Jeff Haney on one betting pro’s fury over what he sees as the NCAA’s blatant bias against Davidson and other mid-majors — all in the name of TV ratings

By Jeff Haney (contact)

Friday, April 4, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Alan Boston was furious the day after the bracket selection was announced for this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Of all the egregious errors committed by the tournament selection committee, Boston said, the worst had to be making the Davidson Wildcats a No. 10 seed in the Midwest Regional, where they were matched against Gonzaga in the first round.

“Either one of those teams could make the Final Four, in my opinion,” Boston said at the time. “They mis-seeded both of them. They have Davidson a 10 seed, and I have them as the 20th-best team in the country overall.

“Gonzaga was also a mis-seed at a 7. And the winner has to play Georgetown in the second round. They just did that to make sure their big-school brethren would advance.”

It was another example of what Boston sees as bias on the part of the NCAA and network TV interests against lesser-known basketball programs — the so-called “mid-majors” and smaller conferences such as the Ivy League, where a “purer” brand of basketball is played, according to Boston.

So now, four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four, big basketball powerhouses all, and no one is more bummed out about it than Boston.

“It (stinks) that all the No. 1 seeds made it,” said Boston, the veteran professional gambler who plans to retire from sports betting after the tournament to focus on golf and poker. “It’s just CBS getting exactly what they want out of the tournament. But it’s exactly what I don’t want.”

Boston’s Final Four expectations were nearly realized for Davidson, which put together a strong run through the tournament’s first four rounds. The Wildcats beat Gonzaga as a small favorite, upset Georgetown as a 4 1/2-point underdog and got past Wisconsin as a 5-point ’dog before losing by 2 points to Kansas, easily covering a 9 1/2-point spread.

Yet Boston wasn’t appeased, and he continued to rail against the injustices visited on his beloved mid-majors.

“Davidson was the story of the whole tournament, but I guess they don’t think that equates to (TV) ratings,” Boston said. “They did everything they could to make sure they’d be knocked out. They had UNLV-Kent (State) an 8-9 game, and Davidson would crush either one. Davidson would be a 5- or 5 1/2-(point) favorite over Oklahoma, and Oklahoma is a 6 seed.”

Davidson and Gonzaga weren’t the only schools given the short end of the stick by the selection committee, Boston said. He pointed out that Butler and South Alabama were paired against each other in the first round, with the winner to meet No. 2 Tennessee; and Drake and Western Kentucky were pitted against each other, even though either team stood a good chance of advancing deep into the tournament.

“You think it’s a coincidence the mid-majors had to play each other?” Boston said. “They (shafted) every one of them. They used to at least be subtle about it. Now they just say (the heck with) it. They make no pretense of the fact they only want their money-hungry big programs in there.

“Why does money have to drive everything? It doesn’t have to be that way. In some places they still try — the Patriot League still tries. The Ivy League doesn’t have a tournament, nor should they.”

Acknowledging TV money has played a role in major sports for years to some degree, Boston said he believes it has never been quite so blatant, at least in college basketball.

“It’s all about money,” he said. “They really (messed) it up this year. The sport’s ruined.”

Boston, not retired yet, gives both underdogs a decent chance of winning outright in Saturday’s semifinals. He likes UCLA as a 2-point underdog against Memphis, and Kansas as a 3 1/2-point underdog against North Carolina.

In a discussion of the head coaches in the NCAA Tournament before it started, Boston identified by name 25 coaches he respects or admires. He named four he particularly dislikes. Two of the four were Bill Self of Kansas and Roy Williams of North Carolina.

UCLA’s Ben Howland earned high marks from Boston, though, along with point guard Darren Collison.

“UCLA is amazing,” Boston said. “They have a great point guard, a great coach, and they’re willing to sacrifice themselves to defend, which a lot of other teams aren’t.”