|
Sports Articles by the staff>
Duke vs Butler for the National Championship?
April 7, 2010
by Bud Foxx,
Duke vs Butler for the National Championship? Raise your hand if you picked that one? POINT MADE!
However, assuming College Basketball adopted the BCS system of College Football, what would have happened? Certainly not Duke vs Butler!
Here is what could have happened had the idiots involved with the BCS took charge:
First, we need to establish which ten basketball teams would make the five bowl games. We also will use the AP Poll as a basis since the BCS does not rank basketball. Also, we will compare the conference tournaments in basketball to the conference championship game (CCG) in football. Since not all BCS conferences in football have CCG's, the regular season winner will simply be the auto-bid. Thus ignoring the conference tournament winner in basketball. Confused? See the pattern below and maybe it will be understood more clearly.
The National Championship game would be theAP# 1vs the AP #2. This is established below in the bowl lineup.
As far as the other four bowl games? These eight teams would be chosen:
PAC 10-- California. Washington would not have had a chance to represent the PAC 10 like they did in basketball because in football the PAC Ten does not have a CCG. Cal would be an auto-bid.
SEC -- Tennessee. Though not an auto-bid because Kentucky is the actual winner of the SEC, Tennessee was the runner up (rankings wise) to Kentucky and probably would get the nod from the Sugar Bowl representatives as Kentucky would not be available to play in this game.
Big Ten-- Purdue. There is no Big 10 CCG just like in the PAC 10. So we have to stick with the regular season winner here in Purdue, the auto-bid.
Big East-- Syracuse. Just like the Big 10 and PAC 10 in football, there is no CCG to compare with, so West Virginia would not have had a chance to compete against Syracuse, the auto-bid.
Big 12 -- Kansas State would represent the Big 12. With the same situation as the SEC and Tennessee, the actual Big 12 champion would move to the BCS NCG, so Kansas State would probably represent based on their high AP ranking as the Big 12 runner up.
ACC -- Duke. They were the winner in the regular season as well as the ACC tourney (Again, the CCG equivalent)--so no questions here.
The last two at large spots would have to go to the highest ranked mid-major if they were in the top 10. New Mexico. (Incidentally, Butler was not in the Top Ten. They were 11.) I would assume the last and final at large spot would go to AP #5 Ohio State.
So now let's select the bowl lineup based on the historical pattern.
BCS National Championship Game. Kentucky vs Kansas.
Rose Bowl. California vs Purdue.
Sugar Bowl. Tennessee vs Syracuse.
Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State vs Kansas State.
Orange Bowl. Duke vs New Mexico.
So, tell me, would you rather have this or the classic last night that was Duke vs Butler along with the madness surrounding this year's basketball tournament?
|
|
|
