Final Four ?

I pulled for the 1995 UCLA team to win the title, I really enjoyed the way Ed O'bannon played the game and was genuinely happy for him and the entire UCLA team when they beat Arkansas in the final. As much as I wanted him and his team to win that game, I have never rooted for Ed O'bannon more than I am currently, as his lawsuit against the NCAA for continuing to make money off of his likeness moves toward a trial. The mere fact that the NCAA believes it can use players for video games and DVD sales forever based on one line in a "student athlete" contract they sign under the threat of not being allowed to play shows how far the "indentured servant" attitude has pervaded through the NCAA. The fact of the matter is that due to the 14 year 10.8 billion dollar contract (771 million a year) that the NCAA signed with CBS/Turner to televise the NCAA basketball tournament, everyone gets rich except the only people vital to the product, the players. The NCAA, their executives, coaches, and the networks all get rich in a system that disposes of players yearly like garbage while the NCAA scoffs arrogantly at anyone who question their system. This week PBS's "Frontline" and HBO's "Real Sports" both focused on the NCAA and this broken system and both should be must see viewing for anyone who evenly casually watches college football or basketball. NCAA president Mark Emmert agreed to talk with "Frontline" and listening to him try to defend this system was the definition of trying to defend the un-defendable, other examples of this are Andy Reid trying to defend his in-game management and Ron and Sam defending their relationship. Hearing that even college presidents find the term "student athlete" in big time college football and basketball as outdated as the Lotus computer system was refreshing and jarring at the same time. There has been an often circulated rumor that players are going to boycott the NCAA tournament by going to center court and sitting down, refusing to play. This is an idealistic hope that I would personally love to see, but it won't happen for the same reason that both the NFL and NBA players will be forced to cave even as they are both in the right. Dictatorships are hard to overthrow, just ask the next Libyan you see. Not all revolutions go as smoothly as the one in Eygpt, especially when the NCAA has all the money and power and most big time college athletes truly believe they will become professionals in their respective sports. The system isn't just broken, it has combusted and hopefully a federal court can finally bring justice to both the NCAA and their "indentured servants". Moving on to less important NCAA tournament thoughts, this year is the year with the highest combined seeds to every reach the Final Four, and the first year in which a #1 or #2 seed didn't reach the Final Four. All year the lack of a favorite or dominant team was discussed and the possibility of a middling team winning the title was a distinct possibility, but to this extent? Can Kentucky win a title a year after losing four freshman to the NBA? Can Butler, a year after playing for the title and losing their best player early to the NBA? Can a 9-9 regular season Big East team win a title? How about a VCU team that didn't win the regular season or conference title in the CAA? One of the four will win a title Monday night and with average college players like Reggie Williams and Ashton Gibbs declaring early for the NBA I believe we are witnessing a changing of the guard and this will be the "normal" going forward. I have always been against the expansion of the tournament, but with this changing of the guard and VCU's run from play-in game to Final Four, maybe the coaches were right and the tournament should expand to 96 teams. After watching this group of teams move through their brackets, who is to say Colorado, V Tech, or Alabama couldn't have done the same? If any team can truly win, why not let more teams try? As for the games, I will take Butler over Kentucky in the final.