Who ever said print was a dying medium? Because The Kansas City Star has gifted the world with an amazing March Madness sports cover today, inspired by Mad Max, making it a newspaper actually worth buying. Being that it‘s the KC Star, the point of the concept is obviously centered around the Big 12 and the chaos that it often encounters in the NCAA Tournament.
Then again, who doesn’t encounter chaos this time of year? But when Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner of your conference has been touting you as the best in the country all season long, expectations move up the ladder quickly, especially when you’ve become notorious for BLOWING it so routinely.
This is tremendous. pic.twitter.com/nWUHzXL5y6
— College Sports Only (@CollegeSportsO) March 14, 2016
No, really, it’s been pretty ugly over the last decade:
Unlike a lot of labels in sports, the Big 12’s reputation as a March failure is well earned. In fact, it is the worst-performing major conference in the country over the last decade. The NCAA Tournament is defined by surprises, and surprises can cloud small sample sizes, but this is more than a one-year fluke or three-year trend. Since 2006, the Big 12 is dead last in NCAA Tournament winning percentage and Final Four teams when compared with the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big East, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences.
Ouch. The Big 12 has some work to do or else it’s gonna be a special kind of hell in Thunderdome.
But who cares, it’s the art we’re here to talk about. And there’s even a GIF! Of course there’s a GIF.
https://twitter.com/ChrisFickett/status/709202399408332802
Let the unbridled madness begin.
[H/T @JimMWeber, KC Star]