5 years ago, the idea of the BracketBuster was a good one. Give some of the best "mid-majors" a chance to play each other giving them the opportunity to get a win against a team with a good RPI. In 2003, 18 teams took part in the BracketBuster...which meant, realistically, those 18 teams could at least be in the discussion for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Of course, the games also gave an opportunity to these "mid-majors" to eliminate themselves from the at-large discussion with a late season loss. But that's a discussion for another time.

2003 worked so well, they expanded the BracketBuster field to 46 in 2004. Then to 64 in 2005. Then to 100 in 2006...and that's where it stands today. And that's why so much of the BracketBuster is now a joke.

Along with getting the chance for a good RPI win late in the year, the BracketBuster also allows teams to get on TV...which for some smaller conference teams is an invaluable recruiting tool. But it's not as invaluable as it once was. With the birth of ESPNU, all kinds of teams, big and small, can get, albeit somewhat limited, national TV coverage each year. Without the possibility of a BracketBuster TV game, Murray State is on TV three times this year, and that's before they make it to the OVC semifinals and beyond. They also had 3 last year. In 2006, the Racers were on national TV an incredible 8 times...and they STILL didn't get a TV game for the BracketBuster. So the "it's good for us so we can get on TV" argument doesn't really work for me.

To me, it's an easy fix to keep the integrity of the event...while still not throwing in a brutal interruption to the majority of the schools still trying to compete in their respective conference races.

Here's my "solution." This year the BracketBuster is on Feburary 23rd. On February 1st, you'd take the RPI of the top 32 teams in the BracketBuster field, and tell them they are in. The other 68 teams get February 23rd off. Don't you think the world would continue to spin without having to see such epics as Eastern Illinois at Evansville?

I looked at the RPI last night, and for the sake of the argument, I took the top 32 RPI teams in the field...and matched them up #2 at #1, #4 at #3...#32 at #31. If for some reason you got two conference teams playing each other, you could always do some minor shuffling.  That didn't happen this time  Anyway...this is how it turned out.

#18 Butler at #9 Drake
#43 Kent at #27 St. Mary's
#53 Illinois State #44 Oral Roberts
#56 Ohio at #55 Southern Illinois
#64 George Mason at #63 Wright State
#66 Davidson at #65 VCU
#70 Creighton at #67 Nevada
#84 Cleveland State at #74 Miami, OH
#88 Georgia Southern at #85 Utah State
#95 CS Fullerton at #90 Siena
#98 UC Santa Barbara at Akron
#103 Bradley at #99 Boise State
#106 CS Northridge at #105 Niagara
#112 Valparaiso at #108 Austin Peay
#117 UW Milwaukee at #116 Indiana State
#119 UW Green Bay at #118 Winthrop

Conference Breakdown:

Horizon: 6
Missouri Valley: 6
Mid-American: 4
Western Athletic: 3
Big West: 3
Colonial: 2
Southern: 2
Metro Atlantic: 2
West Coast: 1
Summit: 1
Ohio Valley: 1
Big South: 1

12 different conferences are represented and give each the opportunity to put one of their best teams out there to showcase themselves. In this example, the last team in the 32-team field is #119 Wisconsin-Green Bay. Murray State is #176 and would miss the cut.

These 32 teams would have to return the game the following November. Murray State, in this example, would not be bound by the BracketBuster. They would have 58 other teams (once you take away the other OVC teams) they could schedule for an early season non-conference game that could both be desirable from a geographic and RPI standpoint. Some examples of teams ranked from #120 to #155 for Murray to play...#137 Old Dominion...#143 Appalachian State...#147 East Tennessee State...#155 Missouri State. Play them at home...play them on the road...I don't care. Just don't put Avila and Indiana-SB on the schedule ever again.

Some might raise the question about losing a game off your schedule if you don't qualify for the BracketBuster...and then having too long of a break between games. For instance, if UT Martin dropped their BracketBuster game this season, they'd go two weeks between games. That's the OVC's fault, and that can be changed.

For starters, drop the ridiculous 5 games in 10 day stretches that every team has to go through. Move some of those games to BracketBuster week. Every OVC team can play a conference game on the Tuesday before and after BracketBuster Saturday. That way, if you don't qualify you'll only go a week without a game and you'll get a day off to rest up. Scheduling just can't be this hard. Maybe I'm totally naive on this, but I just don't see it.

Forgive the soap box...but the BracketBuster has just become so watered down, it's just an irrelevant nuisance for 75% of the teams involved. Is UT Martin getting anything out of going to Elon? SEMO at Eastern Michigan?

This year, it worked out well for Murray getting to play Indiana State. That's a good regional rivalry that went away in recent years. But for every Indiana State, you get a Rider. Do you think Billy would have rather had some more time to work with his team to get past the OVC tournament's first round last year instead of trying to figure out how to get his team into some remote town in New Jersey to play in front of an alleged 1500 people?

It's time to fix this thing.

YouTube link of the day...some people love it...some hate it.  But this certainly gets a rise out of Racer fans one way or the other.

The floor is yours.