{"id":627,"date":"2011-03-27T19:33:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T23:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/?p=627"},"modified":"2011-03-28T05:27:56","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T09:27:56","slug":"vcu-and-butler-heroes-shifting-the-balance-of-power-in-ncaa-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/2011\/03\/27\/vcu-and-butler-heroes-shifting-the-balance-of-power-in-ncaa-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"VCU and Butler: Heroes Shifting the Balance of Power in NCAA Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost inevitably in life one sees a clash between top dogs and underdogs, between the "haves" and the "have-nots". \u00a0NCAA basketball features such a division. There are the "Big Six" conferences that have traditionally dominated the college basketball scene, schools comprising the Big East, the Big Ten, the ACC, the Big 12, the Pac 10, and the SEC.<\/p>\n

The remaining non-Big Six teams, representing over 80% of college basketball, are underdog schools who are given little respect and little chance of ever prevailing over their Big Six brethren.<\/p>\n

But the past two NCAA tournaments have witnessed a shift in the balance of power, along with a slowness of the Big Six and the national media to recognize it.\u00a0 More and more, the underdogs are kicking sand in the faces of the Big Six.<\/p>\n

Last year, Butler University from the little-known Horizon League came within a whisker of defeating Duke for the national championship.\u00a0 And in this year's Final Four, Butler is joined by VCU from the Colonial Athletic Association, making half the Final Four non Big Six teams who are still, somehow, viewed as underdogs.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is very clear that the Big Six, along with the major media outlets who cover them, are fiercely resisting the notion that their era of dominance is over.\u00a0 It is human nature for those in power to have blinders when it comes to acknowledging that their power has weakened.\u00a0 Denial is indeed a powerful psychological force.<\/p>\n

Heroes are people who prevail even when others don't believe in them.\u00a0 VCU's fabulous journey to the Final Four was fueled, in part, by the disrespect shown them by the basketball elite who continue to overestimate the Big Six and underestimate the parity that now exists across the basketball landscape.<\/p>\n

A lesson can be learned here:\u00a0 Beware hubris.\u00a0 Human history is replete with stories of powerful entities whose demise was caused, in part, by their inability to recognize when their power has eroded.\u00a0 Butler's near-miss last year should have put a dent in the massive hubris on display among NCAA basketball media moguls.\u00a0 But it didn't.<\/p>\n

Either Butler or VCU has to win the national championship for the Big Six to finally admit that they aren't so big anymore.\u00a0 As we work in the city of Richmond, we're rooting for VCU.<\/p>\n

Go Rams!<\/p>\n

– – – – –<\/p>\n

Do you have a hero that you would like us to profile?\u00a0 If so, please contact Scott Allison at sallison@richmond.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals Almost inevitably in life one sees a clash between top dogs and underdogs, between the "haves" and the "have-nots". \u00a0NCAA basketball features such a division. There are the "Big Six" conferences that have traditionally dominated the college basketball scene, schools comprising the Big East, the Big Ten, … Continue reading VCU and Butler: Heroes Shifting the Balance of Power in NCAA Basketball<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-heroes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phawtM-a7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}