Could There Be An Anti-Baylor Bias At The NCAA's?

There is no doubt in any valid tennis player's mind that Baylor University plays the finest tennis in the Big 12 and some of the finest in the entire nation. For those of us who officiate, we usually find the Baylor players to be fine young men and women and the coaches some of the best. The only complaint we tend to hear is that the Baylor crowd (and one young man in particular) are over the edge but that too is up for debate.

Since Baylor is without a doubt one of the premier ITA programs in America do you think it is possible that there is an anti-Baylor bias being shown in the NCAA this year? Consider the following:

* Baylor men were in the top 10 yet were sent to Tulsa for their regional instead of hosting in Waco. Don't get sidetracked with this ridiculous argument about travel for the #4 team in the regional because that is disproved on every hand.

* The NCAA officials regularly watch for the Baylor boy, Kendall, when he comes into the tennis facility in College Station. Seems that when Kendall wears regular clothes and cheers (just as long and loudly) for UCLA, nothing is done but the moment that he dons a Baylor shirt, he is escorted out of the facility by the security guards. I personally overheard one of the top NCAA officials bragging to a set of officials how he had seen to it that Kendall was quickly removed from the facility. An official bragging about removing someone kind of negates the reason for his removal--and I would have serious reservations about those reasons. Those of us who serve as referees in the Big 12 deal with Kendall on a regular basis and seem to have no problems controlling his behavior.

* One of the NCAA officials publicly chastised the Baylor women's team for cheering too loudly when they were at midcourt for the deciding match in their dual. I'm not sure its possible for a women's team to cheer too loudly--and especially after watching the Duke and Georgia women cheer in their semi-final match.

* An assistant coach for a Big 12 university recently led a cheer (in his coaching uniform) during their match with Baylor in which they chanted to "send the Nazis back to Germany." This event is so incredulous that it is nearly beyond belief but it is indeed a fact and did happen--with no punitive actions being taken against the school and/or coach.

These are just a few events that cause us to wonder... Not saying that there is an anti-Baylor bias but there is food for thought.