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Shrouded In Secrecy No More: How to fix the NCAA Selection Committee


I'm tired of the Selection Committee, at least as it currently exists. Years and years of snubs, botched seeding and seemingly preferential treatment for the golden boys of college basketball have demonstrated that the Selection Committee, as currently designed, is ineffectual. One could argue it is intentionally so, all the better to hide the true workings of this organization known as the NCAA. The system is broken, and needs a change.

Currently, they sequester themselves come mid-March, hiding behind a veil of mystery, intrigue and the bureaucratic trappings of the NCAA. After a few days of deliberation (arguably largely completed before all the games are even played), they emerge from hiding, descending from on high to pronounce their judgment. There is no accountability, no method for determining their proper application of their own alleged principles and criteria.

I propose a simple solution:

We could clear away the smoke and mirrors with a simple live video/audio feed of the inner sanctum.

Tell me that wouldn't change how the process was done. Tell me that would not allow everyone to better understand how the decisions were made.

When your team is left out (I see you, Colorado), you can hear why, and not simply the BS, politically correct, sanitized declaration of the chairperson. When your team gets seeded well below or above where anyone with an ounce of common sense knows they should be (You hear that Florida?), you know why. When you see a team continually given an easy path to the Final Four (Yes, Duke, that one is about you), a trend long decried, you will, in time, have years of evidence to which you may point explaining why such was or was not the case.

If we place video/audio feeds in the room, we compel the committee to act with principle. To establish firm criteria, and follow through with it. Instead of nebulous use of the concepts of RPI, SOS, good wins, bad losses, body of work, we can see how those factors actually contribute to making a decision. We make them accountable for their decisions, for they know that people are watching.

And people will watch.

This concept is not without benefit to the NCAA. Would you put up $20 to watch the committee deliberate? As rabid basketball fans, I know such a concept would sell well among the Kentucky faithful at least. Sign me up right now for a subscription.

Additionally, it serves to show that the NCAA is not the corrupt bureaucracy that so many (rightfully?) claim it to be. Instead of hiding behind the curtain like the Wizard, we can see the real people and real decisions they have to make. It makes the whole process open and accountable, instead of coming across as a sham perpetrated by charlatans.

Show us what you do. Let us see and hear the debate. Help us understand the admittedly difficult decisions you have to make. Come out from behind the shroud, and we will greet you with open arms.