North Texas should be in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010, and there is nothing stopping the NCAA from putting the Mean Green in there.
The same for Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Prairie View A&M, Baylor, and maybe even Texas, in the field of 68. And on the women's side, we're talking about Baylor, Texas A&M, Rice, Texas and TCU.
Along with virtually every other notable sporting event in North America, the NCAA canceled its men's and women's basketball tournament last week.
March 15, 2020 was scheduled to be Selection Sunday but instead it's another day of counting toilet paper.
Of all the cancellations and postponements, losing the tourney hurts the most. The Thursday-Friday of the first round of the NCAA Tournament are the best two days on the sports calendar.
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA VP for men's basketball, told CBS Sports last week there was a potential plan for a 16-team tournament to be held in Atlanta, where the Final Four was scheduled. It was a discussion to salvage at least a portion of the men's and women's tournaments.
The plan for a condensed tourney never advanced beyond the discussion phase when it became apparent that we are not returning to our regularly scheduled programming any time soon.
Since the NCAA can't hold the games, release the bracket. Go on the regular season records, and announce it all. The players and coaches earned that much.
The NCAA is considering the idea, according to Gavitt via CBS Sports. On Sunday morning, Gavitt said there will be no bracket release.
"I think releasing a bracket would be neat for our student-athletes," North Texas athletic director Wren Backer said Saturday. "It's just one more part of the experience they could take part in."
Baker was quick to acknowledge the flaw to this plan.
All of the men and women who comprise the respective selection committees work at colleges and universities that are basically in a crisis mode. All of the schools are on extended spring breaks, or canceled the spring semester all together.
As an AD, Baker knows these selection committee members have more important issues. Since the NCAA has granted every student athlete who plays a spring sport an additional year of eligibility, schools now must now sort the process of making that equation work.
"Those individuals have been swamped with meetings to discuss precautions and adjustments to take in their respective campus community," Baker said.
Basically, there are more important issues than a completing a tourney bracket that will never be used.
When the time is right, and the schedule allows, the NCAA should acknowledge all of the teams that had the type of season worthy of a bid to its tournament.
Make the bracket. Put it on the NCAA.org website, and give the teams that had those seasons the chance to take pride in the selection.
Of course it won't be the same as Selection Sunday. No cameras in meeting rooms where audiences can see live reactions of players and coaches celebrating their selection as they see their names on the bracket.
No CBS live shots of dejected players and coaches who don't see their name, knowing they are doomed for a life in the NIT.
No Charles Barkley pretending that he has even watched more than 15 minutes of college basketball.
No watching of the exact some car commercial 34,415 times during the three weeks of tournament coverage.
No more of the Twitter rage from sports journalists about the unfairness of student athletes not being paid.
Nothing can replace Selection Sunday, and the actual games that follow.
For the teams that earned a bid, however, they deserve to put it on their banner.
Teams like UNT and SFA, the bid is the season. Even as the 12, 13, 14, or 15 seed.
For teams like Baylor, Kansas, Dayton and San Diego State, all of which had a realistic chance of reaching the Final Four and winning the national title, the bracket will be hallow.
Fill it out anyways.
This was the best Baylor team ever under Scott Drew. The Bears should have been a No. 1 seed. That's an achievement BU earned, and it should be acknowledged.
The NCAA didn't want to cancel its cash cow tournament, and none of us wants to dread going to the grocery store, but this is where we all are.
Make the best of it. Fill out the bracket, so when the players and coaches who compiled these records can look back at the season and know they were a 2020 NCAA tournament team.
