Championship week is one of the best weeks of the entire College Basketball season. There will certainly be some great games in the big conferences like the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 (All of which will probably send at least six teams to the Tourney). But this week is all about the conferences and teams more importantly that the average fan might not know anything about. All week long, every single non-power conference championship game will be shown somewhere on the ESPN family of networks for the entire country to watch. The one thing I've learned over the years watching these games is to expect the unexpected. Unlike the bigger conferences who send multiple teams to the dance, these smaller conferences only get to send one, making it do or die, winner take all. This sets the stage for fantastic finishes, storming the court, and some March "Madness."
There are 32 conferences in College Basketball, with only six of those being power conferences. Along with these six, there will only be a few other conferences that send multiple schools to the tournament. So over the course of this next week, most of these conference champions will be the only representatives from their conferences. These championship games will have so much emotion to them that it will feel like their Super Bowl. The winning teams always go crazy and jump around uncontrollably like a little kid in a candy store. For the teams who don't find a way to win, it is easy to see the frustration on their faces. To get that close to the dance and fall short is hard to deal with. It's truly something that you just won't get with the Big Ten because half of those teams are already going and don't have to improve their resume's this week.
We have already seen two big upsets as Tournament teams from last year Belmont and FGCU lost at home in their conference championships over the weekend. Florida Gulf Coast became the first 15 seed to ever make the sweet sixteen last year, but will not be going this time around. In their places is Eastern Kentucky and Mercer. Expect plenty of other upsets to take place this week and especially when the tournament gets going next week. This year especially since parity in college basketball might be at an all-time high. There is no team this year where you look at and say that whoever they play will be an automatic win. Could this finally be the year a 16 beats a 1? We almost got that last year when Southern lost to Gonzaga by only six points. I'm not saying it will happen, but don't be stunned if it does. So as you sit back and watch these conference championships, think about the importance of these games for teams like Weber State, Delaware, Robert Morris, and all the other small schools who want to see their name called sunday night. It's going to be a great couple of weeks, so as former WR Terrell Owens once said, "get your popcorn ready."
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