A 20-Loss Team Will Be In the NCAA Tournament

This is easily one of my favorite times of the year...NCAA tournament time. Every single year I spend hours filling out brackets in an attempt to win fame and notoriety for picking George Mason to "Cinderella" its way into the Final Four. However, as much as I love the tournament, there are also certain elements I loathe, including the fact that a team with 20-losses will get to participate.

The Liberty University Flames secured their spot in the NCAA tournament this weekend with a win in the Big South Conference Tournament. Because every conference gets one automatic bid for its champion, the Flames are taking a spot away from any number of much more deserving teams.

Now, there is a big part of me that loves the fact that these little schools get national recognition for making the tournament and sometimes they even give the bigger schools a run for their money. Every single year there are a couple of smaller schools that surprise everyone and make it through to the round of 16 but more often than not, these little schools get trounced in the first round and lose by 30, 40, and sometimes even 50 points. Odds are, Liberty will be one of those teams.

Unfortunately for "bubble" teams, the only real way to guarantee your spot in the NCAA tournament is to win your conference tournament, like the Creighton Blue Jays (pictured above.) That's exactly what Liberty did. They may have had a terrible year...but they won when it mattered. So, as much as it may bother me that a 20-loss team is in the tournament...they earned their spot fair and square.

Good luck, Liberty. Let's hope you get the play-in game and aren't scheduled to take on the Indiana Hoosiers in the first round.

By the way, if you want to try and out-pick me in this years tournament, sign up for the 96.5 The Fox Bracket Buster by clicking HERE. Good luck...You're going to need it.

[SOURCE: Deadspin.com]