Oh, you thought this was going to be a post about Villanova, and how they were the best team in college basketball this year, and props to Jay Wright and yada yada yada?  Or maybe you thought this was going to be a ‘way-too-early’ Top 25 list, or a list of which schools have the best odds to win the title next year.  Sorry, no, this post is about the racket that is college basketball.

You know how I know that college basketball is a rigged game?  Look at this list below of the champions from the past 20 years.  It’s a who’s who of college basketball schools and coaches.  Sure, there might be a bit of a chicken and an egg thing going with the likes of Villanova and Florida, and maybe Maryland – were these programs/coaches ELITE before they won, or are they only considered ELITE because they won?  But still, its hard to look at this list of past champions and not see Kevin Ollie as a giant outlier among coaches names (thanks, Shabazz).  And even then, he coached UConn.

Remember this when following the coaching carousel and worrying about whether your school is going to hire Tom Crean, or ‘the guy from UMBC’, or Sister Jean. No one loves a good coaching search as much as me – it doesn’t get much more exciting than following flight trackers, looking up past relationships between your school or Athletic Director and the potential hires, or finding out who’s been searching for high-end real estate in your college town. It’s fun, it’s new, hope springs eternal, all that crap.

If, like me, you hold onto hope that some day you might get to a 3 seed and not get upset in the first round (thanks Coach Alford!), get hot and win 6 in a row, and take home a National Championship, I’ve got news for you.  Quit dreaming.  Look at this list below:

Gee, I wonder which players get paid the most?