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When the NCAA tournament kicks off tomorrow there are two schools which stand to make a shitload of money. One is the big-time college basketball program that wins the title. The other is the small conference school which rises above all the others to become the tournament’s #1 lovable, never-say-die, faith-in-humanity-restoring underdog.

So how much does a deep tournament run reward schools from one-bid conferences? Rober Baker, the director of George Mason’s Center for Sports Management, decided to find out. Baker’s research found that since Mason’s Final Four run:

• Admissions inquiries increased 350 percent
• Out-of-state applications increased 40 percent
• Total freshman applications increased 22 percent from the 2005-06 academic year
• Active alumni increased 25 percent, while online registration rose 52 percent
• GoMason.com (the official Athletics web site) page views increased 503 percent, while unique viewers increased 702 percent in March 2006
• Men’s basketball games have consistently had CAA record-setting attendance for home games in 2007 and 2008, and season ticket sales doubled in one year
• An estimated $677,474,659 in free media was earned by Mason during the 2006 NCAA Tournament through national, regional and local broadcast, print and electronic media coverage (including games)

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. Of course both the college application process and NCAA basketball revenue acquisition tend to be zero-sum games. That is not good for James Madison and Old Dominion.

Finally, before finding your ass groove on the couch tomorrow afternoon, check out my tournament preview for SI.com.

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That’s what the NCAA selection committee thinks.

St. Joseph’s went 9-7 in the A-10, 21-12 overall. Their most impressive non-conference win came against Sienna. The only thing they had going for them was two wins against Xavier.

Ohio State wen 10-8 in the Big 10, 19-13 overall. Their big non-conference wins came against Syracuse, Florida, and UMBC. They also beat Purdue and Michigan State.

So which of these teams got into the tournament? St. Joseph’s of course.

Now let’s move onto the big boys.

Xavier finished 14-2 in the A-10, 27-6 overall. They didn’t make their conference tournament championship game. They’re big non-conference wins were against Indiana and Kansas State.

Wisconsin finished 16-2 in the Big 10, 29-4 overall. They won their conference tournament. In addition to beating Texas, Wisconsin beat Indiana and Michigan State twice.

Somehow, Wisconsin dropped to a #3 seed while the committed ignored Xavier’s conference tournament loss and and generously handed them the same seed as Wisconsin.

I don’t blame the committee for shafting the Big 10. The Big 10 sucks, and everybody knows it. But the A-10 lovefest that went on Sunday evening might be the conference’s most unexpected boon since Cuttino Mobley was draining threes to lead Rhode Island to the Elite Eight.

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The University of New Mexico athletic department has a new sponsor—-Route 66 Casino Hotel. The five-year, $2.5 million deal means that Route 66 will be the “exclusive gaming sponsor for the Lobos athletic department.”

This is great news. One of the hardest things for an athletic department to do is commit to just one gaming sponsor. Usually some of their people are more inclined to go to the racetrack and some are more inclined to spend their time in casinos. And what about the people who prefer more of an online experience? It can be impossible to find one sponsor who can provide all those things. That’s why it’s so great New Mexico found a gaming sponsor for everybody. It’s a momentous day for college athletics.

Unfortunately, there are some crazies out there who think it’s inappropriate for casinos to sponsor college athletic departments. What these crazies need to do is break out of their archaic, irrationally conservative, anti-gambling mindset and realize that Route 66 has just as much of a right to sponsor college athletes as Nike or Adidas. This is a great partnership that will do wonders for these kids.

On a completely unrelated note, I wouldn’t recommend betting on New Mexico to cover the spread any time in the next five years.

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Attention loyal Shakedownsports readers: I’ve decided to do more liveblogging. Why? Because there’s a lot of stuff I want to write, but I forget it because I’m too lazy to write it down at the time. I’m not sure when all this liveblogging will happen—it will most likely be arbitrary and without warning. Sometimes I might just decide to liveblog random 40 minute stretches of whatever is on TV.

First up is tonight’s Maryland Duke game. Joining me today is my older brother, one of many proud former Maryland students. Let’s get to it.

7:02—Mike Patrick draws a blank while going through his prepared intro and to fill the dead air he ends up calling Md.-Duke the best rivalry in college basketball. Umm…maybe…if you don’t count a bunch of other rivalries.

7:06—Bambale Osby stuffs a Kyle Singler dunk attempt. It might be the block of the year. (Blocks are always much better when they involve a white guy and a black guy. If the white guy gets blocked by a black guy its funny and pathetic. If the white white guy blocks a black guy than it’s a crazy improbably play. Singler’s dunk attempt was funny and pathetic.

7:10—Osby makes another unbelievable block, only this time a questionable foul is called. “Henderson was in Bambale’s vertical space!” my brother yells. On the next possession Osby misses 5 straight layups and then beats Paulus to grab the loose ball outside the three point line. Where’s the hustle, Greg?

7:14—Brian Zoubek comes into the game for Duke. I don’t know why. I always root for Duke to lose, and I’m happy when he comes into the game. That should tell you something, Coach K.

7:15—Kyle Singler hits a jumper on the move, showcasing the NBA ready game that Mike Krzyzewski has no idea how to utilize. (Also see: Henderson, Gerald)

7:17—Zoubek tries to chase down a long rebound, but instead of recklessly diving into the stands and risking injury like Coach K teaches, he just tries to keep his feet in bounds. That’s a first for a Duke player.

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What would you do for Duke-UNC tickets? If you answered “stand in front of a thousand people and drink a mixture of raw eggs, feathers, and leg hair while dressed in a speedo,” well, somebody already did it.

The aforementioned display of human ingenuity was part of UNC’s annual “What Would You Do For Dook Tickets” contest, the place where students can be their true disgusting selves and still maintaining an air of socially acceptability. In case you were wondering, the team that finished 2nd drank a mixture of raw fish, clam juice, wet dog food, cheez whiz, and tobacco dip spit.

Nice work. You really showed Duke who’s better. Dogs don’t even eat wet dog food.

Anyway, I’m not mentioning all of this to show the great failures in our education system. I’m mentioning this because in many ways UNC’s contest is an excellent (and by “excellent” I mean “economically efficient”) method of giving out tickets.

The way to generate the most utility is to give the tickets to the people who value them the most. The easiest way to do that is to give them to the people who are willing to pay the most. Unfortunately, this isn’t fair to the people currently going through monetary complications. We live in a relatively moral society, and that’s why most tickets are not sold in auction by Sotheby’s.

But there are other ways to get tickets to the people who value them the most. Regrettably, rather than thinking of a way to do this, many schools just have a lottery. This is why UNC’s contest is so great. It’s a non-monetary way for students to show that they value the tickets the most. Sure, it discriminates against people with weak stomachs, but that’s better than discriminating against poor college students.

Here’s my point. Schools should try harder to find a way to get tickets into the hands of students who want them the most. Why not reserve a few hundred tickets and have a series of contests. Give some to people who wait in line the longest. For people who don’t have that kind of time, there could be a trivia contest or a short essay contest. Almost anything can be used as a way to find those students who will get the most utility out of their tickets. It won’t solve the mortgage crisis, but it will make a few die-hard college basketball fans a little happier.

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Percy Romeo Miller, a.k.a Lil Romeo, has signed a letter of intent to play basketball at USC. Here is his go-to quote about the decision.

This is the most important thing I’ve had to do and hopefully it sends a message to kids across the country that education is more important than money.

Interesting. That’s not the message I get. The message I get is that NBA stars get better girls than hip hop stars.

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(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–Michael Jordan’s son, Jeff, made his debut for the University of Illinois earlier this week. The walk-on got finally got off the bench late in the second half and missed his only shot of the game. While it wasn’t a very Jordan-like performance on the court, after the game Jeff did manage to call Kwame Brown a “fag” a bunch of times.

–The Detroit Red Wings managed to escape injury when their team plane slipped off a runway at St. Louis Downtown Airport and got stuck in the mud. Hey, it’s just like when Gus Frerotte quarterbacks the Rams’ offense.

–The University of Louisville is suing Duke for canceling three football games the two schools had agreed to play. The amazing thing is that one of the reasons Louisville seeks damages is that the cancellation cost them an opponent from a quality conference (the Cardinals were forced to replace Duke with Indiana State). So basically, for the first time ever, a school is angry they won’t get to play an opponent as good as Duke. This might be the greatest Duke football moment of the last 15 years.

–British soccer star Steven Gerrard is backing calls to institute a quota on foreign players in the Premier League. It sounds harsh, but that kind of thing is fairly common in sports. David Stern has a quota on the wnumber of referees who can have gambling problems, and the Yankees have a loose quota on the number of players who are allowed to be paid twice what they’re worth.

…And don’t forget about the week 11 picks.

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It’s been five long years without a Dunleavy in college basketball, but the wait is now over. James Dunleavy (Mike’s son and Mike Jr’s brother) could see some time this year as a walk-on for Tim Floyd at USC.

Here’s my question. When Coach K was recruiting Mike Jr., he famously told Mike that he hadn’t wanted a recruit this bad since Grant Hill. So Did Floyd tell James that he hadn’t wanted a stiff white guy this bad since Brian Scalabrine? That would have sold me on USC.

According to Dunleavy Sr. James “has big-time range, pro-three range, a quick release,” and “he’s a pretty good passer.” Of course the only thing missing is the guidance of Coach K that would undoubtedly turn James into a superstar. (Wait…how did this turn into a Duke bashing post?)

Despite being lightly recruited, Dunleavy hopes to get better. Or at least taller.

“The doctor says I’ll keep growing,” he said, “so hopefully that will happen.”

Something tells me O.J. Mayo is not too concerned about losing playing time.

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(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–Indiana officials say that Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations were discovered by an intern who was reviewing previously approved phone records for an NCAA progress report. The blame here is all on Sampson. He should have done a better job endearing himself to the athletic department’s interns. Hopefully now he has learned that Boggle is not an appropriate end-of-the-year thank-you gift.

–Some NHL players have begun practicing with a special heated skate blade that allows them to go faster by reducing gliding friction. The blades are powered by a rechargeable battery and small microprocessor in each skate. The skates seem like a good idea, and they can get Al Gore’s green endorsement there’s no telling how successful they can be.

–Certain advocates, including Dennis Kucinich, are beginning to make a fuss that publicly financed stadiums are a misuse of taxpayer funds. They believe congress should ban the use of tax-exempt financing for stadiums so that more taxpayer money will be spent on schools, roads, and bridges. So basically they’re saying that it’s more important for a kid to learn his multiplication tables than pay $60 for a baseball ticket while big corporations make money by wining and dining clients in corporate luxury boxes. What a bunch of crazies.

–After nearly 10 months Boise State finally has their hands on last year’s Fiesta Bowl-winning football. The man who got the football after Ian Johnson flung it into the stands says he was happy to give it back never once considered selling it. I don’t know…it seems like some schadenfreude loving Texas fan would have ponied up a lot of cash for the ball. At least the guy didn’t think about sending it into outer space.

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For the last few months everybody has been wondering who will be the next target of Jason Whitlock’s unaffected scorn. Now we finally have the answer. Joining Mike Lupica, Al Sharpton, and Scoop Jackson on Whitlock’s hate list is Ball State athletic director Tom Collins. During a visit to his alma mater last week Whitlock made it known he’s not a fan of Collins’ work.

“I do believe we have one of the weakest athletic directors in Division I. You just expect from a leadership position, it’s like being a quarterback or head coach, you have the personality for it or you don’t. We have a guy that doesn’t have the personality for it.”

“I don’t have any money to give Ball State as long as he is here. Not that I give a whole lot of money, but he kills my enthusiasm and I don’t have any confidence in what we’re doing. So, I guess my protest is whatever $2,000 or $3,000 I give, or whatever I’ve given the last 12 years, I’m withholding until we get a new AD.”

“Unfortunately, we hired a weak leader and we didn’t allow him to hire his own people, which probably is a good thing because then we would be stuck with other people that aren’t that good.”

Those are some pretty harsh words. Personally, I think that Whitlock is just angry the school named its new media building after David Letterman and not him. As for the $3,000 donation, if the school the really wants to recoup that money it can just rent out the campus for another porno shoot.

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