of our brackets. I don’t know why you guys keep talking about your heart and your pick: Missouri. For most people, the tournament isn’t about heart or school spirit.
It’s about gambling and office pools. The Cinderella teams do provide some last bit of that old Hoosiers feel, which is nice. But too much of that is a strain on the bracket, and gets in the way of the serious business of trying to get that 10 bucks from Neil in marketing.
For so long, Cinderella teams were there just to help get through the first two rounds of the tournament. They served as comic relief, like Kramer on Seinfeld or like the Cubs in the National League.
Once crunchtime arrived, it was time for them to go away. Now, Cinderella teams are creating a new twist in filling out brackets: You have to pick at least one to get through. One will. And someone in the mail room, or accounting, will surely have planned for it.
The problem last year was that VCU and Butler both got to the Final Four. It sort of spoils the party when two Cinderellas show up. And speaking of a spoiled party, I sat courtside for that Butler-UConn national championship game and can’t remember Butler making one shot. Awful.
So, is it better for the tournament to have the big boys get to the Final Four, or to have Cinderella get there? It’s best to have three big boys and one Cinderella. That way, you get star power, bracket hope and a little of the old feel of sport mixed together at the same time.
