NCAA - The Issues Dwindle

By Mel Greenberg

Sometimes looming complexity becomes simplified at this time of year.

And so it was that in most championships Saturday, if a wrong team won, the result was inconsequential.

A few things have to finish up Sunday in the Ivy League, Missouri Valley, and America East, but discussion points could be reduced to one team if Hartford beats Boston U. in the America East -- a repeat of last season's championship -- Indiana State prevails in the Missouri, and other than seeing the Cowher family win another biggie, the only thing at stake in the Ivies is the folks in Trenton pulling for Princeton with a chance to add some local flavor if the seeds fall right.

Stony Brook got itself into deep trouble in spite of the RPI by not making it to the title game, but will remain on the board for now to see if it holds up against some middle level teams from the power conferences.

There are no critical wrong losers, Western Kentucky remains a semi-critical wrong loser.

Not much has to be eliminated if we correctly projected some to be already out of the running, even though we are keeping them on the board for discussion purposes after the bracket becomes public.

If it gets down to the last couple of teams, the bubbles on the bubbles appear to be Missouri, Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Washington/Southern Cal, possibly Pittsburgh, and that seems about it.

I have moved TCU over to the lock column -- the Mountain West numbers all hold up along with the respective seasons.

We'll be back Sunday night.

-- Mel