'The Butler Way' And The VCU Way - Hogging in on the media whores and NCAA Committee whores gravy

Some readers of Shots Heard might think we are crazy to suggest the greedy corruption among the media whores and the NCAA Tournament Committee whores. The rest of you have common sense.

This video details this estimate; the Butler gained $639 million dollars worth of publicity from last year's tournament run. That does not include a total for their back-to-back Final Four appearance!

Ask yourself; if you were a 'major' school president that had control over who gets into the tournament and what teams and conferences get those millions then might you systematically limit and disparage the Butlers of the world? 

And if you're a media whore and you received many more millions from UCLA making a Final Four than say a Butler, then might you play down the success of the 'lesser thans' and pimp those big market schools and subtly (or overtly) dismiss the small market schools? (Shout out to Doug Gottlieb on that one).

This year was no exception. The mutual systematic corruption of the media whores and NCAA Committee whores was primed and running as smoothly as ever when they locked out Harvard RPI 35 (Tied first place in The Ivy League), Cleveland State RPI 40 (a team that tied Butler for first place in the Horizon League), Missouri State RPI 41 (First place in MVC).

It was more important that the whores get their 18-13 USC Trojans and their eleven Big East teams into the tournament. There were millions of dollars on the line after all.

One would even ask; how did the fourth place Colonial League team, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) RPI 68, get into the tournament ahead of those clearly qualified teams? And you heard correctly; VCU was the fourth place team in that weak conference. One would never know that because the media whores have been careful not to touch that. Instead, they have mentioned 'three Colonial Conference teams making the tournament.' (It's a Jedi Mind Trick).

VCU coach, Shaka was living in a common sense field (if not 'reality') when he did not have his team engage in a selection party. We heard one media whore pimp that point when he stated that the coach was being sensitive to his seniors and not wanting them to have the rejection as their final basketball memory. 

Hello! There is a little tournament called the NIT that they would have been invited to attend. Also, there is no shame in accepting the reality that more qualified teams were chosen to be in the tournament. (Freaking media whores.)

To repeat the question, why VCU? Why not the clearly more qualified Harvard, Cleveland State or Missouri State? For that matter (to name other more qualified teams), why not Colorado State, Witchita State, St. Mary's, Marshall, Southern Miss or New Mexico. All of those teams better RPIs and resumes than VCU. None of those teams were given an at-large bid though.

The answer is so simple. Money. 

The committee whores gave USC an unearned eleven seed play-in game in the hopes that it would boost ratings in the coveted Los Angeles market (the second biggest national market). But the gravy train would end before it began if USC lost. So instead of putting a team like Harvard into the mix, why not throw in VC Who? 

Besides, a team like Harvard could have knocked off USC and then devastated some of the 'major' teams as well. We all saw how their equal nemesis Princeton almost finished off Kentucky (a Final Four team) in the first round of a virtual Kentucky home game. The committee whores don't really want the 'underdog' taking their gravy (Despite what they say).

So yea, just throw VCU into the mix and let them get beat by 15 or 20. Que the tears of a small school dreaming large in the first round.

Except it did not happen that way. Ya'll know the story, VCU beat anybody and everybody from about every conference on their way to a Final Four.

And even though, CBS and ESPN will be touting the 'underdog angle' with vigor. Do not fall for that window dressing. They are crying in their milk. Millions of dollars have been lost.

Be happy. VCU and Butler have held up their middle fingers to the system. And one of them is going to keep holding it high as they enter the championship game. But lament the fact that their runs will not appear to do anything to spurn real fairness in the near future.