I consider myself a Patriot. I always have been.
I can be seen wearing the colors proudly waving the banner back and forth, but I’m not wearing red, white, and blue.
No, today I’m jumping on the green and gold bandwagon. I’m screaming with a hoarse voice in a desperate effort to show support for “my guys” and no one is going to kick me off. Not Florida, UCLA, or LSU.
General Motors better watch out. Not only are they losing billions of dollars and market share, but now they are losing their initials to a commuter school in Fairfax County, Va. Forget G-Dub, how about G-Mase.
I’m also a history buff, so G-Mase is right up my alley. The original George Mason, the actual person, was one of the framers of the Constitution. Very cool. But he refused to sign it because the idealist demanded that the abolition of slavery be included in it.
This historical fact drew me to the green and gold, that is once their men’s basketball team became the lowest seed (an 11) to make the Final Four in 20 years and knocked off three defending national champions (First round Michigan State, Second Round North Carolina, Elite Eight Connecticut) to get there.
Just like the original G-Mase, today’s version is stirring up trouble, outside of just busting brackets. They’re bringing the idealism back to college basketball.
Division I has successfully divided itself, but instead of North and South, it’s major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12, SEC) versus mid-majors (CAA, Missouri Valley, MACC, WAC, Mountain West, WCC). The Patriots, however, have refused to conform to this design.
They have proven a mid-major team from the Colonial Athletic Association who was not even supposed to be here—and by here I mean in the NCAA tournament at all—is equal to the perceived establishment. Forget equal, they have proven they are better.
The Patriots’ run and the success of other mid-majors such as Bradley, Wichita State, Northwestern State, Bucknell, and Gonzaga—who despite popular belief still plays in the “mid-major” West Coast Conference—in this year’s tournament will have a serious impact on the future of college basketball.
The term mid-major will disappear. Equality takes time to be recognized and people, or in this case teams, like George Mason are needed to get things done.
The talent at many of these schools has come to match many power conference schools and this year’s tournament has shown it. Big East schools are going to have to start scheduling CAA schools; the Big Ten will have to battle Missouri Valley teams.
They have to now. The NCAA Tournament Selection committee has already proven they are not afriad to pass on the likes of Michigan, Florida State, and Cincinnati for the teams like G-Mase, Wichita State, and Southern Illinois, and they certainly won’t change this approach anytime soon.
After this year the NCAA selection committee will certainly have no hesitation about giving Creighton, the fourth best school in this year’s Missouri Valley Conference, an at-large bid over, say, the eighth or ninth ranked team in the behemoth Big East or SEC.
These match-ups will also bring in the television cameras along with the other mainstream press and eliminate the seclusion these wonderful players and programs suffer from. The exposure will aid the old mid-majors’ ability to recruit big name players, stealing them from their reputable foes further narrowing the gap between the monster conferences and the upstarts.
The new face of college hoops can be described with one word: parity.
The movement was already beginning. The Patriots might have just accelerated it.
The original George Mason demanded equality. The green and gold are still carrying his torch, all the way to the Final Four.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual writer and do not necessarily represent those of The Polytechnic or the sports department.
