Sixty-eight teams from 32 college basketball conferences were invited to the “Big Dance” (the NCAA College Basketball Tournament) this past March. In spite of Covid-19, it was a typical “March Madness”, with a big part of the madness being the lopsided tallies of teams representing each conference.
Leading all conferences in number of participants was the Big Ten with nine teams in the tourney. The Big 12 and ACC were next with seven, followed by the SEC with six, the Pac-12 with 5 and the Big East with 4. More than half of the tourney teams (38) were from these six conferences. The remaining 26 conferences had a meager 30 teams in the tourney — a measly 1.15 teams per conference.
Let me repeat that fact: Six conferences fielded 38 teams (50% of their 76 teams) in the tourney. The remaining 26 conferences sent 30 teams (11% of their 276 teams) to the Big Dance. Figuratively speaking, there is a wicked stepmother working hard to keep Cinderella from balling.
Continue reading “Keeping Cinderella from Balling”