{"id":2198,"date":"2011-03-06T20:42:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T01:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2198"},"modified":"2011-03-06T22:30:24","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T03:30:24","slug":"we-are-rooting-for-vcu-and-you-should-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2198","title":{"rendered":"We Are Rooting for VCU and You Should To"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the next 24 hours, JMUSB is fully on board the VCU bandwagon.\u00a0Sure everyone with a soul was pulling for them to beat George Mason, because well, it was George Mason and we hate them. But\u00a0tomorrow night\u00a0is different. Virtually every bracketologist, talking head, and college hoops writer in the country has George Mason as a lock for an at large bid. And I’m pretty sure that they all have ODU in as well. Therefore if VCU wins tomorrow night and secures the conference’s automatic bid, the CAA will be looking at 3 bids to the big dance. That’s right, the Twitter hashtag #3Bids4CAA<\/a> created by our friend Georghe: The Blog<\/a>, could actually be legitimate.<\/p>\n

Three bids would be unprecedented for the\u00a0CAA. The league has been in existence since 1983 and has only received\u00a0multiple bids\u00a0in 3 seasons, in 1996 when Richmond and Navy were selected, in 2006 when Mason and UNCW were selected, and in 2007 when ODU and VCU were selected. It seems blatantly obvious, but\u00a0fans of all CAA teams except for ODU\u00a0should be jumping on the\u00a0VCU bandwagon with us.\u00a0You’re not a bad fan\u00a0or betraying your team by doing it. I’d actually argue that you’re betraying your team if you don’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me spell it out for you, more bids for the league is better for the league. \u00a0Getting more teams into the dance validates the CAA and ups its profile. Each school\u00a0could recruit better players because coaches could legitimately tell kids that a CAA Championship wasn’t the only way to go dancing. The schools would have greater success going head to head recruiting against A10 and MVC schools, and maybe in a few years start to snag more recruits away from power conferences. The league’s television profile, which is probably a subject for a post of its own, goes up. Instead of scrambling to watch the first few rounds of the tournament online or on regional cable, maybe ESPN\u00a0would broadcast\u00a0them. Instead of having the quality of tournament officiating called into question, maybe the league would actually get some refs that didn’t suck. It’s really a no brainer.<\/p>\n

I’m as disappointed as anyone that JMU bombed out of the tournament Friday night.\u00a0And while I certainly share some of Todd’s frustrations with Coach Brady and don’t dispute that he\u00a0got outcoached by Shaver, I definitely think he’s got the program pointed in the right direction. A VCU\u00a0win tomorrow\u00a0could help accelerate\u00a0JMU’s\u00a0forward\u00a0progress.\u00a0VCU loses and they’re NIT bound.\u00a0If VCU wins, it’s probably a lot\u00a0more likely that the Dukes\u00a0get an NIT bid.\u00a0\u00a0The NIT isn’t where anyone wants to be, but it’s better than playing in the CBI or CIT and it would give Brady a chance to prepare his team for sqauds from bigger and better conferences. It’s the basketball version of spring football, but it could be an important step for the JMU program. So, this might be the only time you ever read this words on the blog, but GO RAMS!<\/p>\n