College basketball fun reveals potential for football | From the Sidelines

Published 10:49 am Friday, April 9, 2010

Who’da thunk it?

Butler University, the private libral arts university of just over 4,000 students in Indianapolis, playing Basketball University in the National Championship game on the game’s biggest stage, right in their hometown.

The Bulldogs of the Horizon League and their coach Brad Stevens, who at 33-years-old looks more like a player than a coach, came up just short against the Duke Blue Devils, 61-59.

It was a grand scene.

The underdog Bulldogs matched Duke shot for shot and never let the Blue Devils pull away throughout the game. It was truly a David vs. Goliath game but this time, Goliath barely escaped unscathed.

It was a scene, however grand, that reminded this reporter of the potential of sport.

And the letdown of college football.

Immediately following the game I found myself scanning Twitter and came across this tweet from one national reporter: “If this was the BCS, we’d be watching Kansas vs. Kentucky”.

How true.

Because college football has no playoff system, we’re forced to watch what the BCS believes are the top two teams in the nation face off for the “national title”.

Butler wouldn’t have had a prayer of sniffing a title game if the BCS controlled college basketball. Heck, even Duke – widely considered the weakest No.1 seed – would have been watching from home.

March Madness shows us the true potential of college athletics at its finest. The NCAA could take a page out of its own book in football.

*Some sportswriter I am. In the Bellevue Reporter office pool, I came in dead last, correctly picking just 34 of 63 games. Yikes.

Props go out to circulation manager Leon Bastien, who correctly picked Duke to win it all. Leon correctly picked 40 of the 63 games.

Hmm. Maybe he should take over sports for a bit.