March Madness and Cinderellas

Since it is that time of year again, one of the greatest months in sports, I figured there deserved to be a post about Cinderellas in the Big Dance. In order to do this subject justice, I decided to find out just when Cinderella was used to describe a mid-major that beats some one who isn't suppose to lose to such a "lowly" team. While I couldn't find an exact date when this became popular, Wikipedia (I know, I know) tributes it to Bill Murry's line in Caddyshack, "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion." So by that calculation, 1980. Since 1980 there have been numerous Cinderella teams in the NCAA tournament, most notably Villanova in 1985.

In the last couple of years, the term Cinderella has been given not to just an underachieving team that is now performing, or to an average team that starts over performing, but it is given to mid-majors. While it is practice to give this label to a mid-major team that makes it to the Sweet 16 or farther, it is not necessarily fair, to either the team itself or to the fairytale.

For the mid-major that gets labeled as a fairytale, it can be unfair to them because although they are playing great ball and just because they aren't in one of the BCS conferences, they are labeled a mid-major and considered a "weak" team. For the players on the team, it feels like a slap in the face to be labeled a Cinderella story because they feel like the victories aren't an upset. For example, one of the Cinderellas this year, Northern Iowa (thanks alot for killing my bracket,)is shunning their label as a Cinderella. Another reason that its not fair to the teams is that it implies that it took some sort of magic or a miracle for them to win the game.

For the fairytale itself, it is wrong to label these teams as Cinderella, because for the most part, these teams are a rise tale and not a restoration tale like Cinderella is. To be more accurate to the fairy tales, maybe we should start calling these mid-majors Alladins (too keep the Disney familiarity).

One thing I know for sure is that I love the Cinderella stories of sports (except when they kill my bracket). This tournament has been crazy so far and the Cinderellas compose a quarter of the Sweet 16 this year: Northern Iowa, Cornell, St. Mary's, and Washington*. Who knows maybe for once the Cinderella won't turn into a pumpkin and will win it all this year.

*Washington is not a mid-major but has severely underachieved this season, so they just made it into the tournament and was given an 11th seed.