When the NCAA Tournament field went to 68 teams, many were agitated. The idea that the people in charge of the Big Dance would mess with something so perfect was mind boggling. Not only did they have the audacity to tinker with one of the best things in all of sports, but it altered the way people had to talk about brackets.
The first round was now the second round. The second becoming the third. Cats and dogs living with each other. The Backstreet Boys became greater than The Beatles. Anarchy, really.
One of the first rebrandings of the NCAA Tournament was the play-in game. Now, they are not actually play-in games. Even though many of us viewed them as such in the beginning, they are technically part of the NCAA Tournament and just so happen to be the earliest extension of the first second round (It is worth noting that the new second round will go back to being called the first round in 2016. Confusion over, I think, yay!).
It was disappointing, though. While the new name, “The First Four,” is all kinds of neat, many felt like those teams playing in the games were being snubbed and were not an actual part of the NCAA Tournament. It felt like the Selection Committee was bunching up a lot of mid-majors to play each other, or 16-seeds having to battle it out for the right to lose by 40 points against a 1-seed.
There’s plenty wrong with the First Four. A ton can be done to fix some of the issues people have with it. Thankfully, the perceived problems are not incapable of fixing. In fact they are relatively easy fixes , and it shouldn’t be a surprise that this relatively new addition to the NCAA tournament needs tinkering. Few new things are perfectly awesome from the get-go. Even (some people’s) God needed seven days to make Earth awesome — and he’s God! Being patient a few more years for mere humans to make the First Four better seems kind of rational by comparison.
Regardless, the First Four is here, and it is time to get off soap-boxes, high horses, and whatever other pedestal people get on while discussing their frustration over 68 teams being in the Madness, as well as how disheartened they feel when the Club State Pool Cleaners are forced play the University of Broken Dreams on a Tuesday night on TruTV.
I’m at a point where I think college basketball should be applauded for being progressive. While completely acknowledging that the First Four needs some fixing, I can also give credit to the idea of what the First Four is and what it could continue to be.
First and foremost, the First Four provides a platform for teams who might otherwise get lost in the Thursday and Friday shuffle. Those 16-seeds we all feel so badly for, but all acknowledge have as much a chance to win the Tournament as I do at getting a date with Rachel Leigh Cook, get a national platform for their program. Those games will be the only time all year that a 16-seed-type program gets the lone basketball game of importance at good viewing hours of the day.
That’s a way for those programs to build themselves by gaining exposure. The NCAA, the schools themselves, and the networks can all do a better job of building up the storylines and importance of those games, but that’s part of the tinkering process connected to the First Four. It will get better over time.
It’s important to embrace the First Four because it can provide a valuable platform for smaller schools. The First Four also matters because it increases the reach of the connection between various schools and fans. Most importantly, however, it gives us all a chance to watch college basketball.
It is mind-numbing to think that college basketball’s biggest event has scheduled games during the early afternoon on weekdays. I like it, but I also have no issues watching those games. Other people have to work. Teachers, plumbers, unicorn tamers and spelunkers alike have to go to their respective day jobs. They don’t have the ability to sit at home on a Thursday at noon and consume some of the sport’s most important games.
With the First Four, though, they get to be a part of it, with evening and prime-time tip-offs on consecutive nights. You can pooh-pooh the First Four all you want and say it isn’t the same as “the real” first round of the NCAA Tournament, but the games do mean as much as the ones on Thursday and Friday.
If the First Four means your local french fry master chef gets to partake in games, then I am all for it. Those games s/he is missing on Thursday and Friday are never going to be accessible for that chef due to the demands of a work schedule. Let your chef have the ability to enjoy some #ONIONS!
People should also stop with the idea that teams without relevance are only in the First Four. Was Tennessee — very nearly able to beat Michigan and advance to the Elite Eight — not exciting last year? How about VCU in 2011, the ultimate example of what the First Four can do?
The First Four argument still comes down to a simple idea:
Many people hate it because they feel it is a disservice to the teams involved, while also arguing that the games are not that great.
The above is fine, I guess, but it always feels weird to me that people will argue against the First Four because good teams or small programs with a national platform are thrust into it (and not the “real” first round). Then, in the next breath, the critics will fail to embrace it for the very same reason. Are we going to hold the quality of these teams against them? They made the Dance, and history tells us they can make the second weekend of the tournament.
The First Four is not perfect. None of the NCAA Tournament is. We complain about which regions’ teams get seeded too high or low, and now, which programs get slighted by being put in the First Four… which could serve as a defining example of how the First Four now officially belongs.
Let’s stop with the complaining. Keep the suggestions going about how to fix it — that’s fine. However, the First Four is here. It happens to be far better than people give it credit for, and gives us an early start to the Madness. The positives outweigh the negatives. Maybe we should all stop pretending this is an abomination to the senses. It’s college basketball — and the First Four gives us more of it.
It is like getting an extra day of Christmas, for the love of Sam Cassell! Just sit there, shut up, and open your presents, you ungrateful bums!
