What ever happened to a legitimate pre-season basketball tournament? What I mean by legitimate is that, if a little school beats a big-bad host school, the little school advances and the host school goes home to lick its wounds.

Well, the 2K Sports Coaches v. Cancer is no longer a legitimate tournament. Apparently, Cal, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Ohio St. are guaranteed to "advance" to the semi-finals of the "tournament" in New York. In other words, if Cal loses to Detroit Mercy tonight, Cal still goes to New York, and Detroit Mercy goes home and misses out on New York.

This kind of fake tournament is bad for the game, and is ultimately a way to keep up and coming teams down and keep the money flowing to the big conferences. In other words, it sucks as much as the BCS. I'm sure its all driven by ratings, but it still renders the tournament a mockery.