Well March Madness has just begun, but it’s been pretty good to me so far with both my alma maters (North Carolina and Ohio State) and two of my former employers’ teams in the field (Louisville and Binghamton).
The UNC Tar Heels sailed through the first round with a rout of Radford U (101-58) and Inside Higher Ed declared the Heels champions of their “Academic Performance Tournament.”
And while the Fight Hasidim, uhm, Bearcats of Binghamton University, lost to Dook in their first ever NCAA tournament game, the SUNY school can now hold their heads high as the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) has declared the Bearcats winners of the “K Street Classic”, for their tremendous success in spending money on Washington lobbyists.
The Bearcats won the tournament by spending more money on lobbyists than any other school in the 64 team NCAA basketball tournament. In fairness, it should be noted that Bingo’s success in the K Street Classic is not entirely the result of its own efforts because CRP used data on lobbying expenditures for the entire SUNY system to catapult the Bearcats to the championship (Binghamton is the only SUNY school to make the tournament). But that’s okay because Binghamton University doesn’t really take responsibility for the academic or athletic performance of its own basketball team either.
So, now the Bingo Bearcats have made history, despite their loss to Dook, they’re the only team to take the K Street Classic in their first appearance in the tournament!
Track whether the teams spending the most money to influence the government are also scoring the most points on the court by following Open Secret’s lobbying bracket.
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Just goes to show–money can’t buy love (I mean a win)
UAlbany (SUNY Albany) made the NCAA tournament twice before Binghamton did. They actually played one of the best NCAA first round games ever against #1 seeded UCONN in 2006.
They played Virginia in the first round in 2007.