I love college basketball. After Saturday, I now declare college
hoops a better sport than college football.
Sure, football may have higher ratings and may bring in more
revenue and more fans to its stadiums. But I found one rhetorical
question which proves why college basketball is superior to college
football.
When else is a game between seventh and ninth place teams on the
last day of the regular season so enthralling?
Saturday’s USC-Oregon State game was compelling to watch
for so many reasons. UCLA, once a basketball powerhouse and a team
that, just a couple of months ago was 9-3 and looked like it would
easily make it to the NCAA tournament, was watching this game
closely.
Why? For those Bruin fans who don’t already know, a USC
loss would have eliminated UCLA from Pac-10 Tournament
contention.
That’s right. I would’ve loved to watch the game
with someone wearing a “My two favorite teams are UCLA and
whoever is playing USC” shirt. Did they root for the Trojans?
And by doing so, root against their own team?
Did Bruin fans celebrate when Desmon Farmer, quite possibly the
most hated Trojan of them all, led his team to a victory?
I also would’ve loved to have been on the plane with Ben
Howland and the Bruins when the pilot announced the result. How
hard were they cheering for USC?
And even if you take away the UCLA angle of the game, USC-Oregon
State still proves why college basketball is better than college
football.
Those two horrible teams were still playing a meaningful game on
the last day of the season.
See, college basketball has something called a real national
championship. In basketball, if you win your conference tournament,
you’re automatically in the NCAA Tournament. No questions
asked.
College football doesn’t even have a playoff system. It
has one championship game, with shady rules on how to get into the
game. There are also 26 other bowl games, which are kind of like
consolation prizes.
Bowl games have the modern Little League mentality ““ you
didn’t win the championship, but let’s give everyone a
trophy anyway.
Before the last week of the college football season, only two or
three teams still have a chance at the “national
championship.”
Before the last week of college basketball season, about 300
teams still have a chance at it.
Every conference except the Ivy League uses a conference
tournament to determine who gets an automatic bid to the NCAA
tournament. And in these conference tournaments, nearly every team
in the conference (or in some cases, all of them) are given one
last chance to prove themselves. Win out, and you’re in the
NCAA Tournament.
Yes, it’s still mathematically possible for UCLA to win
the NCAA Championship. All the Bruins have to do is win the rest of
their games.
Single-elimination tournaments make for great basketball.
They make Austin Peay-Murray State possible. One of the greatest
ideas ESPN has had recently is Championship Week, where the network
televises the championship game of almost every conference
tournament.
Watching teams play with a “do or die” mentality
makes for great basketball. Close games are that much more
exciting. Teams still play their hearts out if they get behind
early.
You only get to see a few games like that in college football.
You get dozens of them in college basketball.
College basketball is awesome.
If Quiñonez revealed which team he was rooting for in
the USC-Oregon State game, he might be publicly stoned on campus.
E-mail him at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.