"Okay, you've lost, take 'em away, boys....!"

[captainsblog]

The quote in the header is from a different context, but the issue is very real, and very sad.

Yesterday and tomorrow, Buffalo is hosting part of the first and second rounds ^* of the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament. There's plenty of excitement- three overtime games between the first-day sites yesterday- and more than a few upsets of tourney institutions like Ohio State (here, yesterday) and Duke (elsewhere, today). Money is virtually being printed for this "athletic association" and the schools making it up, from gate receipts, sponsorships, and, especially, broadcast rights.  As in billions, with a B.

We can debate whether the real stars of the show should be paid, beyond their scholarships, for their participation- but that's not the topic on the table, Rather, the issue brought out last night- late last night-  VERY late last night- was the way this tournament treats its losing teams.  And the cause was championed by the coach of one of the winners:

San Diego State needed overtime to beat New Mexico State on Thursday night and then, afterward, Aztecs' Coach Steve Fisher asked for extra time to gets some things off his chest.

Fisher criticized the NCAA for sending the loser, in this case New Mexico State, home directly after an exciting game that ended around 10:30 p.m. in Spokane.

"It's disgraceful," Fisher said at his postgame news conference.

Knowing the losing team could have been his team, Fisher said he called the NCAA on Friday to ask if his players could spend the night in Spokane and fly home Friday. Fisher said he was told the NCAA couldn't find any charter planes.

Fisher said that was the wrong answer.

"With the billions of dollars that we have here for them not to find a way to accommodate these kids, the student athletes, you can't tell me they couldn't find charter planes," Fisher said.

After a bitter, hard-fought defeat, New Mexico State had to fly straight back to Las Cruces, N.M.

Fisher said an NCAA administrator should have to fly back with the losing team.

"See what it's like to get home at 5 in the morning," Fisher said.  "It shouldn't happen."

Of course it shouldn't. In this virtual orgy of cash, this tournament should somehow find a way to get its actual participants into beds in the host cities on the nights after their games, win OR lose.^** This barbaric treatment of kids, the age of our kid or younger, reeks of Thunderdome:

Two teams enter, one team leaves.

^* Officially, last night's games were designated as "second round," with a pity party of four redhead-stepchild conference winners now being designated as the "First Four" of the "First Round," but which everybody still regards as being "play-in" games. As do I.

^** And if you're going to give me some "student athlete" bullshit about the academic benefits of getting the losing players back to their "classes" a day sooner, spare me. Those baskets can wait 24 hours before being woven again.