College basketball’s underdogs are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and they’re running wild.

It’s time to batten down the hatches because March Madness is for real. Did anyone pick Stanford and the University of Dayton to play each in the Sweet 16?

I love seeing a scrub team that no one knew anything about make a big run, but this year it’s a little ridiculous because the University of Dayton is all we have left of the underdogs.

Allow me to list a few of this year’s Cinderellas: Kentucky, Harvard, North Dakota State, Mercer, Tennessee, Stephen F. Austin, Dayton and Stanford. Outside of The University of Dayton — the Steve Austin Stone Cold Stunners — Mercer and North Dakota State, this is the worst bunch of underdogs. These aren’t the mid-major schools we’ve come to know and love.

It’s just embarrassing that anyone is calling Kentucky an underdog. The bluest of the blue bloods was an underdog against Wichita State. It’s a topsy-turvy world and we’re living in it.

I smell a conspiracy to rid college basketball of all its scrappy underdogs and replace them with rich, powerful schools masquerading as the low-seeded scrappy teams we love. Come on, Tennessee isn’t an underdog. It’s an SEC school that’s been pretty good all year; what is it doing as an 11 seed?

Harvard is somehow an underdog and its endowment can bankroll governments. Stanford, one of the PAC-12’s jewels, is in the same boat. This is too much.

These aren’t underdogs; these are poorly seeded teams. Kentucky was definitely better than an eight seed. Harvard was better than a 12 seed. Tennessee was better than an 11 seed. The tournament committee did this on purpose.

First, the NCAA Tournament Committee conspired to send Wichita State to an early grave for the crime of daring to be good while being a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. The Midwest Region wasn’t loaded up on teams like eight-seeded Kentucky for no reason. Hey, look there’s Louisville there, too. Hey, Mr. Four Seed Who Should Be a Two Seed, how it’s been feasting on the competition?

Second, they gave bogus seeds to really, really, really, really good teams like Louisville, Kentucky and Tennessee to effectively kill the mid-major Cinderella. We usually associate the Cinderella with a low seed. Now when those low seeds are Kentucky, we’re trapped thinking a team full of McDonald’s All-Americans is our new hero of the tournament.

That’s why we need the University of Dayton to save us from the fate of a Cinderella-free March Madness. The upsets got out of the way early enough to bust brackets, but now all I can see is traditional powerhouses.

Help me, Dayton. You’re my only hope.