So it’s come to this

I wrote an earlier post about how I had no NCAA brackets to consult this year. The Final Four has now been set, and there are no VCU-type cinderella stories this year. Louisville, Kansas and Kentucky are among the entrenched elite of college basketball, and even the team that wears scarlet and gray has had more than its share of success over the years. So it’s one more weekend without baseball, and then on to the baseball season, at last.

I don’t want to do this, but I’m pulling for that school that comes from Columbus, Ohio to win it all (I can’t even bring myself to say their full name, or that silly “the” that comes in front of it). It’s the only Big Ten school left standing, and since the SEC has a hammerlock on the college football scene, everyone else has to grab what little bit of glory is left over.

The Big Ten Network, which I don’t have anymore after canceling cable TV, has been effective at making all of the Big Ten schools feel like part of something, well, Big. It’s a big dust-up between all the schools during the regular season, but then it’s time to close ranks and pull for the conference standard-bearer when the other schools and conferences are involved.

I employed a similar philosophy last fall, when I begrudgingly went on the record as favoring the Cardinals over the Rangers in the World Series.  It’s quite easy to hate on the State, particularly after the football scandal that erupted last year, but the truth is  I want to have a rooting interest for the games next weekend.

Since I’m lacking a good reason to pull for any of the other schools playing in New Orleans next week, I’ll  pull for the Buckeyes. But I won’t like it, not one little bit. And I’ll be much happier once it’s over, when baseball season will be just a few days away.