Hey, did you guys hear? The SU lacrosse team beat the #2 Georgetown Hoyas this weekend!
No?
What do you mean you didn't care?
What else was going on? I don't...
Oh.
Alright, I've had the requisite eighteen hours to decompress and try to think of this in the most rational sense possible. I've been reading reactions all night and all day that range from virulent hatred to objective understanding to conspiracy theorist to downright shock to stepfather-about-to-beat-you-with-a-belt-anticipation. I'm afraid to go anywhere near a fan message board as it might rile me up or subject me to the truth that there are raving lunatics on our "team."
Putting aside the shock of it all and realizing that by tomorrow night no one will care anymore because the tournament is starting, let's try to figure out what we can learn from all of this:
The Past Is The Past
Forget about all those other seasons we won less games or lost more but still got in. Forget all those seasons we won 10 games in the Big East. Forget all those times teams like Syracuse got the nod over teams from mid-majors just because they were Syracuse. Other than Duke, no "BCS" teams get special treatment anymore. The playing field has changed. Some might call it the George Mason Corollary but that's short-sighted. George Mason was the direct result of a decade of mid-major's creeping up and stealing the thunder. Teams like Syracuse can no longer just get by. Plus, realize that even if we had gotten in, we'd be an eleven or a twelve seed. That's a far cry from the days when the worst you could do as a major conference team was a 9.
Experts, Schmexperts
You name'm, they picked Syracuse to make it. From ESPN to the Internet to radio and TV, you would have been hard-pressed to find an "expert" who didn't have Syracuse in. The P-S points us over to The Bracket Project which collected all the major Brackethesiologists (including ESPN, SI, CBS, etc) from around the world and put their info together. 29 of the 30 participants had Syracuse in. Hell, even Fraudulent Doug Gottlieb had Syracuse in! The question is, is it their fault for telling us Cuse was in or is it our fault for believing them?
Enough Already, Load Up The Van, We're Going On A Trip
Jim, I don't care if we've been doing it this way for thirty years, we need to play someone other than Colgate and Hofstra before December 1st. Sign us up for a tourney, we did well at the Maui not too long ago. Maybe the Great Alaskan Shootout? Hell, I don't care if its the Mediocre Skokie Scorefest...just pack up something to change into and go play ball against someone somewhere else.
Daryl Gross Is The Hellspawn
This is all Cuse Country: The back-to-back first-round NCAA losses to lower-seeded teams, that’s one thing. The lacrosse team’s streak of Final Fours getting snapped, that’s another. And in football… well, you know. Not to mention longtime Dome PA announcer Carl Eilenberg retiring and being replaced the guy whose previous job was introducing the fan who was trying to make the shot from the recliner. And now this. SU being left out of the tournament altogether is just the latest chapter in what is now officially a disturbing trend. We’re all waiting for some results here, DG.
The Big East Was Down. Admit It.
The committee apparently had a problem with our Big East schedule, saying we had it easy in a conference that wasn't as tough as last year to begin with. I don't really see how that's our fault other than that we should have compensated with a tougher out-of-conference schedule. I wasn't kidding about that whole St. Johns intervention a few weeks back, they really do need to get better. As does South Florida, and Seton Hall and Rutgers...this conference should be sending 9 teams to the tournament every year and the last reason for that not happening should be because the conference isn't good enough.
So yeah, it sucks. It's a screw job (I'm looking at you, Stanford). Still, is it the travesty of justice we all want it to be? I mean, had we made the tournament, did any Syracuse fans really expect this team to go far? Hell, did any of you think we even had a shot at the Sweet Sixteen? I know, I know...you never know...but c'mon guys, we need to face facts here. Boise State going 13-0 and not getting a shot at playing for the National Championship is robbery. This? This was a shitty situation but one totally within our own ability to have avoided. The St. Johns loss, the UConn loss, hell even the Oklahoma State loss...one less and we might be signing a different tune. We can't blame the NCAAs fully, especially when the NIT didn't even see us befitting a #1 ranking in their tournament!
So what can we do to begin the healing process? Well we can have a little fun with things, as Cuse Country is doing, hosting their very own NIT Bracket Pool. You know, it just occurred to me that maybe this is all an elaborate scheme to drum up interest in the NIT? We'd be done by this weekend in the NCAA tourney but in the NIT, we have the chance to play the disgruntled "how you like us NOW?" NIT run to glory. Hey, I'll take all the little victories I can get right now.
No?
What do you mean you didn't care?
What else was going on? I don't...
Oh.
Alright, I've had the requisite eighteen hours to decompress and try to think of this in the most rational sense possible. I've been reading reactions all night and all day that range from virulent hatred to objective understanding to conspiracy theorist to downright shock to stepfather-about-to-beat-you-with-a-belt-anticipation. I'm afraid to go anywhere near a fan message board as it might rile me up or subject me to the truth that there are raving lunatics on our "team." Putting aside the shock of it all and realizing that by tomorrow night no one will care anymore because the tournament is starting, let's try to figure out what we can learn from all of this:
The Past Is The Past
Forget about all those other seasons we won less games or lost more but still got in. Forget all those seasons we won 10 games in the Big East. Forget all those times teams like Syracuse got the nod over teams from mid-majors just because they were Syracuse. Other than Duke, no "BCS" teams get special treatment anymore. The playing field has changed. Some might call it the George Mason Corollary but that's short-sighted. George Mason was the direct result of a decade of mid-major's creeping up and stealing the thunder. Teams like Syracuse can no longer just get by. Plus, realize that even if we had gotten in, we'd be an eleven or a twelve seed. That's a far cry from the days when the worst you could do as a major conference team was a 9.
Experts, Schmexperts
You name'm, they picked Syracuse to make it. From ESPN to the Internet to radio and TV, you would have been hard-pressed to find an "expert" who didn't have Syracuse in. The P-S points us over to The Bracket Project which collected all the major Brackethesiologists (including ESPN, SI, CBS, etc) from around the world and put their info together. 29 of the 30 participants had Syracuse in. Hell, even Fraudulent Doug Gottlieb had Syracuse in! The question is, is it their fault for telling us Cuse was in or is it our fault for believing them?
Enough Already, Load Up The Van, We're Going On A Trip
Jim, I don't care if we've been doing it this way for thirty years, we need to play someone other than Colgate and Hofstra before December 1st. Sign us up for a tourney, we did well at the Maui not too long ago. Maybe the Great Alaskan Shootout? Hell, I don't care if its the Mediocre Skokie Scorefest...just pack up something to change into and go play ball against someone somewhere else.
Daryl Gross Is The Hellspawn
This is all Cuse Country: The back-to-back first-round NCAA losses to lower-seeded teams, that’s one thing. The lacrosse team’s streak of Final Fours getting snapped, that’s another. And in football… well, you know. Not to mention longtime Dome PA announcer Carl Eilenberg retiring and being replaced the guy whose previous job was introducing the fan who was trying to make the shot from the recliner. And now this. SU being left out of the tournament altogether is just the latest chapter in what is now officially a disturbing trend. We’re all waiting for some results here, DG.The Big East Was Down. Admit It.
The committee apparently had a problem with our Big East schedule, saying we had it easy in a conference that wasn't as tough as last year to begin with. I don't really see how that's our fault other than that we should have compensated with a tougher out-of-conference schedule. I wasn't kidding about that whole St. Johns intervention a few weeks back, they really do need to get better. As does South Florida, and Seton Hall and Rutgers...this conference should be sending 9 teams to the tournament every year and the last reason for that not happening should be because the conference isn't good enough.
So yeah, it sucks. It's a screw job (I'm looking at you, Stanford). Still, is it the travesty of justice we all want it to be? I mean, had we made the tournament, did any Syracuse fans really expect this team to go far? Hell, did any of you think we even had a shot at the Sweet Sixteen? I know, I know...you never know...but c'mon guys, we need to face facts here. Boise State going 13-0 and not getting a shot at playing for the National Championship is robbery. This? This was a shitty situation but one totally within our own ability to have avoided. The St. Johns loss, the UConn loss, hell even the Oklahoma State loss...one less and we might be signing a different tune. We can't blame the NCAAs fully, especially when the NIT didn't even see us befitting a #1 ranking in their tournament!
So what can we do to begin the healing process? Well we can have a little fun with things, as Cuse Country is doing, hosting their very own NIT Bracket Pool. You know, it just occurred to me that maybe this is all an elaborate scheme to drum up interest in the NIT? We'd be done by this weekend in the NCAA tourney but in the NIT, we have the chance to play the disgruntled "how you like us NOW?" NIT run to glory. Hey, I'll take all the little victories I can get right now.