A Dream & a nightmare all from one post…

2010 Final Four

One of my dreams for college basketball might just happen according to a small post from the College Sports Info (via the New York Post). It is the one that that would send the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament from CBS to cable, which means that if it was ESPN to be the one taking it over, all the games could be seen thanks to the many channels the network has. This would mean that people would not have to be stuck in front of a computer to watch a game because it’s not in the area and so it’s being televised. From that post the key phrase says this:

CBS is in the midst of an 11-year deal with the NCAA worth about $6 billion. But the college organization has an escape clause that would permit it to end the deal after the 2010 tournament.

If the NCAA was to take this clause and move the tournament out of the hands of CBS, which they should since that network does not do a good job in my opinion, there would be two drawbacks that I can see. One I think is easily fixed, the other not so much. First what would happen to the people that do not get all of the ESPN channels? Well, that is where the computer would come back into play and NCAA.com would still show the games online (which should still happen for the people that work the first round of the tourney). The other, is that the NCAA would be giving up $ 6 billions and they are not going to leave such a money making contract unless they know they are going to get it back from the new partner. In this sub-par economy I am not sure that even the World Leader in Sports is going to shell out that type of money!

But before I got all happy about this possibility, the same post also gave me my worst nightmare when it comes to college hoops. The heads (or should I say empty suits) of the NCAA are thinking of making the tournament one week longer, by moving the number of teams from 65 to 96. And to that I just have one thing to say: “Are you nuts!?!?!?” The old catch phrase “March Madness” is all but out the window with the tournament finishing the first week in April, add another week and we might as well make it start a bit later and call it “May Madness”! The great thing about college basketball is that there are no computers deciding who plays for the national championship, but the other great thing is that not everyone is invited to the dance, and that is why teams need to lay it all on the line.

Bringing the tournament to almost 100 teams will make so many teams coast to the end of the season once they know they have gotten to a certain point, knowing they will be in the tourney. This is just going to make the tournament fill up with teams that win “gimmes” because they played against teams that didn’t give 100% since they were in, while other teams will be left out cause they didn’t have the same luxury. You are also going to find teams with losing records making the tournament, and who truly wants to see 12-14 teams from the Big East making it to the NCAA’s because the tournament coordinators need to fill out the spots. Keep the number at 65, make the tournament something that is worth fighting all season for, do not turn it into the bowl games where most anyone with a .500 record gets in.

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