Debate, analysis as good as the games -- well, almost

It gets crazier and more emotional every year, but what in sports doesn't?

The build up to the NCAA men's basketball tournament is starting to get like recruiting. Bracketology -- I hope whoever coined that word is getting some money out of it -- is an end in itself, building up to last night's "Selection Show." People put out 65-team field projections in December. So now that we know who's in and who's out, and who's playing whom, and where, it's almost like, "Who actually needs the games?" The arguments may be more fun than the actual competition.

Well, maybe not. In truth, the phenomenon known as March Madness begins with the conference tournaments. There is drama aplenty inherent in the One-Bid and Not-Too-Many-Bids conference tournaments, and this year gave us some memorable stuff, including a championship game in the Mid-American Conference that required a 10-minute postgame referee confab before anyone could be certain of anything.

And how about poor Vermont, down by a point to Albany but in possession of the ball with 32 seconds left and unable to get off a shot? Oy. But all credit is due the Great Danes (they deserve a bid just for the nickname) for winning at Vermont's Patrick Gymnasium for the first time in 10 tries, and doing so when it really mattered.

It's hard to believe there will be an NCAA Tournament without either UConn or Syracuse. That's like holding the Oscars without Meryl Streep or Jack Nicholson. The Huskies played themselves out, fair and square. But the 'Cuse was a so-called bubble team that undoubtedly feels put upon this morning. Ten wins in the Big East and no bid? Maybe the message from the selection committee is that next year the Orange should leave the state of New York before January.

At least we won't be hearing all the whining we heard last year from the ACC. When the self-styled "best league in the country" received only four bids in 2006, you would have thought Congress had just passed a law against grits. This year the ACC got seven bids, and that doesn't include either Florida State, with the great Al Thornton, or Clemson, which won its first 17 games ( it was the last Division 1 team to lose) before dropping 10 of its final 14. Clemson's first-round confrontation in the ACC tourney, a 1-pointer Florida State won on a bogus call, was widely viewed as an NCAA elimination game. It wasn't. They're both out.

As sympathetic as we are toward the unrewarded, we've all just got to move on. The selection committee has a brutal job. The members examine every at-large candidate 500 ways, and they still can't be sure they're doing the right thing. We can be romantic; they can't. Thus, while, sure, we'd all like to see gritty Drexel, with its road wins over Villanova, Creighton, and Syracuse (the first two NCAA teams and the third an NCAA team without portfolio), in the tournament rather than boring old Purdue, the committee went for the Big Ten team. Anyway, Boilermakers have feelings, too.

Before we go any further, forget about there being another George Mason scenario this year. It's not going to happen. There will be at least one certified "mystery guest" in the Final Four, but it won't be a darling mid-major. It will be a power conference team that gets hot, like, oh, I dunno, perhaps a Maryland or a Vanderbilt or a Tennessee. How do I know? I just know. One thing I can tell you is that it won't be Boston College.

OK, what about those Eagles? They're in, which is an achievement. I'm sure there were many who thought they'd collapse completely after losing the incredibly infuriating Sean Williams, who, if nothing else, might have thought for half a second about the deserving teammates he was about to let down when he was off doing whatever it was he was doing that forced coach Al Skinner to dismiss him (after what were probably 27 more chances than the two we heard about). With Williams, BC was one of those teams that could beat anyone on the right evening. Without him? The Eagles are still good enough to win an NCAA game, but it's not like last year, when they really were a chic Final Four pick.

What BC, which draws Texas Tech in Round 1, still has going for it, aside from Jared Dudley, is its unusual style. Most teams like to spread the floor. BC forces you to operate in a phone booth, and it takes nonleague foes some getting used to.

For those of you scoring at home, BC is 4-1 lifetime against Bob Knight. The Eagles beat him twice when he was at Army, and they were 2-1 against him at Indiana. They are 1-1 lifetime against Texas Tech. I'm sorry if none of this helps you decide which way to bet.

And God bless those plucky Holy Cross Crusaders. I'm so glad they're back in, because the world needs to be reminded every now and then just what a good coach Ralph Willard is. They will guard you and they will be neither intimidated nor beat themselves. You could make far more stupid predictions than picking them to be the latest 13 seed that disposes of a 4, in this case Southern Illinois. Now that Princeton is no longer Princeton, Holy Cross is the official NCAA Opponent From Hell.

I wish I could be so bubbly about the chances of our third New England entry, but Howie Dickenman and his Central Connecticut Blue Devils know the drill. They have been selected to be the cannon fodder for Ohio State. But they can console themselves with the reality that they have avoided the humiliation of the infamous Dayton play-in game tomorrow night, and if some of the Blue Devils are in the right place at the right time, there might even be photographic evidence available for their progeny that, yes, indeed, Grandpa really did play an NCAA Tournament game against Hall of Famer Greg Oden.

Can Florida repeat? Well, sure it can. The Gators' decisive romp through the SEC tournament indicates that their late-season ennui has been replaced by a proper game face (especially on defense), although it probably would have made coach Billy Donovan happier if someone else had been tabbed as the No. 1 seed in the tournament. But they should be ready to mount a strong defense. Messrs. Noah, Horford, and Brewer all put the NBA on hold this year for just that purpose.

So here's what we know: Florida has the best five. North Carolina has the best 10. Ohio State has the best Inside Force. Texas has the Best Player, and if you won't buy that, can we settle on calling Kevin Durant the Most Breathtaking? I think we can also agree that John Calipari's Memphis team is a scary X-factor and that John Thompson III's Georgetown squad has championship-style two-way balance.

And a 12's beating a 5. Just don't ask me which one.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.