mid-major griping

Those who complained loud and long about the lack of mid-majors in the Madness didnt listen to selection committee chairman Gary Walters. Walters acknowledged that while the # of at-large bids (6) for the "non-power'' conference schools decreased for the 2nd straight year, he asked that those complaining look at the # of automatic bids given the Smalls. In other words, don't complain about Purdue, Arkansas and Stanford when the likes of Belmont, Texas A&M CC and the 16 seeds are getting a pass.

It's a great point, one I made in a column for Friday's paper. The 16s are now 0-92 in the tournament. They lost Thursday and Friday by an average of 31. As for the upsets that give the tournament its charm: There were none, unless you count VCU beating Duke and Winthrop over ND, two games lots of people picked on their brackets. (And no, 9s beating 8s are not upsets.)

It's nice that Cinderella dances every year, but lots of teams getting auto-bids have no business being here. So maybe those grousing about a lack of bids for lesser teams should cool it and be glad for what they have. It's not farfetched that someday, the Big Boys might decide to do to basketball what they've done to football. Is there any reason 15 and 16 seeds shouldnt be in another, lesser division?