College sports are full of it.
Decide for yourself what the it is, but for me it is a hierarchy of snobby, "big conference" schools keeping down the little guys.
The most recent tragedy hits a little closer to campus.
First off, The University of Memphis men's soccer team is unbelievable.
They're 16-3-1, have won seven straight matches, shutout six of their last seven opponents and just won The Conference USA Tournament over No. 23 UAB. They've gone 13-1-1 in their last 15 games. Their only loss during that stretch? To then No. 10 South Florida.
The Tigers are No. 11 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's poll, No. 14 by Soccer America and No. 10 by Soccer Times.Not bad, right?
Well, Monday the team gathered around a television on South Campus to watch the selection show on ESPNews to see where they would be ranked and whom they would play.
Before I tell you what happened let me explain the tournament system for college soccer.
The field is made up of 48 teams. The top 16 seeds get first-round byes. The next 16 play their first-round matches at home. The final 16 travel to play in the first round.
The Tigers were in uncharted territory because they had only been selected to play in the NCAA tournament once before, and that was 11 years ago.
They waited and waited. Finally their name was called. A hush fell over room, not because these guys are in awe of making the tournament, but because they were told that even though they were a consensus top-15 team, they would be traveling to play at No. 30 Ohio State.
No first-round bye? No home game?
What in the WWF is going on here?
Five different national team of the week selections, four members of the All-Tournament team, the offensive and defensive players of the year in Conference USA, the C-USA Coach of the Year, eight all-conference selections and you're telling them they have to travel to play at OSU?The Buckeyes were ousted by Michigan in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, so their reward is a home game in the first-round.
Oh yeah ... that seems fair.
"We were expecting to get a bye," said Tiger goalkeeper and C-USA Defensive Player of the Year Sebastian Vecchio.
That seems reasonable.
After all, the ten teams ahead of Memphis in the NSCAA coaches poll got first-round byes.
The Tigers were ranked ahead of six other teams that got byes.
Even No. 22 Virginia Commonwealth got a bye.
How do you justify this load of manure?
The Tigers can't. I doubt the NCAA could either. They'd probably throw around words like tradition and say that their selection was based on more than just rankings.
Yeah, no kidding. It's based on big-conference bias.
Wake Forest is ranked No. 10, just ahead of the Tigers, but they have tradition. Bam! They get the No. 1 seed in the tournament.
The players may be a little surprised, but at least they're comfortable with this role. They were picked ninth in C-USA before the season began and now they're nearly ninth in the nation. The respect they thought their 16-win season brought them was taken away with that first-round snubbing. But don't overlook this team to rub it in the noses of those who snubbed them.
After all, they've been doing it all season.
