March Madness

Let's just turn the tourney over to the BCS already, and get it over with. After all, if they're system is so good at crowning a rightful winner, why not apply it to basketball?

Haha, or separate it into the big money leagues and then the "mid-majors" have 2 tournaments and then let the winner of each duke it out in Howard Hall...

It could start with more auto bids for the "big" conferences, and then deteriorate from there. All about money. Gotta find a way to make sure UNC, Duke, Michigan etc get in every year no matter what.

Well, perhaps if they are more guaranteed to make it in every year, they would be more willing to schedule more higher level mid majors in the regular season?

(Hey, we can dream right?)

If by schedule you mean the mid major travels.

Well, obviously... But that's still more than we get now for the most part...

A quick look at the PN brackets shows only two players, R54 and Pilotfan4life, with all four teams still possible in the final four. You have to give a big edge to them.

How bout Pilot2002 with his pick to have both Washington and Cornell in the Sweet 16. Too bad you only have 1/2 the final four.

Nobody has Syracuse picked as the winner. They look pretty good right now and would be my winner if I could redo my bracket.

Here's how I handicap the chances of winning the bracket challenge:

1. Bracket 10 (Pilotfan4life)
2. onetouch
3. Rochin54
3a. Rob's Bracket

I don't want to talk about brackets.

up7587 wrote:I don't want to talk about brackets.

At this point, talking about my bracket is no fun anymore, so I thought I would talk about other people's brackets.

Bracket, what bracket? I don't even remember filling one out...

If what I heard this morning is true, Cornell should not even qualify as a mid major (in the even more unlikely to be there than a mid major). I thought I heard that they don't have any players on scholarship. I would assume that, that means athletic and that they have some on academic scholarship. I know that it is Ivy League, but I figured that they would have athletic scholarships also.

None of the Ivy League schools grant athletic scholarships; only need-based scholarships.

Quite impressive.

#5 Butler 63, #1 Syracuse 59! I didnt get to see the game thanks to work, but wow. Now I am down to 2 Final Four teams...

And #2 WVU takes out the #11 Fuskies, 69-56.

What an end of regulation in the XU-KSU game. The more Len Elmore talks about that no-call the stupider he sounds.

Like I said . . . No way Syracuse wins any more games.

Well ba11s.

But hitting nothing but freaking net from a mile away at the end of the first OT--just wow.

This is a great day in mid-majordom. Butler has gotten to the Final Four by playing as a team.

Funny how that works... And I love that they either play a 5 or a 6 in the FF?? Here's pulling for WVU and Baylor just for the sheer idea of zero #1 seeds!

Our loss to WVA really doesn't look that bad anymore...

DaTruRochin wrote:Funny how that works... And I love that they either play a 5 or a 6 in the FF?? Here's pulling for WVU and Baylor just for the sheer idea of zero #1 seeds!

YES! Especially because this is the year I picked all four #1s in the Final Four. This would have been such a better tournament if the committe had picked two teams to play for the championship and lined up the other 62 teams to play each other in a series of 31 meaningless games, let's for the fun of it, call them bowls.

NewUPFan wrote:If what I heard this morning is true, Cornell should not even qualify as a mid major (in the even more unlikely to be there than a mid major). I thought I heard that they don't have any players on scholarship. I would assume that, that means athletic and that they have some on academic scholarship. I know that it is Ivy League, but I figured that they would have athletic scholarships also.

Um..

At Cornell and several of the Ivy's students don't pay tuition and get stipends.

currently, grants ensure no student from a family that makes under $75K pays anything, and those from families that make between $75K and $120K would have to pony up more that $3K in loan debt. From that point the exposure is graduated.

So, basically everyone is on scholarship.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/finAid.html

mattywizz wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:Funny how that works... And I love that they either play a 5 or a 6 in the FF?? Here's pulling for WVU and Baylor just for the sheer idea of zero #1 seeds!

YES! Especially because this is the year I picked all four #1s in the Final Four. This would have been such a better tournament if the committe had picked two teams to play for the championship and lined up the other 62 teams to play each other in a series of 31 meaningless games, let's for the fun of it, call them bowls.

The mystery has been solved. Matty=Jay Bilas' internet ego.

Purplegeezer wrote:

NewUPFan wrote:If what I heard this morning is true, Cornell should not even qualify as a mid major (in the even more unlikely to be there than a mid major). I thought I heard that they don't have any players on scholarship. I would assume that, that means athletic and that they have some on academic scholarship. I know that it is Ivy League, but I figured that they would have athletic scholarships also.

Um..

At Cornell and several of the Ivy's students don't pay tuition and get stipends.

currently, grants ensure no student from a family that makes under $75K pays anything, and those from families that make between $75K and $120K would have to pony up more that $3K in loan debt. From that point the exposure is graduated.

So, basically everyone is on scholarship.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/finAid.html

Everyone that comes from a family that makes under $120K. Which would be, what, 50% of their student body?

mattywizz wrote:

Everyone that comes from a family that makes under $120K. Which would be, what, 50% of their student body?

Funny how $120K is considered to be lower income by some folks. Don't forget that most college income assesments make allowances for mortgages, rent , family living expenses, etc. Ever wonder why you see people buying big houses just as their kids are going off to College? it's a way to buy down assets and shelter income schools look at. It's not all that hard to make it look like you are struggling along at $120K for a couple of years... buy that vacation house in Vail or the Keys that you always wanted and all of a sudden you fall under that threshold pretty quick. Make a big down-payment on that Lear Jet.


And it goes beyond that. Cornell has a pretty generous academic incentive program, too. New York State has a Regents Scholarship program for in state students. Virtually every college bound kid in New York takes the Regents test. Basically, you take an SAT type test, and that helps determine how much academic scholarship money you get. Cornell plugs into that system, and add a matching program for out of state student.

I'd guess 2% pay anything like the full %48K it takes to go there. Most Cornell students come out of college debt free.

My question is, how do they get these guys to commit to playing ball for them? The honor system? Or is it strictly volunteers from their student body? How do they recruit?