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After years of partisan fear and loathing and failed attempts in the Legislature, health care and racial justice advocates want Mississippi voters to force the issue and expand Medicaid at the ballot box.

A nonprofit incorporated by the president of the Mississippi Hospital Association and others has filed preliminary paperwork to start ballot Initiative 76, which would put Medicaid expansion in the state constitution, draw down billions of dollars in federal funds and provide health care to potentially hundreds of thousands of working, low-income, uninsured Mississippians.

Mississippi is one of just 12 states that has refused to expand Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands of citizens without the ability to afford health care coverage and rejecting at least $1 billion per year in federal funds.

“Hospitals and our working poor across the state of Mississippi cannot keep waiting,” MHA President Tim Moore told Mississippi Today on Monday. “There’s all the federal money we are leaving in D.C., our taxpayer dollars that we need to bring back to help our citizens. We do that with everything else, accept federal help, but for some reason not with this.

“It’s time to let the Mississippi voters decide.”

The planning stages of the ballot initiative signals a broad coalition may be on board with the effort. Corey Wiggins, the executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, has worked closely with Moore and others on launching the initiative.

“Medicaid expansion, which would provide healthcare to over 200,000 Mississippians and bring over a billion dollars in federal funds home to our state, is an issue we’ve encouraged legislators to pass for years,” Wiggins told Mississippi Today.

Moore, Hattiesburg pediatrician Dr. John Gaudet and public health executive and advocate Nakeitra Burse incorporated the Healthcare for Mississippi nonprofit and filed the initial paperwork to try to put the issue before voters. On March 31, the Mississippi secretary of state published an initial ballot title and summary in the Clarion Ledger public notice section. Now, those involved would have to collect about 106,000 signatures of registered voters to put the issue before voters, likely in the 2022 midterm elections.

Moore said the Mississippi Hospital Association will vote on Friday whether to join in the initiative push — very likely given the association’s long-running advocacy of expansion to help save financially ailing hospitals across the state and help the uninsured working poor in the poorest state in the nation. Moore said he hopes numerous other groups that have supported expansion will promptly get on board with the initiative drive.

Many health advocates have pushed for Mississippi to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act and draw down billions in federal dollars to a state already heavily reliant on federal spending. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has highlighted health care disparities in the state, which is home to one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents in the nation. Congress further incentivized Mississippi to expand Medicaid in its latest stimulus package, upping the federal match to the 12 states that have resisted expansion.

But state GOP leaders, starting with former Gov. Phil Bryant, have opposed the move, saying they don’t want to help expand “Obamacare” and that they don’t trust the federal government to keep footing the bill, eventually leaving state taxpayers on the hook.

Meanwhile, hospitals — especially smaller rural ones — say they are awash in red ink from providing millions of dollars of care each year to uninsured and unhealthy people in Mississippi.

Current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has remained steadfastly opposed to expanding Medicaid, as has Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said he’s open to discussion on the issue — including last week as the legislature ended its annual session — but expansion has been a nonstarter despite vigorous lobbying efforts by MHA and others.

Just last week, Gunn reiterated his opposition.

“I am not open to Medicaid expansion,” Gunn said. “We cannot afford it, and there are numerous other reasons … Taxpayers cannot afford it.”

Reeves’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

“Hospitals have tried to work very closely with the state leadership since 2013,” Moore said. “And we have just not been able to move things in that direction. At some point in time you just have to make a decision to move along another avenue.”

Mississippi voters last election took matters in hand on another long-running health care issue, overwhelmingly approving a medical marijuana program by enshrining it in the state constitution. Moore said he believes Medicaid expansion is likewise popular with Mississippi voters.

“If you look at just outside, public polling, you’ve seen numbers approaching 60% just with likely Republican voters,” Moore said.

Moore said the ballot initiative language, if successful, will likely be broad approval of expansion, not a long, detailed directive like medical marijuana, which brought some criticism that it tied state leaders hands in creating an effective, regulated program.

“Health care shouldn’t be in the constitution,” Moore said. “Neither should medical marijuana. That’s not what it’s for. It should have been taken up and dealt with in the Mississippi Legislature. But they did not do that. They didn’t handle it, and so you have to take the next step and put it before voters.”

After Healthcare for Mississippi filed its initial paperwork for the initiative, the state attorney general’s office drafted an initial title and ballot summary for Initiative 76. The group can challenge the wording of the title, which it is doing, Moore and Wiggins said.

The AG’s title draft says “Should Mississippi amend its constitution to require expansion of Medicaid eligibility for people between the ages of 18 and 65?” Moore said this is misleading, and “has no mention of low incomes or working poor.”

Mississippi is one of 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid to provide health coverage for people making up to 133% of the federal poverty level, or about $17,600 a year for an individual. Estimates vary from about 170,000 to 400,000 on how many Mississippians would qualify, with GOP leaders claiming the larger number.

The state would pay 10% of the cost — estimates range from about $75 million to more than $150 million a year — and the feds would cover the rest, estimated at $1 billion a year. The Mississippi Hospital Association has pitched a plan to lawmakers that the state share could be paid by taxes on hospitals and fees paid by the new Medicaid enrollees.

But the American Rescue Plan recently passed by Congress would provide further incentives for states that expand Medicaid, dropping the state’s share of the cost further.

“For a number of years, the federal government has been offering us a $1 million a day to take care of sick people,” Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, chair of Senate Public Health recently said. “Now they are offering $1 million a day to take that other $1 million a day. You can’t make this stuff up.”

Mississippi hospitals are footing the bill for uninsured Mississippians, including about $600 million in uncompensated care in 2019, with costs steadily rising. Advocates of Medicaid expansion say it would not only help save Mississippi’s rural hospitals — many of which have either gone under or teeter on the brink of bankruptcy — but create thousands of jobs and help the state’s economy.

“It’s encouraging to see the conversations around improved access to healthcare in Mississippi,” said Dan Jones, vice chancellor and dean emeritus at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “Under current conditions, many hardworking Mississippians in jobs without health insurance coverage could gain access to health care only afforded through health insurance coverage. And this can be accomplished in a way to gain substantial economic benefit for our state.”

While supportive of any effort to expand health care in Mississippi, Jones said he believes the best way forward is through lobbying lawmakers, not the ballot initiative process.

“While I appreciate the effort by some to proceed with a ballot initiative regarding Medicaid reform, in my opinion, working directly with our legislative leaders and members is the ideal way to accomplish the goal of increased healthcare access,” he said. “Our legislature changed our state flag when many thought it an impossible political process. I’m confident the same spirit of moving Mississippi and Mississippians forward can result in improved health care access.”

READ MORE: Mississippi missed out on $7 billion when it did not expand Medicaid. Will that figure jump to $20 billion?

The post ‘Let voters decide’: Ballot initiative to expand Medicaid filed in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Map showing each county’s vaccination progress:

A breakdown of doses administered by race:

Doses administered by age:

Follow all of our COVID-19 vaccine coverage here.

The post Data: Vaccination progress in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

It’s Monday morning, more than 36 hours after the finish of Gonzaga’s remarkable NCAA Tournament victory over UCLA, and I still can’t quit thinking about it — about the absolute beauty of it. I am talking about the level of play, the competitiveness, the drama — all of it.

And, it is also just a few hours before 31-0 Gonzaga will take on 27-2 Baylor in one of the most intriguing Final Four championship games in memory. My take: College basketball doesn’t get any better than this.

And that seems to be the consensus of all the sports writers who have written about it, and all the TV and radio talking heads who have waxed on about it — especially about Gonzaga’s epic overtime victory over UCLA. So, I wondered if coaches felt the same. I wondered if, from a technical standpoint, coaches were as impressed as the rest of us. 

The answer: Yes, they are. Specifically, I talked to Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis Jr. and Mississippi State coach Ben Howland, two coaches who have experienced memorable NCAA Tournament moments themselves. Five years ago, Davis’ Middle Tennessee State team, a 15-seed, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history, knocking off 2-seed Michigan State. Howland has coached four different schools into the NCAA Tournament and guided three of his UCLA teams into the Final Four. They qualify as experts.

“Just unbelievable basketball,” Davis said Monday morning. “Without a doubt one of the best games I have ever seen. I’m talking about how hard both teams played, how well-coached they were and how many big baskets they made, time after time after time.”

Howland, who was traveling, caught only the last few minutes of regulation and overtime of Gonzaga’s semifinal victory. “If the rest of it was like what I saw, I can only imagine,” Howland said. “From what I’ve read and what everybody is saying, it must have been. It was just an incredible finish. I could not believe that ending.”

Gonzaga freshman guard Jalen Suggs banked in a running 40-footer at the buzzer to give the Zags a 93-90 victory. Suggs’ shot was the biggest of a game of big shot after big shot. What made all the buckets seem so special was that both teams also played so well defensively. How many times in college basketball do we see a 93-90 game when both teams play excellent defense? Not many.

And how many times do you see a matchup where the tables are turned as much as they were for UCLA and Gonzaga. “You had UCLA which has won so many championships and been to so many Final Fours coming in as the 11-seed,” Davis said. “You had Gonzaga, which had been to the Final Four only once and had never won the championship, as the big favorite. From that standpoint, it was interesting even before the game.”

He’s right. The hunter had turned into the hunted and vice-versa. Both had no trouble adjusting to the role.

Keep in mind, UCLA, which lost its last four regular season games, was one of the last four teams to even get into the tournament. The Bruins had to win a play-in game to get into the round of 64. Davis’s Ole Miss team was one of the last four out.

“That just goes to show the parity in college basketball,” Davis said.

Davis made another point: “Could you believe how classy (Gonzaga coach Mark) Few was at the end of the game? The natural reaction is to run out there on the floor and celebrate with your players. Mark just turned about and looked at Mick (UCLA coach Cronin). You could tell he felt for him. He’s been there himself. To me that was so classy. Both those guys are as good a guy as they are coaches.”

Both Davis and Howland discussed how Saturday’s games might affect tonight’s. While Gonzaga’s victory had to take both a physical and emotional toll, Baylor won comfortably over Houston in the other semifinal.

Said Davis, “I think it’s more emotional than physical. When you play a game like that, it just takes a mental toll on you. It’s hard to explain how much it affects you emotionally. It’s hard to turn around and get ready with just one day in between.”

Howland agreed, but added, “There’s one way I think it helps Gonzaga. They really hadn’t played a close game all year. They got taken to the limit Saturday night. That’s got to help them.”

So, coaches, who do you like tonight?

“I think it will be close all the way,” Davis said. “Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a lot like the UCLA-Gonzaga game because both these teams are too good, too well-coached to let the other run away with it. Gonzaga is such a great team, but for some reason, my gut says Baylor.”

Howland: “I’ve liked Gonzaga all season long, but Baylor, the way they are playing right now, it’s just hard to go against them. I lean toward Baylor.”

As for me, I still like Gonzaga, and I can’t wait.

The post Does college hoops get any better? How could it? Ben Howland, Kermit Davis agree. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eleven years, four kids, two degrees.

That’s how long Keronique Davis of Robinsonville has been taking classes at Coahoma Community College, how many children she has and the number of degrees she’ll be graduating with in May.

“I’ve had so many jobs — I can’t even count on my fingers how many jobs I’ve had to leave because I didn’t have a babysitter, or I had a babysitter but something happened,” she said, describing how her daughter began having seizures at four months old. 

But she kept coming back to school, and she now works in customer support for Verizon.

She said she was able to juggle it all with the help of the Child Care Payment Program, part of the federal Child Care Development Block Grant. The program defrays the cost of private child care tuition for families that earn 85% of the state median income and meet certain work requirements. Families who receive the voucher pay a co-payment based on income.

According to current data, 98% of those served by the program are single parents.

But until now, many more people qualify for the program in Mississippi than there have been funds to cover. But the two latest federal COVID-19 stimulus packages include a big boost for the program and will result in nearly $330 million flowing to Mississippi to give more families access to assistance.

Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, said this will increase the availability of certificates for eligible families in the state. 

Once the money flows in and gets used, the result is going to be “a lot more moms are going to be able to go to work,” said Burnett. 

“There has been a need for this funding even before the pandemic,” she continued, though the pandemic has “really worsened that situation.” 

Child care providers have closed and lost significant amounts of revenue after having to reduce their capacity to abide by social distancing guidelines, purchase more cleaning equipment and hire additional staff. The stimulus package also included a portion of funding going directly to child care centers to offset the negative impact.

“The need is so great. The benefit of getting help paying the costs of child care is humongous for a single mom,” said Burnett. “It makes a huge difference to her.”

It made a difference for Davis, who said it was a challenge juggling work, school and her children. Her current job allows her to work from home, but dealing with customers on the phone with four children in the background was impossible.

“Now that the day care is back up and running, I can send them to day care and be able to work, then get them when I get off at 5 o’clock,” she said.

The program covers care during the day for young children, in addition to after school and summer care for school-age students up to 12 years old. It also allows parents to choose their providers so they can select one with the hours and services they need.

And the funds are particularly impactful in Mississippi, the state with both the highest child poverty rate and a high percentage of women who work in low-wage jobs. Twenty-two percent of women work in low-paid jobs, according to the National Women’s Law Center, which categorizes low-paid jobs by looking at the 40 lowest paying jobs as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The funds must be obligated by 2023 at the latest and spent by 2024.  

Parents eligible for the program can apply for assistance at this link.

The post Stimulus packages offer big boost for Mississippi parents in need of child care appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today journalists Bobby Harrison, Geoff Pender and Adam Ganucheau are joined by WJTV reporter Thao Ta to break down what happened — and what didn’t — during the 2021 legislative session.

Listen here:

The post Podcast: What happened (and didn’t) in the 2021 legislative session appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The just-completed 2021 legislative session might be remembered more for bills that were not passed than for those that were.

While having little in common, it is fair to say that both Medicaid expansion to cover primarily the working poor and House Speaker’s Philip Gunn’s Tax Freedom Act would have been among the most impactful legislation for the state of Mississippi in decades if they had passed. Whether that impact would be beneficial or detrimental, of course, like most things, would be determined over time.

Neither passed.

The Tax Freedom Act, authored by Gunn and two of his top lieutenants, Speaker Pro Tem Jason White of West and Ways and Means Chair Trey Lamar of Senatobia, passed the House but did not make it out of committee in the Senate.

The proposal would have phased out the state’s income tax, eventually reduced the grocery tax from 7% to 3.5% and increased the sales tax on most other retail items from 7% to 9.5%. In addition, taxes on multiple big-ticket items, such as vehicles and airplanes that have a sales tax rate of 5% or less, would also be increased by 2.5% on each dollar expended on those items.

Like Gunn’s tax plan, the proposal to expand Medicaid would be significant — perhaps the most significant change to the state’s health care system since Mississippi opted into the original Medicaid health care program in 1969. Incidentally, at the time Mississippi was one of the last states to opt into the Medicaid program, a federal-state cooperative. Proving that history does repeat itself, Mississippi is now among the final 12 states not participating in the expansion. Under the original program, poor children, poor pregnant women, disabled people and a segment of the elderly population are eligible for Medicaid.

With the expansion of Medicaid, up to 300,000 people — primarily the working poor — would be eligible for health care coverage. And importantly, the large bulk of the cost of the expansion would be paid by the federal government. Some opponents of expansion, such as Gunn, say the state cannot afford it, are staunchly opposed and show no indication of changing their mind. Other people, though, argue that the expansion will result in an increase in funds for the state treasury. This is especially true, they say, since the American Rescue Plan recently passed by Congress would provide the state of Mississippi an additional $600 million or more over a two-year period just for expanding Medicaid.

Gunn’s tax swap legislation was killed when the Senate leadership opted not to bring it for consideration. The Medicaid expansion legislation was killed by opposition from the legislative leaders who opted to not even bring the legislation up for consideration in committee.

Democrats, who are in a distinct minority in both the House and Senate, did force a vote on the issue of Medicaid expansion before the full membership of both chambers, but with opposition from Republicans leaders there was no chance the proposal would pass.

“It was a hail Mary,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, the Democrat from Jackson who offered the proposal on Medicaid expansion to the House, mimicking a throwing motion and comparing herself jokingly to retiring New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

While both Medicaid expansion and the tax swap bills are dead for the 2021 session, that does not mean the issues are going away.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, spurred at least in part by the speaker’s legislation, said the Senate Finance Committee will study the state’s tax structure during the coming months in advance of the beginning of the 2022 session in January. Lamar, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he anticipates that his committee will participate with the Senate in those hearings.

“We will do everything we can to ensure the legislation is passed,” Lamar said recently.

Hosemann also said the Senate will study the issue of health care access during the coming months. While he did not specifically say that the study would include Medicaid expansion, he did say that “a moniker” should not prevent a solution from being considered because “if you really look at it, you may not be against that. You may just be against some moniker.”

Legislators did pass some significant bills during the 2021 session, such as providing teachers with a $1,000 per year raise and providing money for a modest pay raise for state employees and an even more modest raise for university and community college staff.

But the issues that were most prevalent and possibly impactful during the 2021 session — taxes and Medicaid expansion — could still be around in 2022.

READ MORE: The 2021 Mississippi legislative session sputters to a close.

The post The 2021 session might be remembered most for what didn’t happen appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The “Underreported and Underpunished” series started with a simple question: Had the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a rise in intimate partner violence, and did it further isolate victims or cause more victims to seek help?

When trying to answer that question, I was surprised by the sheer lack of data we have on domestic violence crimes in Mississippi. Advocates and others confirmed this, telling stories of how they cobbled together newspaper reports to track and find details about individual domestic, or interpersonal, violence homicides.

Shelters collect their own court data, and the crime reporting system being used by most law enforcement agencies does not take into account things like the relationship between perpetrator and victim. Despite the introduction of a new system that would track those factors, very few law enforcement agencies are using it.

To further complicate the issue, domestic violence crimes are still sometimes being charged otherwise: simple assault, disturbing the peace and others that don’t tell the complete story of what happened — or the abuser’s propensity for future violence.

And, importantly, we remain one of five states in the nation that doesn’t conduct a domestic violence fatality review, or a review of deaths caused by domestic violence for the purpose of preventing future deaths.

The problem, as I saw it, is that before you can solve or fix an issue, you must understand it. I wondered how anyone was fixing anything in Mississippi, which consistently ranks in the top 20 states in the number of women killed by men, if we don’t have a good grasp on the subject.

I interviewed dozens of shelter directors, advocates and victims, in addition to attorneys, law enforcement officers, lawmakers, federal officials, and even national experts who shared practices that made a difference in other places around the country. I attended and continue to attend proceedings in municipal courtrooms, the courtrooms that handle the majority of domestic violence cases. I also requested data about felony domestic violence crimes from the courts that we are still analyzing.

The result is the ongoing series, which looks not only at laws and policies but tells the stories of real Mississippians who found themselves in an abusive relationship, in addition to the stories of those who are affected by a parent, friend or family member’s experience with domestic violence.

One in three women and one in four men have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That means this is an issue that affects a lot of people — and if it’s impacted you in some way, I want to hear your story.

I once heard that the greatest allies of domestic violence, along with sexual assault, are silence and darkness. These actions, and the power they have over victims, thrive in the shadows.

This is my attempt to bring them to light. I hope you’ll spend some time reading this ongoing series, and stay tuned for future stories. As always, reach out to me any time at kroyals@mississippitoday.org.

The post How we’re reporting our series on domestic violence appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippians could have the final say on whether they should have the same early voting opportunities as voters do in 44 other states and the District of Columbia.

An initiative was filed Thursday with Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office to place on the election ballot a proposal to allow a minimum of 10 days of early voting, including two Saturdays, before each election. Supporters of the initiative will have to garner the signatures of roughly 100,000 registered Mississippi voters — 12% of the total from the last governor’s election — during a year’s time to place the proposal on the ballot. One-fourth of the required number of signatures must come from each of the four U.S. House districts.

Rep. Hester Jackson McCray, D-Horn Lake, said she is sponsoring the initiative in response to requests for early voting from her constituents and because of the long lines she witnessed in the 2020 presidential election and when she campaigned for election in 2019 her home county of DeSoto.

“Voting should not be difficult,” said McCray, the first African American woman elected to the Legislature from DeSoto County. “Long lines discourage voting.”

READ MORE: Despite dramatic electoral and financial setbacks, Hester Jackson-McCray makes legislative history

McCray said she was trying to pass the initiative because the Legislature has refused to act on the issue and because Gov. Tate Reeves has said he would veto any early voting legislation passed by the Legislature. Mississippi is one of six states not to have no excuse early voting.

Early voting and mail-in voting became a partisan issue this past year in large part because former Republican President Donald Trump criticized early voting, and particularly voting by mail.

The proposed initiative would not address the issue of voting by mail. It would allow people to vote early on a voting machine just as they would on Election Day. The number of early voting sites would be determined by the population size of the county or municipality.

Under the initiative plan, each county would have one early voting site at the circuit clerk’s office for state, national and county elections. All municipalities would have a site normally at the city clerk’s office for their elections.

Mississippi has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. People are supposed to have an excuse, such as being elderly, disabled or away from home on election day to vote early in Mississippi.

“We want to change our Mississippi Constitution so that our government must give us all enough time to vote,” said Kelly Jacobs, a DeSoto County community activist who wrote the initiative for McCray.

READ MORE: Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Speaker Philip Gunn once supported early voting. Why did they retreat during COVID-19?

Current Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann voiced support for early voting while serving as secretary of state where he oversaw state elections. He then withdrew that support.

But Hosemann indicated Thursday he might not be opposed to considering the enactment of early voting in the state.

Before the issue of garnering the signatures can start, the proposed language regarding the initiative must be approved through a process involving the offices Secretary of State and Attorney General. That process can take about two months.

Jacobs acknowledged the process of gathering the signatures can be difficult and time-consuming. She said the sponsors will be relying on volunteers, and they hope to raise enough funds to hire professional help.

READ MORE: ‘Practices aimed to suppress the vote’: Mississippi is the only state without early voting for all during pandemic

The post Rep. Jackson-McCray, citing legislative inaction, files early voting ballot initiative appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Men’s college basketball moves to the Final Four this weekend. As has been the case all but one time in NCAA history, no Mississippi team is involved.

No surprise there, our teams just weren’t nearly good enough to get that far. In fact, none of our teams were involved in the NCAA Tournament, period. I’ll stop short of saying they just weren’t good enough for that because you could make a case that both Mississippi State and Ole Miss were both good enough to be in the 68-team tournament. That’s especially true when you look at the nine — count ‘em nine — Big Ten teams that did get in. In contrast, six SEC teams were selected and only one from Conference USA.

My take: There long has been a Big Ten bias where NCAA Tournament selections are concerned that’s never been more evident than this year. Again, nine Big Ten teams were awarded bids and four of those were seeded No. 4 or higher, meaning that the selection committee judged four Big Ten teams to be among the best 16 teams in the country. To which I say:

Ha!

Look at the results. Eight of the nine were eliminated on the first weekend of the tournament. Only No. 1 seed Michigan made it to the round of 16 and UCLA, a No. 11 seed, knocked off the Wolverines in the Elite Eight. It wasn’t just that the Big 10 teams lost; it was how they lost. No. 11 seed Michigan State lost to 11-seed UCLA in a First Four game. No. 4 seed Purdue lost to No. 13 seed North Texas in a first-round game. No. 2 seed Ohio State lost to 15-seed Oral Roberts in a first round game. No. 2 seed Iowa was swamped by 15 points by 7-seed Oregon in the second round. No. 10 seed Maryland was crushed by 19 by 2-seed Alabama in the second round. No. 9 seed Wisconsin lost to 1-seed Baylor by 13. No. 1 seed Illinois lost by 13 to Loyola in the second round. In one of the Big 10’s better performances, No. 10 seed Rutgers lost to 2-seed Houston in the second round.

By anyone’s measure, it was a dismal performance by the league clearly judged best in the nation by the NCAA selection committee. Again, only one of nine Big Ten teams made it past the first weekend. In contrast, two (Alabama and Arkansas) of six SEC schools made it to the Sweet 16. And if you want to look at the league most under-valued, that would be the Pac 12. Four of five Pac 12 teams selected made it to the Sweet 16. The Pac 12 had a 13-5 record in NCAA Tournament games, by far the best of the power conferences. UCLA, which finished in fourth place in the Pac 12, is in the Final Four.

Of the Big Ten teams that made the 68-team field, both Maryland and Michigan State had losing conference records (both were 9-11). Meanwhile, Ole Miss (10-8 in the SEC) and Mississippi State (8-10) were both left out of the field. Was the Big Ten that much better than the SEC? Tournament results definitely say otherwise.

Again, the Pac 12 has an even bigger beef among the power conferences. So, probably, does the Big 12, which had a 9-6 record in the NCAA Tournament with seven teams selected. And, as always, many of the non-power conferences were sorely under-valued. Chief among those is probably the American Athletic Conference. AAC teams, thanks to Houston, achieved a 4-1 record in the NCAA Tournament, pretty swell for a league that had only two teams selected. And AAC member Memphis won the NIT, beating Mississippi State in the finals. Should Memphis have been in the NCAA Tournament? Clearly.

Conference USA was badly under-valued as well, which is nothing new. CUSA has become a one-bid league, which usually means somebody really good is left out. North Texas became the fourth CUSA team in the last five NCAA tournaments to win a first-round NCAA game. No other non-power conference league can say that. Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis knows all about that because his Middle Tennessee State teams were two of those CUSA teams that advanced. Davis’s MTSU teams beat No. 5 seed Minnesota in 2017 and No. 2 seed Michigan State in 2018. If they hadn’t won the CUSA Tournament, they would not have made the NCAA Tournament.

Both Louisiana Tech and Rick Stansbury’s Western Kentucky team were NCAA-worthy this year. Tech was 12-4 in the league. Western was 13-3. North Texas, which won the CUSA tourney and got the league’s only NCAA berth, finished 9-5 (tied for fifth) and then defeated Purdue in the first round.

We could go on and on about the bias against non-power conference teams. Oral Roberts, which finished fourth in the Summit League standings, knocked off Ohio State and Florida before losing by two to Arkansas in the Sweet 16. Oral Roberts finished behind South Dakota State, South Dakota, and North Dakota State in the Summit regular season and would not have made the NCAA field if not for a two-point win over South Dakota State and a there-point win over North Dakota State in the Summit League tourney. Bottom line: There are many terrific, non-televised college basketball teams we never hear about until they pull a huge upset in the NCAA Tournament. And there are many, many terrific teams we never hear about, period, because they don’t make the tournament.

The best NCAA team of all? My vote goes to Gonzaga of the all-powerful West Coast Conference. You can color me shocked if Gonzaga doesn’t win it all.

The post As we move to the Final Four, let’s look at obvious NCAA selection bias appeared first on Mississippi Today.