Disparity is evident in Final Four

It’s been a crazy postseason for college basketball. Of the more than 5.9 million people who submitted their NCAA tournament bracket to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, only two correctly predicted all four Final Four teams.

If you subscribe to the theory that there is a direct correlation between bracket success and basketball knowledge, President Barack Obama must be great at picking teams or have too much time on his hands, as he is in the 87.8th percentile.

This has been without a doubt one of the wildest NCAA tournaments since the ’80s era, which saw Cinderella winners N.C. State and Villanova.

But the real story of this year’s Final Four featured a pair of traditional basketball blue bloods juxtaposed against two mid-major teams. VCU finished fourth in the pedestrian Colonial Athletic Association, yet attention was largely diverted to the more established programs of Kentucky and Connecticut, led by coaches John Calipari and Jim Calhoun.

It surely pained UNC fans to see Kentucky compete in the Final Four, but Tar Heel basketball supporters can take solace in the knowledge that we do things the “Carolina way.” UNC graduates 88 percent of its players, it doesn’t have any disconcerting associations with NBA owners (Jay-Z) or controversial behind-the-scenes power brokers like William Wesley.

While it is certainly encouraging to see Butler and VCU, two teams that run good, clean programs, compete in the Final Four, it is unfortunate that the Final Four is stained by two teams that remind us of the imperfection of college athletics.

Calipari was forced to vacate both his previous Final Four appearances from the University of Massachusetts and Memphis due to violations during his tenure.

No stranger to probation himself, Calhoun will be playing for his third national championship Monday. Connecticut’s fate is in limbo after a myriad of questions stemming from a recent NCAA investigation into the recruitment of star player Nate Miles. The NCAA placed Connecticut on probation for three years, resulting in a loss of scholarships and recruiting restrictions.

Teams like UConn and Kentucky highlight the winning-at-all-costs mentality found in college basketball.

According to the 2011 NCAA graduation report, Connecticut graduates only 31 percent of its basketball players. Connecticut has company in poor graduation rates among Final Four teams. Kentucky graduates a paltry 44 percent of its basketball players (only 31 percent of its African American players). VCU graduates 56 percent of its players, while Butler graduates an admirable 83 percent.

Kentucky basketball coaching staff is paid the most out of 53 public schools in the six biggest conferences. In return, the program is one of the winningest and most profitable.

As a former Division I athlete on a team that graduated 75 percent of its athletes, I find it upsetting to see both Calipari and Kentucky making so much money without much regard for academics in the process.

Sam Ellis is a sports columnist for the Daily Tar Heel. He is a senior economics and exercise and sport science major from Chapel Hill. Contact him at swellis@email.Unc.Edu.