Sorry, I can’t let it go. Little by little, the selection committee is squeezing the fun out of the NCAA Tournament. Every year, fewer and fewer mid-majors get invited to the Big Dance. For me, it’s like waking up on Christmas morning and discovering that there are a lot more clothes than toys under the tree this year.

You know the saying about a tree falling in the woods? Well, what if there was a mid-major out there capable of making a George Masontype run, but it didn’t get in? Would it make a noise? Would basketball fans even know?

And trust me, the people who run the tournament don’t want mid-majors to even reach the Sweet 16. That’s why they give teams like Siena and Butler ninth seeds, which honors them but pits them against a No. 1 seed in the second round.

It makes me sad and angry. I want to take it out on someone. How about a couple of the most powerful and obnoxious entities in the sport? Dick Vitale and the Big East.

Vitale came out Sunday night and, drawing on his vast reservoir of hoop knowledge, predicted that the four No. 1 seeds (Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh and North Carolina) would reach the Final Four. Come on, Dickie V. That’s the best you could come up with? Sure, the top four seeds reached the Final Four last year for the first time. But do you really believe it’ll happen again?

The tournament is more wide open than ever. There are no great teams and few great players.

The difference from the top team to the 30th isn’t that wide anymore. And really, how much fun is it to pick the chalk in this event? If you’re filling out a bracket, don’t you like taking a long shot? Wouldn’t you like to puff your chest out and say you predicted that a top seed would go down in the second round?

The Big East isn’t as good as people think. No league is that good. It’s a very good league, but it’s overrated. Its reputation has been inflated by its size, its TV exposure and eastern media hype. One respected eastern writer predicted that seven Big East teams would make it to the Elite Eight. Why stop there. Why not pick all eight?

There’s not a team in the field that couldn’t get bumped off before the Elite Eight. That’s how watered-down the talent is nowadays. This UConn team isn’t close to Calhoun’s championship teams of 2004 and 1999, or several of the UConn teams that didn’t reach the Final Four, for that matter.

It seems every time a team rose to No. 1 this year, it lost. A stunning 19 of the top 25 teams in the country lost in the week leading up to the selections. Kansas and Memphis, who played in the national title game in 2008, went through radical roster changes and are still considered threats to win it all. That tells you how balanced things are.

This could be one of those years when a secondary team from a major conference makes a deep run. It would be nice to see another George Mason story. But the chances are dim, because the NCAA is doing all it can to squash the mid-majors. Only four mid-majors got at-large bids this year, the fewest since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any upsets. I wouldn’t count on any No. 1 seeds going down in the first round. They’re 96-0 since the field was expanded to 64. It’s not likely a No. 2 will fall early. They’ve gone 92-4 in first-round games. The last 15 seed to win a game was

Hampton over Iowa State in 2001. The No. 3 seeds are 82-14. Only two No. 14 seeds have won in the last nine years: Northwestern State over Iowa in 2006, Bucknell over Kansas in ‘05.

If you’re looking for upsets in your bracket, you’ll have more success going after the fourth and fifth seeds. No. 13 seeds are 20-76 in the first round. Two of them won last year:

Siena beat Vanderbilt and San Diego knocked off UConn. The No. 12 seeds are 28-68 going back to the first 64-team tourney. Western Kentucky took out Drake a year ago.

A couple of years ago, the top five seeds went 20-0 in the opening round. That’s a rarity.

Considering the parity in today’s game, there could be quite a few this year. As usual, I see upsets lurking around every corner. But keep in mind, double digit seeds that win the first game generally lose in the second round.

Injuries are a big factor this year. UConn is 4-3 since losing shooting guard Jerome Dyson with a knee injury. Marquette is without guard Dominic James. Illinois likely will be without guard Chester Frazier. West Virginia’s Joe Mazulla, the star of a second-round upset of Duke last March, is gone with a shoulder injury. North Carolina guard Ty Lawson is hobbled by a toe injury that kept him out of the ACC Tournament.

It could be a wild tournament. All four No. 1 seeds have reached the Sweet 16 the past four years. I don’t see that continuing this time around. Something tells me at least one of the Big East’s No. 1 seeds is going down in the second game. The Big 12 and ACC should have more teams still dancing heading into the second weekend.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s subregional action. By a sleeper, I mean a team seeded below fourth that is capable of making a run to the Final Four.

Midwest

Game to Watch: Siena-Ohio State. An intriguing clash between Siena, which is 27th in the nation in scoring, and improving Ohio State, which is 40th in scoring defense. The Saints got the best seed for a MAAC team in 18 years. Be careful what you wish for. Win here and Siena gets to play Louisville. This Siena team isn’t as good as the one that upset Vanderbilt in the first round last year.

Upset City: Cleveland State over Wake Forest. Wake is very talented, with several NBA talents on the roster, led by sophomore guard Jeff Teague. The Demon Deacons are fifth in the country in scoring. But Cleveland State is 11th in scoring defense and will disrupt an erratic Wake offense that is 250th in assist-to-turnover ratio. The Vikings, led by senior point guard Cedric Jackson, got better as the season went along and beat Butler in the Horizon final.

Sleeper: Boston College. The Eagles are erratic. They beat North Carolina, then lost to Harvard (Harvard!) in their next game. But they have balanced scoring and a terrific senior point guard in Tyrese Rice, who is fearless at the end of games. Keep an eye on Rakim Sanders, a dynamic 6-foot-5 sophomore.

Did you know? Ben Woodside, the senior guard from North Dakota State, has the top scoring average of any player in the tourney at 22.8 a game. Woodside, who is among the top 15 in the country in scoring and assists, had 60 points in a game against Stephen F. Austin this year.

West

Game to watch: Washington-Mississippi State. A much closer game than the seeds suggest, featuring two of the nation’s top big men. Washington’s Jon Brockman has led the Pac-10 in rebounding three years in a row. MSU’s Jarvis Varnado leads the country in blocked shots. Washington is 13th in the land in scoring and MSU is 17th in field-goal defense. At times, Washington plays three guards under 6-foot, including 5-8 freshman Isaiah Thomas.

Upset City: Utah State over Marquette: You wonder why Stew Morrill is still at Utah State, which is 267-90 in his 11 seasons, with 10 straight 20-win seasons and six trips to the Dance. The WAC was down, but the Aggies won 30 games. They don’t turn the ball over. They shoot 40 percent on threepointers. Marquette, which is 1-5 since Dominic James broke his foot, is ripe.

Sleeper: Texas A&M. The Aggies are the most dangerous low seed in the Dance. They won their last six games in the Big 12 regular season. They beat Missouri by 10. They lost a tough second-round game to UCLA a year ago. They have a strong, experienced front line and a rising coach in Mark Turgeon. Look out, UConn.

Did you know? Cornell won 20 games in consecutive years for the first time in the the Big Red’s 110-year basketball history. Ryan Wittman, their leading scorer, is the son of Randy Wittman, who won a national title at Indiana under Bobby Knight in 1981 and was a long-time NBA player and coach.

East

Game to watch: UCLAVCU. The Bruins have reached three straight Final Fours, but they’re in deep against VCU, as Buffalo hoop fans will attest. The Rams stunned Duke in the first round at HSBC Arena two years ago, then lost to Pitt in OT. Eric Maynor, whose shot beat Duke with two seconds left in ’07, is now a senior and 11th in the nation in scoring at 22.4 a game. UCLA isn’t as good defensively this year, but it’s hard to see Ben Howland losing early.

Upset City: Portland State over Xavier. Xavier is over-seeded at 4. The Musketeers finished 5-5. Portland State is fourth in the country in threepointers and Xavier doesn’t defend the three that well. Xavier doesn’t shoot free throws well. Portland State, which made the field a year ago, has balance and experience, plus a fine senior point guard in 5-6 Jeremiah Dominguez. They’re the Vikings, like Cleveland State. I sense a trend here.

Sleeper: Oklahoma State. Another live team from the Big 12. The Cowboys are coached by Travis Ford, a Rick Pitino disciple. That means they’re a scrappy team that loves to trap, press, shoot threes and even play four guards at times. They are small, though.

Did you know? Minnesota’s Tubby Smith is taking his fourth team to the tournament. So is our old pal, Michigan’s John Beilein. Smith also did it with Tulsa, Georgia and Kentucky. Beilein also went with Canisius, Richmond and West Virginia. Five other coaches have taken four teams: Lefty Driesell, Jim Harrick, Lon Kruger, Rick Pitino and Eddie Sutton.

South

Game to watch:Who else but Syracuse-Stephen F. Austin? Buffalo hoop fans get to see the Niagara Falls tandem, Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris. This is also a fascinating clash of styles. Syracuse is eighth in the country in scoring (81.1 ppg) and sixth in field-goal percentage (48.8). S. F. Austin, from Nacogdoches, the oldest city in Texas, is second in the country in field-goal ‘D’. The Orangemen are turnover-prone and mediocre from the line. Remember, they lost in the first round the last time they made a tourney run.

Upset City: Western Kentucky over Illinois. Maybe the Big East is a tad overrated, but the Big Ten getting seven teams in the tourney is a joke. What’s worse, most of them play boring, low-scoring games. The Illini were upset-ripe even before Chester Frazier’s injury. The Hilltoppers (love that nickname) made the Sweet 16 as a 12 seed last year, so what the heck?

Sleeper: Arizona State. Two words. James Harden. ASU’s 6-5 lefty guard might be the top guard in America. He’s one of three sophomores to win Pac-10 player of the year, along with Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd. The Sun Devils play an aggressive 2-3 zone that could create a showdown of 2-3’s against Syracuse in the second round, assuming the ’Cuse gets there.

Did you know? In 11 of the last 13 years, either North Carolina or Duke (or both) has played in their home state in the NCAA’s. Both are in Greensboro this week.

To comment on this story, go to the Sully on Sports blog at www.buffalonews.com/blogs