Saturday, March 19, 2011

Musings on March Madness

NCAA Basketball.  For some, it is almost a religion.  For others, an amusing pastime to give them something to think about during the third month of the year.  Either way, it is fun to follow.  I have always found the concept of a single elimination tournament to be somewhat biased though.  The way to choose a champion is not to say: "Hey, lets throw 64 teams into a big single elimination tournament and give a big trophy to the one team that doesn't lose once."  That is merely a good way to choose a lucky team.  Such a system does not play well for number 1 cede Pittsburgh, who was defeated by Butler today.  For the NCAA to truly honor the best teams in college basketball, they should hold a tournament that allows the teams to truly prove themselves on the court.  This could be through a double elimination tournament, or it could be in a fashion similar to the NBA, with multiple games to determine a winner per round.  Either way could prove difficult to implement, but both would provide a more clear standing of who the best teams are.  Both would be more fair than polls or a single elimination tournament.
Thoughts?

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