When the NCAA men’s basketball tournament brackets get released this upcoming Sunday, fans across the nation will be looking to find this year’s underdog that can make a Cinderella run. The unfortunate fact is that this year, there are going to be far less capable “giant killers” than usual.
It’s no one’s fault that they might not notice what is going on in the Mid-major conference tournaments. When you’re passing over the scores at the end of the day, is there really that big of a difference between Milwaukee and Valparaiso? It may not seem like it, but yes, there is. Valparaiso has beaten Alabama and Rhode Island, while Milwaukee has struggled to get to 10 wins this season. There is a difference, and the better team lost in the Horizon League Quarterfinals up in Detroit.
The Horizon League has had the most drama of any of the tournaments last week, with the tournament’s top-three seeds all losing in the quarterfinals. Their best hope for a good representative is No. 4 Northern Kentucky. As a native Kentuckian, I hope the Norse do well, but them winning the Horizon League weakens the NCAA Tournament.
These upsets in the lower conference tournaments are going to have a domino effect on seeding. Along with the Horizon League, the Ohio Valley, Metro Atlantic Athletic, Southern and Summit conferences have all already lost their No. 1 seeds. That means at the least five conferences will not be sending their best representative to the NCAA Tournament. That’s a problem.
These conference tournament upsets are affecting the chances that any top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament will get upset in the first round all together since teams that originally were not supposed to be in the bracket are going to be 16 and 15 seeds, and teams that were going to be in those slots will be moved up to 14 and 13 seeds.
Now, will there be upsets this year? I’m sure there will be a few, and you can put your hopes in University of North Carolina Wilmington, Florida Gulf Coast and other conference top seeds that have managed to avoid upsets in their conference tournaments. Those teams can still pull off some upsets in the tournament, but if the rest of the best teams in Mid-major conference tournaments don’t start winning, the underdogs will be extremely weak this year.
If you are a fan of upsets and Cinderella stories come NCAA Tournament time, then you need to be cheering for the favorites until Selection Sunday. Become a Mount St. Mary’s, Texas Southern, University of Texas at Arlington and Vermont fan. I know some of you are still recovering from the homecoming football loss, but dust off your favorite Middle Tennessee hat and rep the Blue Raiders this week. You will be glad you did when one of them pulls off an upset in March Madness.
Your Cinderellas are in trouble, March Madness fans. Cheer responsibly.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
