So, the 2008 Final Four has been set: the four #1 seeds all won their regionals and will duke it out for the championship. On paper this seems to be the best possible scenario but the reality is that this will almost certainly be anti-climactic. It also could be the greatest and most precise demarcation point within the clashing philosophies of college basketball and college football fans. Here is why.
Almost everyone believes that college football needs a playoff format and that the sixty five-team bracket in college basketball represents the absolute zenith of what sports (and possibly life in general) can represent. If you are a college basketball fan you are allowed to look at college football and its reliance on polls and BCS computers with disgust, cynicism, and condescension because you know in your heart the Final Four playoff format is virginal in its purity and immune to the politics of college football. You know that a playoff format is unquestionably needed—nay, demanded!—because all of the “What if’s?” that plague college football and its flawed and corruptible BCS playoff format.
What if the BCS expanded to allow for 16 or 20 teams? What if every major conference had a championship game before the start of the playoffs? What if the playoffs included neutral regionals just like college basketball has?
The reason for these “What if’s?” represent the heart of the supposed problem of college football: the system does not allow for underdogs to get in. College basketball’s main draw (both for audience viewing and gambling) are the inclusion of the “Cinderellas”—the teams like Davidson, Western Kentucky, and Villanova who wreak temporary havoc on big-time schools and small-time brackets. College football is heartless and soulless and rarely allows the small- or mid-conference Cinderella to crash the BCS title games, so their detractors will say. Sure, Boise State defeated Oklahoma last year (if this clip does not make you giddy I do not know what will) but Hawaii was walloped by Georgia this year and the BCS will no doubt revert temporarily back to the small-schools-can’t-compete-with-the-big-boys mentality it dogmatically approves of.
Which brings me back to the Final Four. With Davidson losing last night to Kansas we have, for the first time ever, four #1 seeds vying for the national championship. Four Goliaths with nary a sight or a whiff of a David or a Cinderella. If you know of anyone who is A) very excited at this match-up of all #1′s while they also B) despise college football for its playoff shortcomings you have found yourself in the company of the worst kind of sports hypocrite—the sentimental sports hypocrite.
To be sure, the BCS system is flawed but a playoff system will not fix anything in the long term and, conversely, the Final Four tournament, because so many teams are invited, hides many of its flaws. The sentimental sports hypocrite will rail against the impossible-to-fix flaws of college football (cannot play consecutive games within a week, games are scheduled to allow for largest fan turnout) while praising the always-random outcomes of the Final Four. Well, guess what: this year’s outcome is not random at all. The four best teams won their regions and there are no true underdogs to root for.
It is almost as if (gasp!) this year’s Final Four were declared by a computer (gasp!!). The general consensus pre-season picks (UCLA, UNC, Memphis, Kansas) are all playing for the title and none of the little guys or mid-major guys made any ripples (except for Davidson). So, let us see how the shoe feels on the other foot, college basketball fans and apologists as you are now firmly entrenched in a soulless playoff in which all of the Goliaths have won. Will you call for any changes to the tournament format? Will you complain about the lack of upsets? Will you see this year as the foreboding cloud of destruction in which upsets might become less and less likely?
The sentimental sports hypocrite wants the best of both worlds, all while espousing the contradictory nature of hating things as they happen then retroactively retelling the same events through rose-colored glasses. For those of you who like this Final Four bracket and dislike the current BCS system, do not cry if the Final Four does not live up to your standards or whine if future Final Fours become a breeding ground for only the top four programs battling it out and a huge drop-off occurs amongst small and mid-major schools making any tournament noise. You cannot have it both ways.
The BCS may be unfair, maddening, and even feel like a corporation sometimes but it works. It is the best way to get the best teams to play each other in front of the largest possible audiences. Does it leave out the little guys more often than not? Absolutely. Would it be more entertaining to watch in a playoff format? Probably. But it also reveals in some of us how we feel about business and life. If you like the BCS it is probably a good indicator about how you feel about authority, corporations, and fairness (since the games are essentially decided by every factor except head-to-head competition, it is not a stretch to assume if you hate the BCS you probably have real concerns about capitalism too) and if you do not like the BCS you probably feel that you possess a salt-of-the-earth-type philosophy that gels much better with how the Final Four is constructed. Let the teams play each other and may the best man win and all that jazz.
The Final Four pits two coaches who have already won titles (Pitino and Williams) against two coaches who have almost always had loaded talent (Calipari and Self). Isn’t this kind of like voting for who your favorite corporation or branch of government is? I have no doubt that the sentimental sports hypocrite loves these pairings (if only because their bracket looks great) but I would love to know what they think in their most honest moments about this Final Four.
For my own sake I hope both games are clunkers and ugly because I do not want to hear their cries and whines when BCS season begins and we hear the condescending editorials like, “See, college football could learn a lot from this year’s Final Four tournament.” Down with the sports hypocrites. Pray for clunkers and call out those who love the Final Four while hating the BCS!