March Madness will be here soon. This is America’s most exciting sports tournament. It features unlikely teams making it deep in the tournament and NBA prospects shining bright on the largest stage for college basketball. There are also endless thrilling finishes that will keep any fan glued to their television for hours.
As is always the case with people, it’s easy to pick at and complain about the smallest things even in the most favorable of situations. Mia Berry was the Andscape author who played this role for the famous race-baiting site.
The article attempted to shine light on how HBCU teams that made the tournament did not get very high seeding (Hampton University got a 12-seed in the women’s tournament eight years ago, the highest for an HBCU), and how this is a blatant disrespect to HBCUs.
“I don’t think we should be playing Baylor, to be honest with you,” Norfolk State’s Robert Jones, the MEAC Coach of the Year, told The Virginian-Pilot. “I don’t understand what more we’ve got to do to get higher than a 16 seed. If you’re going to put us as a 16, you might as well just put us in the First Four. At least you can make the experience longer and better, which we plan to do.”
It is ironic this comes from a coach who, when he was a 15 seed in 2012, managed to shock Missouri with a first-round victory in March Madness.
However, regardless of how the program performs in the tournament, it isn’t a sign that HBCUs are disrespectful for their unfavorable seeding. This is because HBCUs don’t play in competitive conferences and therefore get poor seeding.
There are five conferences that HBCUs participate in at the Division I and Division II levels, and the two D1 conferences that sent teams to this year’s tournament – Norfolk State from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Texas Southern from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) – were both ranked incredibly low in terms of overall strength of the conference.
At the beginning of the season, the SWAC and MEAC were ranked 30th and 31st out of 32 conferences in all of division one, respectively, with the best team in either conference landing no higher than 208th out of 358 teams nationwide (Prairie A&M from the SWAC took that spot). It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the seeding for week conference teams is so unfavorable in one-bid conferences such as these.
The bottom line: HBCUs will not be overlooked by the NCAA selection panel. They won’t get better seeding until their programs and conferences are stronger. Seeding is not awarded based off your school’s history, it is based on how you play that year.
And that’s how it should stay.
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