Did You Hear? Morehead State Gets To Play An Extra Game!

I don't know why I even need to tell you guys this since I'm sure you spent your St. Patrick's Day glued to the television for the game, but Morehead State beat Alabama State in last night's play-in game for the NCAA tournament.

It's a wonderful story about a basketball team that is going to its first NCAA tournament since 1984 and will have a chance to make fans remember the school for reasons other than being the Alma mater of Phil Simms.

And the story will end on Friday about two minutes into the opening game against top-seeded Louisville.

The NCAA basketball play in game might be the most hapless game in sports. It's scheduled after the seeds are selected, so it's already an anti-climatic moment for most fans. Not that anyone cares because the winner gets to be fed to a number one seed. The play in game is like battling for a chance to ride on the Titanic: it's an exciting moment to think about, but will end in disaster.

I'm sure the players and fans at Morehead State are talking about shocking the world and how they just have to believe (insert underdog sports pep talk here), but I'm sure if you went all Professor X and read their minds, you'd find that they know they're going to lose.

I'll elucidate for you just how pointless this play in game is:

Since the play-in game began back in 2001, the winner has gone into the NCAA tournament and lost by the following scores:
2001: 96-54
2002: 85-70
2003: 82-61
2004: 96-76
2005: 96-68
2006: 58-45 (whew, that was almost a close one!)
2007: 107-67
2008: 113-74

If you just skipped all of those numbers because they made you tired I'll sum it up: the play in winner has lost by an average of 30 points.

So let's change the schedule of the play in game to before the selection show. That way the play-in winner can at least sit around and enjoy their official selection for a few extra days before it all comes grinding to a halt when the first game is played.