Rejection Sunday: NCAA drops ball by not releasing March Madness bracket

The NCAA isn’t revealing the 68-team March Madness bracket, which is a shame.

Today was supposed to be Selection Sunday with the reveal of the 68 teams that make the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic has led to the NCAA canceling March Madness, which is the right move, but it was the wrong decision not to release the bracket.

On one hand, I understand the logistics involved for the selection committee to consider. Most of the conference tournaments had only just begun so there would have been a fair amount of speculation for the automatic bids. But I think you can easily get around that problem by awarding the regular-season conference champion the automatic bid to fill out a bracket for an NCAA Tournament that isn’t even happening.

Dick Cavitt, the NCAA’s senior VP of college basketball delivered the news by saying he understands fans wanting it, but it just wouldn’t have been authentic.

“All of us want something to fill the void we’re feeling,” Gavitt wrote in a statement via the NCAA. “However, anything less than a credible process is inconsistent with the tradition of the NCAA basketball championships. Brackets based on hypotheticals can’t substitute for a complete selection, seeding and bracketing process. There will always be an asterisk next to the 2020 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball championships regardless if brackets are released.

“There is not an authentic way to produce tournament fields and brackets at this point without speculating and that isn’t fair to the teams that would be positively or negatively impacted by manufacturing March Madness.”

It’s easy to pile on the NCAA for the decisions they make and the rules they impose but this would have been a wonderful chance for some good PR for a change.

The NCAA took a little longer to cancel the Tournament when other professional leagues were already out in front in postponing their seasons, but they ultimately arrived at the right decision. Yes, it would have been ideal if a postponement could have happened, but it didn’t. And that’s why it would have been so great to have an hour on Sunday to flip on CBS for what would have been an exciting Selection Sunday.

Instead, it’s Rejection Sunday and teams won’t get to have a proper send-off.

There is no harm in trying to bring a little positivity to an unfortunate situation and try to end the seasons on a high rather than having the clock abruptly hit zero on the season. And this coming after the NCAA did the right thing by granting another year of eligibility for the spring athletes who lost their seasons due to the coronavirus shutting down spring sports.

Think how nice it would have been for the players, coaches and fans at Dayton to see the bracket revealed and see them earn a No. 1 seed for the first time in program history. That is a memory that will live forever. But it was taken away from them.

Think about the emotions that would have poured out of Rutgers when their name was called to participate in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1976. Those players and coaches deserved the recognition for what they accomplished. Gone is the moment to celebrate their wins and end the drought for their program.

The story from Rutgers is similar to that at Penn State where Lamar Stevens and the Nittany Lions enjoyed one of their finer seasons in a long time. They were poised to make the Big Dance for the first time since 2011.

How about their Big Ten brethren, Illinois, who had a resurgent year under Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn who was likely going to be a No. 7 seed. The Fighting Illini hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2012-2013.

And this is just the tip of the positivity train that could have extended out west to include all of the great stories from college basketball this season.

In the NCAA Tournament, only one team gets to end their season with a win. In a year without the NCAA Tournament, by providing the release of the bracket, at least 68 teams would have been able to end their season with a win.

What a shame they won’t get that opportunity.

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