Masterofreality
02-24-2009, 05:41 PM
Let me say this first off. I hate Mike Slive. Always have. I absolutely would not hate him, however, if he was the Commissioner of the Atlantic 10. Just like Mike Transgreasy of the Big Least, the guy knows how to play the game and perform sleight of hand magic tricks that make the schools in his conference look like Jenna Jameson when the reality is they look like Phyllis Diller.
I started referring to Mike Slive as Mike Slime when he was the commissioner of Convict USA- one of the most overhyped, overblown and overrated leagues in sports history. While there were some quality teams in the league- Louisville...,Louisville..., uh, Louisville-, oh yeah, the occasional Marquette with DWade or Memphis or the preening Coiffed One- mostly the league was all reputation with little substance. Boy, could Slime get his teams in the dance with favorable seeds every year, though, because he figured out how to work the scheduling game to job the RPI. The fact that the vast majority of those CUSA teams were gone by the end of the first day, or at most the first weekend, was forgotten the next year when the hype machine started again. Add to that, an abysmal Graduation Rate and Academic Progress reports and it was very clear that ol' Slimy was all about making the jack for his member institutions and propping up false reps rather than caring for the "student athlete." Hey, if he got away with it, what the hell, right? Except that schools deserving of bids- like Xavier in 1999- got screwed.
Now, the Slime-ball has taken his act to the SEC- and the well-established pattern continues. Little regard for academic performance, but he's sure got it together on working the system to get more teams than deserved in the Dance. He's gotten the scheduling thing down to a science again- and even with a horribly weak ass SEC, he's been able to minimize the damage, keep the Conference RPI at 6, and there will probably be 5 SEC schools in the Tournament- if for no other reason than he worked his way into the Tournament Committee Chairmanship.
Not all writers are fooled, however. From Elton Alexander in the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday:
"As it stands today, LSU is the cream of the SEC with no other team within 3 games of the Tigers in the overall league standings. Still the SEC as a whole is an example of what the selection committee claims major conferences are not supposed to do.
After Tennessee (RPI 25, non-conference SOS number 2) no SEC team has challenged itself outside of conference. Going into the weekend, two weeks before the end of the season, only one SEC team had played more than 8 road games total. Most, like LSU, were at 7 and a few even less....And to think that Mike Slive, SEC Commissioner, is chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee." . For reference sake, Xavier has played 13 away games.
So why am I ranting about this? Because the SEC is no better than the Atlantic 10 this year in true quality, and arguably worse. Hell, even Charlotte went to Mississippi State and won and the A-10 holds a 5-4 record against the SEC this year. SEC teams have horriffic losses on their resumes like Georgia getting boatraced by 30 to Loyola Chicago. But rather than getting what they truly deserve in the Dance- fighting for 2 or 3 bids like the A-10- because of the Slime Sleight of hand with tons of home games against lots of cupcakes, the SEC will get 5 in with their 6th place ranking.
It is amazing how behavioral patterns never change while the perpertrator very seldom gets called to account.
Meanwhile, I hope that Bernadette McGlade can figure out the same scheduling trickery.
I started referring to Mike Slive as Mike Slime when he was the commissioner of Convict USA- one of the most overhyped, overblown and overrated leagues in sports history. While there were some quality teams in the league- Louisville...,Louisville..., uh, Louisville-, oh yeah, the occasional Marquette with DWade or Memphis or the preening Coiffed One- mostly the league was all reputation with little substance. Boy, could Slime get his teams in the dance with favorable seeds every year, though, because he figured out how to work the scheduling game to job the RPI. The fact that the vast majority of those CUSA teams were gone by the end of the first day, or at most the first weekend, was forgotten the next year when the hype machine started again. Add to that, an abysmal Graduation Rate and Academic Progress reports and it was very clear that ol' Slimy was all about making the jack for his member institutions and propping up false reps rather than caring for the "student athlete." Hey, if he got away with it, what the hell, right? Except that schools deserving of bids- like Xavier in 1999- got screwed.
Now, the Slime-ball has taken his act to the SEC- and the well-established pattern continues. Little regard for academic performance, but he's sure got it together on working the system to get more teams than deserved in the Dance. He's gotten the scheduling thing down to a science again- and even with a horribly weak ass SEC, he's been able to minimize the damage, keep the Conference RPI at 6, and there will probably be 5 SEC schools in the Tournament- if for no other reason than he worked his way into the Tournament Committee Chairmanship.
Not all writers are fooled, however. From Elton Alexander in the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday:
"As it stands today, LSU is the cream of the SEC with no other team within 3 games of the Tigers in the overall league standings. Still the SEC as a whole is an example of what the selection committee claims major conferences are not supposed to do.
After Tennessee (RPI 25, non-conference SOS number 2) no SEC team has challenged itself outside of conference. Going into the weekend, two weeks before the end of the season, only one SEC team had played more than 8 road games total. Most, like LSU, were at 7 and a few even less....And to think that Mike Slive, SEC Commissioner, is chairman of the NCAA Selection Committee." . For reference sake, Xavier has played 13 away games.
So why am I ranting about this? Because the SEC is no better than the Atlantic 10 this year in true quality, and arguably worse. Hell, even Charlotte went to Mississippi State and won and the A-10 holds a 5-4 record against the SEC this year. SEC teams have horriffic losses on their resumes like Georgia getting boatraced by 30 to Loyola Chicago. But rather than getting what they truly deserve in the Dance- fighting for 2 or 3 bids like the A-10- because of the Slime Sleight of hand with tons of home games against lots of cupcakes, the SEC will get 5 in with their 6th place ranking.
It is amazing how behavioral patterns never change while the perpertrator very seldom gets called to account.
Meanwhile, I hope that Bernadette McGlade can figure out the same scheduling trickery.