As Georgetown goes to the Sweet 16 this weekend, everyone from CEOs to train conductors are sweating over their NCAA Tournament brackets in the hope of winning their pool. NCAA basketball has gone from a competition between colleges to a national circus, and in the process college students have lost their central role. Student input, opinions and relevancy have gone the way of the granny shot in the face of High-Definition broadcasts and corporate sponsorship. Each week, the Associated Press & ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls rank teams and decide which are the best. College students just go to the games.
But a group called the Student Writer Poll, founded by Igor Khayet (SFS’06) and Daniel Singer of the University of Kansas, is trying to make student voices more prominent. They’re introducing a new poll voted on by college newspaper sports editors. Students should support it as a unique source of insight into the performance of NCAA teams and because it increases the role of students in the NCAA. Though this poll cannot replace the other two polls, there is reason to believe it could do a better job.
One concern with a poll based on student opinions is possible bias towards their own schools, but by inviting every Division 1 college sports editor to vote, bias should cancel out. The ESPN/USA Today Poll, by contrast, only polls 31 Division I basketball coaches. Schools like Georgetown, which have two newspapers, will alternate which sports editor votes in the poll on a yearly basis. The poll will also be transparent, so editors can be held accountable for their vote.
Another possible objection to the SWP is that student journalists will not be able to produce as accurate of a poll as the two major ones. But the big two aren’t good enough, and perhaps the SWP can keep them honest. The polls fluctuate a great deal from week to week, evaluating teams based on how many wins they had, and against whom, the previous week. Teams aren’t judged by how good they are—how they play defense and how well they pass. Take Georgetown as an example. Our Hoyas struggled early in the year, losing to Old Dominion, Oregon, and Duke, among others. They fell off the AP and Coaches Polls’ radars. How does a team go from being passed over to being a popular favorite to win it all? Sure, Georgetown has improved since their early season slump, but the team was always good.
The SWP can find a niche in the national spotlight by taking on a more thoughtful approach to the rankings. Students have a comparative advantage because the best way to judge how good a team is is to watch it play on a consistent basis. And if the student poll gains legitimacy, NCAA basketball would be influenced by the very people—students—that should have the biggest stake in the sport.
