The Play-In Game

So Joe Lunardi was on the radio this morning in Atlanta talking about the tournament (obviously) and one of the hosts started griping about conference tournaments and that teams like San Diego and whoever win the Sun Belt (with S. Alabama getting upset last night) playing a great week of basketball and getting in. Well, Lunardi shut him down, but it got me thinking about the play-in game.

The play-in game is a joke. ESPN and the tournament people try to convince us that it's important, but it's really not. They usually match a historically black college against some other spare Mid Major team. The winner goes on to get whipped by a #1 seed. It's a pointless venture and to me takes away a little bit of the charm of what makes March Madness great. Yes, these teams are sacrificial lambs, but to them, making the field of 64 and getting to participate in a Thursday or Friday game is a huge thrill for these teams.

Lunardi made a great point this morning, he said that while the major conference bubble teams are better than most of the small conference champions, they also have a ton of chances to secure their spot in the field and if they haven't they have no one to blame but themselves. He said that after last night, Ohio State is the last team in his field and Florida is sitting at 68th (I think). That really sparked something in me.

The "Play-in" Game should be between the last two at-large teams.

Once the field is seeded, figure out what the last at large seed is. According to his Bracketology Today it was defending national runner up Ohio State who is the 12 seed in the South. So if that's how it falls on selection Sunday, instead of having the SWAC champ and the Big Sky champ battle for irrelevancy, let two major programs play for that last at large bid, which currently is the 12 seed in the South. If Ohio St is 65 and Florida is 66, that would be infinitely better for a play in game than anything else.