As a casual fan of basketball, and only when it comes to local teams, I have to admit: NCAA March Madness is the single greatest sporting event in America.

The same event that makes groups of boys scream at the top of their lungs and jump up and down during residence hall quiet hours just so happens to be the most prestigious event in college basketball.

The logistics behind the broadcasting of this event is mind boggling, with up to four games being played simultaneously, all of which are shown throughout four T.V. channels. I don’t even want to imagine the logistics behind organizing venues and travel plans for the teams who earn their bids to the “Big Dance.”

But how does this three-week affair stack up to America’s beloved college football postseason? (For convenience sake, I’ll be using “New Year’s Six” to refer to all bowl games, including, well, the New Year’s Six.) Despite having a longer history, and as such, having a seemingly deeper rooted presence in American pop culture, the New Year’s Six pales in comparison to March Madness.

College Football Stacks the Cards Against Smaller Schools

Because there are 68 teams included in the NCAA tournament, there is room for plenty of underdogs and Cinderellas. Just this year, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (ranked 15th out 16 teams in their bracket) defeated the Michigan State Spartans, who were not only ranked 2nd in their bracket, but were one of the most heavily bet upon in Las Vegas to win the entire tournament. Everyone loves a good upset, but with the New Year’s Six, the opportunity for one is just too rare.

This past post-season, the Peach Bowl featured the 2013 national champion Florida State Seminoles (ranked 9th in the country at the time) against the University of Houston Cougars (14th). Sure, that’s only a difference of five spots, but one must consider what the Cougars had to do to claim that position.

Houston began with an impressive 10-game winning streak until they suffered a loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Cougars managed to win their next game, and eventually, the American Conference championship game.

FSU had played for a national championship the past two years. They began their 2015 season with a 6-0 win streak, and after a “Kick-Six” win by Georgia Tech and a defeat by ACC champion Clemson, ended with a 10-2 record for the year.

The Cougars play in the American Athletic Conference, while the Seminoles play in the ACC. What does all that mean? A Group of Five team dreams of being ranked in the AP Top 25 poll, while some Power Five teams had a “bad year” if they don’t end the season anywhere on the list. A win in the Group of Five does not carry as much weight as a win in the Power Five.

There almost seems to be this unwritten rule that a ratio exists between Power Five and Group of Five wins. For example (albeit, not statistically accurate in the slightest): a single FSU in-conference win could be equal to two Houston in-conference wins. You can probably see what I’m working towards.

While skill wise, it could be argued that if the Seminoles and the Cougars switched their schedules, FSU would’ve made out with another undefeated regular season, while Houston would have been lucky to hit the seven-win mark to qualify for a bowl game.

Regardless, as the best Group of Five team in 2015, the Houston Cougars were selected to play against one of the ACC powerhouse FSU in the Peach Bowl.

And wow, did the Cougars dominate. Ending in a score of 38-24, Houston’s defense beat down an already broken FSU offense, topped off with an incredible performance by quarterback Greg Ward, Jr.. The Cougars took advantage of the injuries and player absences that were plaguing the Seminoles throughout the game and won their first major bowl appearance since 1985.

Why am I making such a big deal about the unleveled odds that seems to exist between the groups of conferences? Because they simply do not provide smaller schools the opportunity to gain the national attention they have earned.

Football Powerhouses are Examples of “Rich Get Richer”

UNC-Asheville. South Dakota State. Hampton. Austin Peay State University. These are just a few of the smaller schools that earned the opportunity to play in college basketball’s most watched event. These schools won their respective conference championships, paving the path for them to play underneath a national spotlight.

While yes, all four teams listed above have since been defeated and their attempt at a national championship ended, they still got the exposure and experience that is so very crucial to building successful collegiate sports programs.

When you have football behemoths that just never stop winning, like reigning national champion University of Alabama (a program that has become so dominate that after a single loss, reporters and analysts begin trying to identify the source of the team’s demise), they get better. And they get better. And guess what?

They get even better.

A team that won more games in AT&T Stadium last season than the stadium’s own NFL home team (the Dallas Cowboys, who only won a single home game, compared to the Alabama Crimson Tide’s pair of wins on the same field) has nothing but experience when it comes to high-pressure situations, like a playoff or championship game.

I think of other programs like FSU, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. Do you want to know how they become juggernauts? They seized opportunities to play in prestigious games.

Do you want to know how to increase the number of powerhouses, which in turn will increase the level of play, as well as the level of entertainment for the fans? Create more opportunities for Group of Five teams to play in similar games.

Rankings in Basketball Mean Nothing, While Rankings in Football Mean Everything

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament is guaranteed to provide exhilarating storylines to follow, year after year.

Middle Tennessee’s upset of highly-favored Michigan State in the first round of play. The University of Northern Iowa’s buzzer-beating upset over Texas, as well as its near upset of highly-ranked Texas A&M. University of Arkansas-Little Rock’s double overtime win upset over Purdue. These are just some of the dramatic “plot twists” that have occurred during this year’s tournament.

While it seems almost more difficult for these underdogs to win in the second round of the event than it was for them to upset a highly-favored opponent in the first, those teams got invaluable experience.

The returning players understand what made them successful enough to punch a ticket to the Big Dance as much as they know what they need to change in order to go farther the following year. Coaches earn more influence when it comes to scouting and recruiting prospective incoming players.

Some schools even see noticeable increases in curricular areas following a successful season from one of their athletic teams.

CBSSports reported that Appalachian State University’s 2007 upset of the Michigan Wolverines’ football team (dubbed “Upset at the Big House”) was, “tied directly to a 17 percent increase in applicants, a 24 percent boost in attendance and a 73 percent rise in licensing royalties,” throughout the following five years.

That’s right folks. App State’s football team improved the overall academic experience of the university. Sports are a beautiful thing, aren’t they?

The World Needs More Upsets

Overall, when the NCAA releases the brackets for the tournament, there are supposed “cake walks” all throughout for high-ranking teams. Just ask Baylor and California how their trip to the cake shop went (reminder: they lost in the first round).

Realistically, the rankings seem to be there mostly just to avoid drawing names from a hat in order to determine which teams play each other, as well as setting up potential rivalry meetings (for example, Indiana vs. Kentucky in the Round of 32).

The rankings of teams in the NCAA tournament seem to be placeholders, while the rankings of teams in the New Year’s Six seem to be either gravestones or plaques. You just simply don’t see the same type of dramatic upsets in the postseason of college football as you do with basketball.

Maybe you don’t care for underdogs and you wish you could just skip to the Sweet 16 and onwards. Personally, the reason I watch the tournament is to be able to say “I know exactly what I was doing when *blank* upset *blank*.”

The NCAA needs to give smaller football programs the same chance to shine as they give to the sport of basketball. Does that mean opening the football playoff system to 16 teams instead of the current four? Well, that’s an entirely different article I plan to write another day.

But would giving more teams the chance to gain experience, recruiting power, and skill increase the competiveness throughout the sport?

Absolutely.

I’d love to see “New Year’s Madness” or “January Madness” in the future for the world of college football. Face it, we can never have too many “30 for 30” documentaries to watch.