Let the Madness Begin

I’ve been at a loss for what to write. That isn’t too promising considering this is only my third post. While I was sitting in the car on the way to New York City, it hit me relatively hard. Why not write about what I’m going to be doing this week? It’s not a normal week for me because I’m spending the remaining of it in the Big Apple. No, I’m not going to shop (okay maybe a little) or sightsee; instead, most of my time will be spent in one of the most legendary venues in the world, Madison Square Garden.

            Everything from concerts, wrestling matches, boxing, basketball games, hockey games, political events, and many things in between have been hosted at The Garden. This week at MSG though is an event close to my heart, the Big East Conference basketball tournament.

            I’ve been fortunate to attend the Big East tournament for the past five of the 31 years it has been hosted in NYC. The Big East Tournament conference championship is the longest running tournament held in the same venue consecutively.

This tournament means so much to me since for the past five years I’ve been cheering for my Dad’s old alma mater, the Pitt Panthers. Well I’m a big girl now and Daddy’s views just aren’t cutting it. This season I’ll be dolled up in my orange and rooting for Syracuse. Might as well get used to it now since the ‘Cuse is where I’ll be in the fall. (Dad is taking the heartbreaking news of me attending Syracuse relatively well. I mean, for a diehard Pitt fan he at least only grimaces now when I wear my orange around the house; he won’t be caught dead in it though!)

            Time to break it down a little. If you pick up a magazine or newspaper, or turn the T.V. on to a sports’ channel, even just for a second, you probably are going to hear the word “conference” in reference to college sports. Some conferences are renowned: Big Ten, Southeastern (SEC), Western Atlantic (WAC), even the Ivy league is well known. There are 31 different Division 1 conferences in America.

            Division 1 (D1) is the highest level of athletics at the college level. There are currently 340 D1 schools in the U.S. (football is also further broken down into D1-A and D1-AA, but we’re talking about basketball so we can worry about that another time). A school will be classified D1 as long as there are at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women. There are several other NCAA rules that distinguish between the different divisions.  Another prominent rule is that D1 has to offer student athletes a minimum amount of financial aid but cannot exceed a maximum.

            Now the Big East isn’t going to be quite the same next year. This will actually be the last tournament held at MSG because of so many teams leaving the conference. Colleges move around conferences for one main reason – money. Many teams are leaving the Big East after this season because there is no television money in this particular conference. In 2011, conference president John Marinatto had a nine-year, $1.17 billion deal with ESPN. That money would have been divided amongst the schools in the conference and each would’ve received approximately $13.8 million per season and basketball-only schools would’ve been paid $2.5 million. Instead, the president and other members of the board rejected the deal thinking they’d be able to get a better deal somehow. Well the plan fell through and now the schools aren’t receiving the funding they could elsewhere and are deciding to leave in hopes of making more money.

            The Big East’s current deal will be expiring after this basketball season and the upcoming 2013 football season. With that being said, teams are getting out before they lose any more money. Schools want their athletes to get recognized nationally not only for them to get recruited to play professional ball, but also for their school to be more appealing to incoming freshmen and transfer students.

            While I’m sitting in one of the 17,200 seats, eating my nachos and Garden dog, I’ll be taking in quite a few basketball games every day. I sure can’t complain! The teams work their butts off for the coveted title. All sixteen teams of the Big East are seeded in the conference tournament based on its record. Any non-conference games are ignored and ties have a special formula used to calculate them. The top four teams receive a double-bye and don’t play until the quarter finals. A bye simply means they don’t have to battle their way to the top, they’re rewarded for having a successful season and therefore can relax before the big game. Teams seeded #5 through #8 receive a bye to the second round, but teams seeded #9 through #16 play first-round games. It’s a single elimination tournament so once a team loses it can pack its bags and head home.

            This tournament, along with the rest of the conference tournaments taking place is a very important time because it all leads up to the “big dance”, March Maddness.

            Yes, we are partway through March already. But March Maddness is the NCAA tournament that begins Tuesday, March 19^th, and actually concludes Monday, April 8^th. During March Maddness, 68 men’s basketball teams will have the chance to play their hearts out and reach the NCAA Tournament Championship game. (There is also a women’s tournament where 64 teams enter, but since I’m going to the men’s Big East tournament and talking about men’s basketball that’s where my focus lies. Besides men’s basketball is usually more of a focal point in a conversation rather than women’s, make yourself sound smart and study this post well!)

            The whole process begins while the conference tournaments are going on and wraps up on what is known as “Selection Sunday.” On this particular day, the 37 teams that didn’t gain an automatic bid (those teams that didn’t win their conference championship) are selected by a committee made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners in an at-large bid. This means that the committee determines what other teams deserve to enter and then invites that particular team to do so. Teams are selected by record, ranking, difficulty of schedule, and many other factors. After the committee finalizes its decision, the bracket is revealed and the games begin.

             Many people are familiar with the March Madness brackets. I know I will see dozens scattered throughout my house between my brother, dad, and I next week. Soon announcers and so-called “bracketologists”, those whose sole purpose in life is to predict brackets and the outcomes of games and tournaments, will be talking about who’s going to win the grand-daddy of them all this year. Pick up a bracket and compare it to what ranking the teams finished with during the regular season. It really is quite a science how the committee forms the bracket, trying to make each region as even as possible. Getting involved with brackets and polls is easy and sometimes even money is involved! Do your homework and study some teams, the higher seeded teams aren’t guaranteed the win, upsets are inevitable. Pick games and take chances, you have nothing to lose and it’s a lot of fun!

            That’s just a brief overview of conference tournaments as well as March Madness and bracketology. The college basketball world is already abuzz with all that is going on so know what’s up and be able to speak confidently about it!

But for now, let the Madness begin!

Xoxo,

~Francesca