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Forget the TV ratings or the lack of name brands and embrace the weirdness this weekend in Houston.
A men’s college basketball season where the unusual became the norm is approaching an appropriately bizarre ending.
How bizarre (shouts, OMC)?
-Saturday’s national semifinals featuring Connecticut, Miami, Florida Atlantic and San Diego State will mark the first Final Four in history that won’t feature a single No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 seed.
-The average seed of the four teams remaining (5.75) is worse than the average seed of teams in the history of the Second Round (5.71). If you add the total of the four seeds up — 4, 5, 5 and 9 — you get 23. That’s the second highest total in Final Four history, trailing only the 26 set in 2011 by 3-seed UConn, 4-seed Kentucky, 8-seed Butler and 11-seed VCU.
-Saturday’s first semifinal between San Diego State and Florida Atlantic will mark just the second time in the last 50 years that two teams making their Final Four debut will be playing on semifinal Saturday.
-Three of the four teams still standing are making their Final Four debut. That hasn’t happened since 1970.
-This is the first Final Four without a single former McDonald’s All-American since the tournament began seeding teams back in 1979. In fact, the Final Four doesn’t even feature a single former top 30 recruit.
-This is just the third time since 1961-62 that the Final Four will feature zero teams from the AP preseason top 10.
Most of these wild facts have been shared liberally over the last five days. The only thing more widespread have been the questions that this bizarro quartet have spawned.
Does anyone want to watch this?
Is this going to be a record low for Final Four ratings?
How bummed is Houston that this is their Final Four?
How bad are these games going to be?
At some point since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, we collectively decided that the formula for a perfect NCAA tournament was a solid amount of upsets on opening weekend, order being restored during Sweet 16/Elite 8 weekend, and then a star-studded Final Four loaded with blue-blood top seeds battling it out on the sport’s biggest stage.
It’s important to note that more times than not, this is pretty much what we get.
Since seeding the field began, No. 1 seeds have won more national titles (24) than all other seeds combined (17). And even with all the talk this week about parity and the transfer portal making the best teams in the sport “not as good as they used to be,” a No. 1 seed has won each of the last four national titles, five of the last six, and seven of the last nine.
This year, instead, we’re either going to see just our second 4-seed national champion, our first 5-seed national champion, or a new record for the worst-seeded national champion in No. 9 seed FAU.
The allure of watching Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky and the like battling it out on the first weekend of April every year is understandable, but you’re going to get that in most seasons.
My advice to you as far as the weekend ahead is concerned is to embrace it for what it is. And what it is is a reminder of what separates this sport and this postseason from every other major American sport and postseason. It’s a reminder of what attracts you to March Madness in the first place.
In no other postseason in this country is there at least one team from every state but one (grow up, Alaska) represented. In no other postseason do all of those teams get the right to end their campaign by playing until they lose. In no other postseason is the sport’s top prize theoretically obtainable for every team involved.
Sure, the regular season is slightly less exciting than it would be if only four or eight teams made the tournament, and sure there are plenty of squads that probably haven’t earned the right to play for anything of any real consequence, but the good far outweighs the bad here. Making sure every team that deserves a chance to prove itself — even if that process results in some unworthy squads getting that same shot — receives that moment is so much better than any alternative that doesn’t allow for the same opportunity.
Obtaining the sport’s top prize is extremely unlikely for the vast majority of the 363 teams competing in Division I, but at least it’s not impossible. At least the bottom-tier NET school that won its conference tournament gets the chance to prove itself on the sport’s biggest stage, and not inside a quarter-full stadium against a team that doesn’t really want to be there, in a game that, for all intents and purposes, has absolutely zero significance.
At least when thrice-beaten Florida Atlantic pulled off a thrilling upset of Memphis in the first round of the tournament a couple of weeks ago, that wasn’t where the Owls’ story ended. At least the team with the best record in the sport (35-3) gets the opportunity to compete for the sport’s biggest prize.
Just picture of FAU cutting down the nets inside NRG Stadium in a few days. It feels strange, but it’s also one of those beautifully possible storylines that are only possible in this sport. “National Champion Florida Atlantic!”
Maybe the games this weekend won’t look as pristine as some years in the recent past. Maybe the television ratings will produce record lows.
Who cares?
Final Fours like this remind us that this is one of the very few major American sports where something like this can happen. Where almost anything really is possible. Final Fours like this keep us on our toes.
Embrace them when they happen.
