Niagra defeated Florida A&M tonight, 77-69, in Dayton, Ohio, in the NCAA Men’s Tournament play-in game. I don’t intend any disrespect to the participants there, but despite whatever fancy name the NCAA honchos here in Indy have cooked up for it, it’s still just the play-in game. It’s a game with little at stake, save for the opportunity to be thumped by a #1 seed two nights later (this year, the honor goes to Kansas). Few TV viewers tune in, the local Dayton crowd couldn’t care less, and in the ultimate injustice of it all, a conference champion has its season reduced to a footnote.

Niagra senior forward Clif Brown, shown here in action against Siena, scored 32 points to lead the Metro Atlantic Conference champion Purple Eagles over the MEAC champion, Florida A&M. (image courtesy of purpleeagles.com)

This has become another annual rant for me, so I’ll let the argument come from Florida A&M coach Mike Gillespie, as in the linked article:

“Let the last two at-large teams come to this game,” Gillespie said. “We won our tournament. We didn’t finish second or third. We didn’t lose in the first round. All the games we won, the tournament we won, and we still had to come here.”

Hear hear, Coach. It may only seem like the opportunity to get thumped by a big-conference powerhouse to some, but for others, like the kids who play hard for small schools like Niagra and Florida A&M, it’s their one chance to be relevant to the basketball community as a whole. To be on national TV in a game everyone actually cares about.

To be treated like a champion, not like The Little Engine That Can’t.