Perhaps it's the same with basketball tournaments.

In the case of the ACC Tournament, though, its latest attempt to move forward has it entering uncharted, dangerous waters.

The 55-year-old tournament adopted as its theme song this year "Shawty Get Loose" by Lil Mama, a booty-shaking singer of barely discernible talent in tight leather pants.

Nothing personal, you dig; some of my best friends are booty-shaking singers in tight leather pants.

Why, oh why would the tradition-bound, staid ACC adopt a hootchy song as its theme song?

By a show of hands, how many of you cringed every time the promotion for the video, ring tone and CD came on during timeouts or at halftime?

I've heard some funny things in life -- an elephant passing gas being one of the funnier ones. (Hey, I'm a man.)

Few things are funnier or more disturbing, though, than hearing ACC frontman Mike Hogewood say "Shawty Get Loose" when urging fans to buy the song's ring tones "as heard on BET."

Listen to a lot of Black Entertainment Television, do ya', Mike?

I doubt it. Raymond Rivera is guessing that neither Hogewood nor anyone else at ACC headquarters does, either.

Rivera, a retired major from the Cheshire Correctional Institution, Connecticut's largest prison facility, now lives in Raleigh. He sent me a copy of the "Shawty" lyrics.

Oy vey! The good news is that they're mostly incomprehensible even when read. The bad news is that they're mostly incomprehensible even when read. Listen to enough music and you'll realize one thing: When you don't know what they're saying, you probably need to.

Rivera said, "I'm all for the First Amendment. [That] gives Lil Mama the right to sing what she wants to sing. However, the ACC should scrutinize a bit closer what they are associating themselves with. ... I have been working with troubled youth and adults for over 28 years and the young kids are very impressionable. When they hear this type of stuff they think of women as just objects. ... They need to rethink that song."

Indeed they do.

An ACC employee said Raycom, not the ACC, was responsible for the telecasts' music. I was unable to reach anyone at Raycom's Charlotte office.

Here's all you need to know, though. The tournament was held at Bobcats Arena, named for and owned by Robert "Bobcat" Johnson. Johnson, you recall, made billions from BET, glorifying the most despicable images of black people.

Under Bobcat, BET reportedly stood for Booties Every Time, and programming consisted mainly of hootchy mamas in thongs and high heels.

Is the ACC that desperate to reach young people as a way of replenishing its fan base?

Not from where I'm sitting or sat. At eateries and drinkeries where I watched the games, hip-hoppers with pants hanging off their butts and Goths with black fingernails and colored mohawks cheered lustily.

Regardless of the type of music promoted by Raycom, though, fans needn't worry about the ACC Tournament being taken over by Goths or hip-hoppers. Think about it: Neither'll be able to afford tickets -- unless they pry them from grampa's cold, dead hands before their parents do.