Selective Service

After 30 years of trying, the NCAA Basketball Tournament's Final Four finally featured all four No. 1 seeds this year.

And in the final game, Kansas rallied to beat Memphis in overtime in one of the most exciting finishes in the history of one of sport's most popular events.

But what if those two teams had met in first round? Fans would have been deprived of watching one of the best teams in the land make its run to the title game, losing before the tournament's shining moment.

The odds of the two best teams meeting in the first round at the NCAA Tournament are remote, because organizers seed the field based on regular-season results and rankings. As a result, good teams are rewarded -- but not guaranteed -- a smooth route to the later rounds.

It's a formula that has created March Madness. But when bull riding organizers made the same sort of move, some fans balked, saying the Professional Bull Riders had gone too far by implementing a draft that allows cowboys to select their bulls at some tour stops.

At a third of the stops on the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series, including this weekend's show in Billings, Mont., the PBR will allow cowboys to draft the bulls they will ride in the second round and the finals.

Some diehard fans argue the draft is unfair and organizers should stick to a traditional random draw. But in reality, the format is nothing new in sports.

Most big-time sports give teams or players an advantage based on previous performance.

Take NASCAR, for example. Drivers must first qualify for a starting position, and to a certain extent, a spot in the field. The fastest car earns the pole position. The pole winner starts the race at the front of the field, and presumably out of harm's way, while slower cars must work their way through traffic to get to the front.

The leading qualifiers also get first choice of pit stalls, which they use to their advantage to ensure a quick trip in and out of the pits. It can mean the difference between winning and losing. Still, qualifying on the pole is no guarantee of victory.

The NFL also seeds its playoffs, even giving the top teams in both the AFC and NFC a first-round bye, a critical reward after a grueling 16-game regular season. But again, it's no guarantee of a championship. Just ask Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Seedings are also used in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. Even golf places its leaders in the final pairings, allowing the leaders to see the scores of those finishing in front of them.

Name a sport, and it's a safe bet previous results are rewarded. So, when the PBR chose to allow its riders to select their bulls, it was simply following a proven format that adds incentive to perform at a high level from the first round to the last.

And still, the PBR only features the draft at 10 of its 32 regular-season shows on the Built Ford Tough Series, leaving plenty for tradition-minded fans. Even during 150 rides at the three-day shows, the draft only comes into play on 60 rides, or about 40 percent of the time.

Randy Bernard, the PBR's chief executive officer, said the draft is a vivid demonstration of how riders think as they pursue a title.

"The draft has added so much more strategy into the sport," Bernard said. "In the past, there was no strategy. It was ride a 2,000 bull for 8 seconds, and if (that bull) fit your style, you had a better chance. But now that you get a chance to select your bull, you're looking for certain attributes that a cowboy likes to see in a bull that he wants to ride. That has a tremendous amount of success written all over it and it's showing up in the numbers."

Still it's no guarantee. Here's how the draft works: Going into the second round, the cowboy with the highest score and stay-on time from the first round gets first pick from a pen of bulls. Second gets the second pick, on down the line. Again, in the finals, the rider with the highest cumulative scores get first choice and so on down the line.

The draft itself was a big hit in Albuquerque on March 29-30. The selection was held at the Sandia Resort and Casino on Saturday morning and more than 200 fans were on hand to watch the cowboys pick their bulls.

"It's a show within itself for the fans," said Cody Lambert, the PBR's longtime livestock director. "Part of our success is that our fans and riders get to mingle every now and then. Here's a chance for fans who have tickets to the Saturday night performance, but on Saturday morning at 11 o'clock, they get to see each rider in a more relaxed atmosphere."

Sonny Sutton, who lives in the West Texas town of Plainview, attended the draft for Round 2 in Albuquerque.

"It think it's real good," said Sutton, who was dressed in a black PBR T-shirt and collected autographs from some of the riders. "Most of them know all of the bulls anyway, and they have a better chance of riding the bulls that they pick."

Sutton's wife, Lois, said the draft is ideal for fans as well. "It gets the fans more involved and makes you feel more a part of it," she said. "I also think that it's great for the riders to be able to choose a bull that fits their riding style."

Seven hours later, fans watched five riders receive scores in the 90s during a dramatic Saturday night show. On Sunday, three riders scored in the 90s in the finals after picking their bulls on a stage in the middle of the arena. L.J. Jenkins, who won the title in Albuquerque, scored in the 90s in both the second and final rounds after picking the bulls in the draft.

"The bulls were great this weekend," Jenkins said after receiving a check worth $44,872. "I drew great and got to pick first in both draft rounds. Both bulls I chose (Savage Shaker and Bona fide) are bulls that I had ridden in the past and knew I could score at least 90 points on."

Bernard said the draft takes fans into the minds of the riders.

"The most exciting part is you are able to have several hundred fans show up at a draft (at the host hotel) who watch and learn why the cowboys are picking those bulls," Bernard said. "Then, that night, those fans who went to the draft are so much more into that event because they have more insight on why a rider such as Kody Lostroh or L.J. Jenkins picked a certain bull.

"To me, that's one of the most important things that you can do for your sport, because now your cowboys are educating your fans."

If a cowboy has the first pick and the bull he's always wanted is available, then he no longer hopes that he'll someday face the animal. All he has to do is blurt out the bull's name.

"The draft has the potential for making historical match-ups," said three-time World Champion Adriano Moraes. "A lot of times, a cowboy will watch a bull's entire career, but will never have a chance of getting on that particular animal that you would love to. But with the draft, you can pick the bulls that you dream about getting on or a bull that you think that you can make a good ride on."

The draft was first used at the Jan. 4-6 tour stop in New York City. Since then, it has helped generate two 95-plus scores. The first was in Worcester, Mass., where Travis Briscoe of Edgewood, N.M., scored 95 on Copperhead Slinger on Jan. 13 to win the title. The second was in St. Louis on Feb. 24 when Renato Nunes won the title after a 95.75 aboard Chicken on a Chain, the PBR's top bull in 2007, which is co-owned by comedian Larry the Cable Guy.

"I picked the best bull in the world today," Nunes said in an interview after his ride. "I always pick a big bull for a big score."

And the 95.75 score was just what Nunes needed to finish ahead of second-place finisher Robson Palermo. Nunes edged Palermo by two points, 359.5 to 357.5, after both men stayed on all four bulls over the weekend.

But in the final round, Nunes was marked three points higher than Palermo, who had a 92.5, and that made the difference. Though Palermo had a higher pick in the draft than Nunes, it did not guarantee that Palermo would finish ahead of Nunes. (Zack Brown had the top draft pick going into the finals, but he was denied the title after being thrown off his last bull).

And when you get right down two it, these cowboys aren't picking saddle ponies. Organizers attempt to provide the best bucking stock so that even the 45th rider in Round 2 or the 15th in the finals has a chance to finish in the money.

"The thing that people have to understand is why the draft works," Murray said. "It works because we have all rank bulls. End of story. I've watched the guys who get stuck with the very last pick and they still have a bucker.

"But, if you tried to do the draft 15 years ago in my era of competing in rodeos, I would be able to tell you who was going to win what place after they picked. But you can't do that in the PBR. So, we have not compromised the integrity of the competition or done anything that's going to mess with the integrity of the sport. All we have done is make it a more interesting subject."

With all that in mind, here are some questions for fans:

1. Has the draft proved to be an innovative way to draw fans deeper into the sport?

2. Are fans learning more about the bull riders and the bulls as the result of watching the draft?

3. Was it necessary for the PBR to add the draft to make the sport more compelling?

4. What can PBR organizers add to make the draft even more exciting for fans?

5. What is the most exciting moment of watching the result of a draft since the PBR began featuring it in early January?

6. If you have watched the draft at a hotel or at a show, what did you think about it?