Florida was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Colorado last Wednesday during the opening roundGetty Images
This year’s NCAA Tournament saw a “bellyflop” from the SEC, as its eight teams in the bracket -- tied for the most in the country -- had five exit as higher seeds in the opening round, according to Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY. Tennessee and Alabama are “still standing” in the Sweet 16, but the SEC is 5-6 overall after winning nine tournament games last year (USA TODAY, 3/25).
FOR THE BETTER? THE ATHLETIC’s Chris Vannini wrote one week after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey “dismissed” the small-conference champions, some of his league’s best teams “have shown exactly why the NCAA Tournament is perfect the way it is and doesn’t need more teams from leagues like his at the expense of those little guys.” The NCAA Tournament has so far seen 14-seed Oakland beat Kentucky and 13-seed Yale beat Auburn -- victories for the exact kind of programs Sankey said that were not “as worthy as the those from the ‘top end’ leagues like the SEC.” The more Sankey has pushed on this and other competitive balance issues, the more he has “become a villain to fans,” the “person against whom people are lashing out to express their frustration about the changing landscape of college sports.” With all that power and influence, the “hubris has begun to show.” Vannini noted Sankey has talked about NCAA Tournament expansion before, but his “dismissive comment about the automatic qualifiers on the eve of the tournament was so insulting to so many people across college sports” (THE ATHLETIC, 3/23).
POINT PROVEN: YAHOO SPORTS’ Jeff Eisenberg wrote the SEC’s “poor showing” is a "welcome moment of schadenfreude for anyone who opposes Sankey’s lobbying to ruin” the NCAA Tournament. When Sankey alludes to excluding small-conference teams, others “are quick to bristle because it puts the very future of the event at stake” (YAHOO SPORTS, 3/22). USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken wrote if what happened Thursday and Friday is not “a signal for the Dear Leader of the nation’s premiere athletic conference to humble himself and acknowledge there are bigger forces at play in this tournament, he has lost all sense of reality and proportion.” Wolken: “Hopefully the SEC’s disastrous weekend teaches Sankey a lesson: Stop trying to make this tournament your personal plaything” (USA TODAY, 3/22). USA TODAY’s Blake Toppmeyer wrote Sankey “got served his just desserts on Thursday and Friday.” Toppmeyer: “How long 'til football season in the South?” (USA TODAY, 3/23). In Alabama, Michael Casagrande wrote under the header, “Another Kentucky mid-major meltdown, SEC splats hurt Sankey’s cause” (AL.com, 3/22).
SANKEY’S MASTER PLAN: In Las Vegas, Adam Hill wrote everyone “sees the writing on the wall.” The SEC is “holding the possibility of breaking away and completely changing the landscape of college sports over the head of the NCAA” and is “trying to leverage it for everything the conference can get.” The conference is already setting up the College Football Playoff “the way it wants,” and the NCAA Tournament “isn’t too far behind.” Hill asked will the "dreadful SEC performance in the NCAA Tournament change any of this? No. It may not even slow down the momentum pushing in that direction or make Sankey and the rest of the major power brokers feel any shame.” But he added it is a “small win for those who enjoy the tournament for what it has always been, the (somewhat) level playing field in which the little guy has his day to compete on the biggest stage on a neutral floor with the world watching” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/23).
