COLUMN: NCAA to Eastern Washington — The joke’s on you
It’s NCAA Tournament time.
Selections have been made, and once again 64 teams will be playing for the national
championship.
No, it’s not March Madness and men’s basketball, this is December, although the selection process doesn’t seem to be any better, and maybe it should be called the December Disaster.
This is the season of women’s volleyball, and the tournament is just beginning.
Sunday, the field of 64 was selected, some from automatic conference berths, but most at large. Unlike basketball, the selection committee doesn’t have an Ratings Percentage Index to worry about, but it would seem logical the national rankings would be taken into consideration when selecting and seeding teams.
This year, that doesn’t seem to matter.
Consider the case of Eastern Washington University. The Eagles were ranked as high as No. 15 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll just two weeks ago. EWU is a team with a 29-2 record, and is currently ranked No. 18 in the latest AVCA poll.
Yet the selection committee thumbed their noses at the Eagles.
They gave them the finger and told them to get losst.
I guess a team from the Big Sky Conference, no matter its ranking or record, isn’t good enough to compete in the tournament.
Rankings must not mean a thing. The Eagles were led on — told they were the 18th best team in the country, and then slapped in the face.
You’re not good enough to come play with the 64 other best teams in the country. You don’t deserve a chance to prove you deserve your ranking.
Sure, EWU could have avoided this problem by winning its conference tournament. In the championship game, the Eagles lost to Sacramento State University 3-1. Sac State defeated EWU earlier this season, making itself responsible for both of the Eagles’ losses.
But can’t a team have one bad game? Not if it came in the conference tournament. Sacramento State, with a respectable 24-10 record, won the conference tournament and deserves to go the NCAA Tournament. Maybe some of the other teams don’t, though.
Sure, the Big Sky is a small conference, but even a small conference should be able to send more than one team.
Maybe the Eagles didn’t play a tough schedule, but they beat the only top-25 team they played, cruising through then No. 8 University of Utah in three games.
For their season performance, the Eagles should be awarded. Only six teams in the top-25 have more wins than the Eagles, and only six teams have as few or fewer losses than the Eagles.
But come tournament time, the major conferences rule. The Big West sent its top four teams, only two of which were ranked. Cal Poly, at 15-12, did play a tougher schedule than EWU, but that still shouldn’t make EWU any less worthy to compete.
Four schools from the Big West is nothing in comparison to the Pac-10 and Big Ten, though. Those conferences sent eight teams each.
From the Pac-10, only five of the eight were ranked in the top 25 and teams like Arizona State at 14-11 were invited. ASU finished seventh in the conference and even the eighth-place team, California, is there.
From the Big Ten, Northwestern finished 17-15 and eighth in the conference, but received an invite.
Eastern Washington won the regular season Big Sky title, but had one bad game in the championship. The selection committee’s response: Stay home.
And although the Eagles’ situation is the worst, they weren’t the only ones treated unfairly.
When it came to seedings, the top 16 teams were placed accordingly, and then everyone else was tossed into the mix.
That’s why the No. 25 University of San Diego was thrown to the wolves, or in this case the Trojans. San Diego now faces the challenge of playing USC in the opening round.
Other ranked teams also must meet in the first round. No. 9 Long Beach State will play No. 21 UCLA. This creates the situation of unranked teams playing each other and having the opportunity to advance, while the top teams eliminate each other.
Top teams should be rewarded for their work during the season. Even Hawaii, the No. 2 team in the country, was only given a No. 6 seed in the tournament.
Although maybe these teams should be happy to just be in the tournament if Eastern Washington can’t make it.
Logically, teams would be selected and seeded according to their rankings and performance, not by their conference.
But this is the NCAA Tournament and the selection committee has thrown logic right out the window.
Landon Olson is a finishing his second major in print journalism. Comments can be sent to him at slbk5@cc.usu.edu