Deadspin
On most tournament pool brackets it will be indicated as "play-in winner," a stirring tribute to a successful season if ever there was one. Presenting once again the play-in game, which has become the NCAA's little joke on the smaller Div. I schools. This year was especially awkward, as Coppin State — the first 20-loss team ever to make the NCAA tourney — is scheduled to take on Mount St. Mary's for the right to make the 64-team field. The latter team is not amused.
Mount St. Marys and Coppin State were both informed early Sunday — 90 minutes before all the other teams — that they would be playing each other in the play-in game. That essentially spoiled the fun of the televised Selection Sunday announcement for both teams.
"I liked knowing [early] from a coaching standpoint," Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "But as a fan, I didn't like it because we already knew when we walked in here who we were playing and where we were going. This part of March, just figuring out where you're going, that's so exciting for the kids and to have that taken away from them is a little bit of a downer."
Sophomore guard Jeremy Goode:
"I mean, we won our conference. I don't expect to have to win a game to get to a tournament that I feel we worked hard enough to get to."
He has a point. Either you're in the tournament or you aren't; creating two second-class citizen teams — the winner to be shoveled into the maw of a beast school like North Carolina anyway — doesn't seem right. Nor does awarding berths for conference tournament winners. Coppin State won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament by upsetting Morgan State (22-10), 62-60, after having been swept in the regular season. If the conferences want to generate revenue by having these tournaments, fine. But can't the NCAA ignore them, and award berths in the Big Dance to regular season winners?
No, you say. If the conference tournament didn't determine the true conference winners, no one would watch them. OK, I suppose. But you could still eliminate the play-in game. This year would have been an easy decision: Take Mount St. Mary's to the field of 64, and leave the 20-loss team behind.
Coppin State, With 20 Losses, Makes The NCAAs [SportsbyBrooks]
Mount's Surprise Party Spoiled [The Baltimore Sun]
Comments
I didn't know Darryl Strawberry was a Coppin State fan! Although I suppose he could just be too coked up to know where he is.
Wah wah wah you informed us too early, thus making traveling plans easier while spoiling the giddyness that would certainly have accompanied the feeling of surprise!
Or just drop the last crappy at-large team. Like Arizona or Villanova.
Logic.
Pssshhhhht!
Please.
Why don't you just give them separate drinking fountains while you're at it, Chandler?
They could solve all of this by making sure the play-in game was between the two 'worst' at-large teams. If your conference gets a bid, you should be in the 64.
@Doyle McPoyle: I didn't know Martin Lawrence was a Coppin State fan!
/had to be done'd
Good luck to Martin Lawrence and Coppin State!
I have just placed a small bet on Coppin State over Mt. St. Mary's. Nothing like a win being taken for granted.
The fuck is a Coppin State?
@TheTick: That's my position as well.
@SEXY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: Next you're going to say they should have their own schools! You're a rabid anti-dentite!
@TheTick: This is what should happen, but never will because the last at-large teams are usually major-conference teams who will generate a lot more money by their guaranteed inclusion.
All those guys look like they're Coppin something.
C'mon, who doesn't love a trip to Dayton right now? Pansies.
Well it's a good thing you're not paid to be a fan, isn't it Milan?
I didn't know there was a state named Coppin. Must be right next to the states of Appalachian and Portland.
They could have given the spots to the two worst teams to get in, regardless of how. But that would have made it two HBCU and everyone would have shit a brick.
They have to keep the play-in game. What else am I going to do tomorrow here in Dayton? I guess I could kill myself for you know...living in Dayton.
How about you just enjoy playing in front of a larger audience that you ever have before, and maybe even winning a game before UNC eats your lunch?
I'm pretty sure if you find out you're in the play in game 90 minutes beforehand or if you find out during the actual Selection Show, you get the same result: the feeling of not actually being in the tournament. So who cares?
No play-in games? Why not just reduce the field to 32 teams? Or better yet, 16? Wait, too many. Four teams, just play with four teams, no play-ins.
You know what, fuck this all. Just start with two teams that are arbitrarily voted on by a bunch of reporters and coaches and then just call that the national championship.
"Coppin State" sounds like their mascot should be the "Ol' Prospectors."
Did you know Raheem DeVaughn went to Coppin State?
If so, can you be sure I just didn't make that name up?
The guy on the left appears to be imitating some Lil Jon saying or another.
Coppin Afeel State - now there's a school we can support.
"Once they realized they were still holding hands, both young men realized that they couldn't keep their relationship a secret much longer and that sooner or later it would be revealed."
@The Teufel Shuffle:
Do you think people in Dayton wake up screaming each morning because they realize they live in Dayton?
Coach of Mount St. Mary's is definitely complaining about the wrong thing. It's a total joke that Mount St. Mary's is even IN the play-in game. RPI of 159, 18-14, winners of the 23rd-ranked RPI conference, meanwhile Mississippi Valley State gets a pass at 15-15, RPI of 228, winners of the 31st-ranked RPI conference. Same thing happened last year with Niagara and Jackson State. People bitch to no end about snubs, but this stuff is just as bad, if not worse.
@HebrewHammer: they were bitching cause they brought in a couple big screens to watch the selection show and had set up a whole on-campus event out of it. kinda spoiled that.
@TheStarterWife: Maybe they could call it the Basketball Championship Series, and give it a fancy acronym to match that name.
Why exactly dont they have 4 play in games? You got one already, whats 3 more? Then you can include the regular season winners of these little conferences as well, and give more of the cinderallas a chance to play on the big stage.
What did Cinderalla do when she got to the ball?
Gagged.
At least this year they avoid the controversy of sticking to HBCUs against each other. Nothing awkward about doing that every year or anything.
"Hey, let's have the two non-competitive historically black schools square off against each other to see which of them gets to lick the boots of a #1 seed."
Nope, not awkward.
It's no wonder Mount St. Mary's is pissed. They've been dropped to the level usually reserved for the FAMU / Alcorn State / Norfolk State's of the world.
/ 2008 Democratic campaign'd
// Bill Clinton'd
/// Ferraro'd
@TheStarterWife:
Why don't we just have Duke and Crolina play for the championship every year because those are the only two teams people care about. At least that's what ESPN tells me.
What is the point of the play-in game again? Oh yeah- so a deserving team like Villanova can get in, and end all the "my team should have been in" arguments.
Job done, then.
The NCAA tournament is welcome to keep pulling this kind of crap all it wants... just as long as I don't catch the MLB shoehorning in any playoffs contenders via half-assed one-game playoffs that result in the winner getting their asses handed to them by a stronger team after going through all that.
Wait...
@UkraineNotWeak: ESPN is lobbying for this same concept with regard to the upcoming baseball season. Despite the traditional notions of the National League vs American League, the Yankees and Red Sox will simply get it over with and play for the Championship.
If the NCAAs had any stones, they'd revert back to the old format of no at large bids.
@Dan Serafini: I prefer Oregon
@Riddler: maybe because they deserve to be in the play-in game. Its like affirmative action for basketball teams. Im sorry, make up whatever conspiracy you want, but the two lowest rated teams are, not too suprisingly, HBCUs this year.
*I say not suprisingly because those conferences are often producing the lowest ranked team to make it in
@Brazil Thrill: I'm fighting the urge to regurgitate all of the useless shit I learned while researching the Coppin State capsule.
Lets just extend it one weekend and invite 256 of the 341 D1 schools to the dance.
Then we can all opine about who's gonna be the first 1 to lose to a 64
/ulterior motive- WMU would be in
//They would still get beat by Coppin State
@Brazil Thrill: Which happen to border Midwestern on either side.
They should merge the two second class-citizen teams into one almost first class-citizen team. Or both play-in teams should just play to a scoreless tie and see what that elitist tourney committee does then. Dicks.
They should get rid of the play-in game and find a way to exclude an ACC team -- one of these years Billy Packer's head will actually explode as a result and we'll finally be rid of him once and for all.
Let's just skip the regular season all together and have and 364 team tourney thay everyone can be in...
@metsarethe...:
It's a fine idea that would be better if it included a play in game featuring the Washington Generals.
Make the play-in game between the worst (by record) conference winner against the worst (by record) at-large bid. Vote no to the NCAA Tourney backdoor bandits.
They should make the play-in game between the last two at large teams. How about Villanova vs. St. Joe's as a nice Big 5 play-in game.
It's not a "play-in" game. In theory, either team *could win the national championship. Ohio St. cannot. Hence, they are both in.
@Windier E. Megatons: Then make four play-in games for the four 12 seeds. Since the 11-12 seeds are usually reserved for the last 4 teams to make it (usually power conference players), take 8 bubble teams and let them play for the right to dance. Everyone wins, (obviously not everyone, but still) with the smaller conferences getting their time to shine and those that feel shunned get the chance to play for a chance.
I just thought of this to solve the problem. College basketball...bowl games!!! duuuuuude...
@TheTick: That'll never happen, mustn't violate the integrity of the 34 at-large bids... (boot to the Mountain West Conference's collective head for that)
@Brazil Thrill: And yet all three of those have more representation in Congress then Washington D.C.
/needlessly political
Have the two biggest busts in their conference tournaments, say, Tennessee and Duke, have to do the play-in game. It would stop teams that are "assured" of a spot in the Big Dance from taking their little dances off.
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