Yup, it's madness all right. It's madness to play an entire season and then throw out all of the accomplishments of that season for one game against an opponent you have never seen before. Madness to give automatic bids to teams who may have a chance to have one good game and beat a big boy, but throughout the season, could not hold up against the big boys or 50 teams who didn't make the dance. Madness that a team that finishes 12-8 in a conference is in 2nd place and a 4 seed in the tournament and a team that finishes 9-11 in that same conference and beats several teams in the dance (one twice) can't even get invited to the consolation tournament.
Finally, madness that college basketball is a shadow of what it once was, when all of the elite players stayed for 4 years and the most physically talented players weren't a group of one-and-done freshmen. The thing that differentiates the NBA star caliber players from all of the others of similar size, speed, and strength is that the NBA star caliber players are almost all elite scorers, players with unique skill sets to put up significant points nearly every night. ALL of those players are out of college by the end of March of their freshman year, before their game has been fully developed. That's one of the reasons why a team in the dance this year was only able to put up 40 points in a 40 minute game.
The lack of elite scorers evens the playing field enough in a "one loss and you go home tournament" that any freakish thing can happen, and as we have seen the past few years, it has. Some people think that this is great! Yeah, watching basketball with at best G-league players is SO much fun! Shoot, it's almost as fun as the choice I have in early June every year to either watch the Braves (with some of the best players in the world on both teams) or the CWS.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while College Football still has a broad appeal despite the multiple recent changes designed to destroy it, College Basketball has relegated itself to the level of other minor sports, where the interest is primarily on campus or friends and family. Sure, March Madness makes a lot of TV money because it's a reason to have parties and not watch most of the other crap on TV, but it's become really bad basketball.
Finally, madness that college basketball is a shadow of what it once was, when all of the elite players stayed for 4 years and the most physically talented players weren't a group of one-and-done freshmen. The thing that differentiates the NBA star caliber players from all of the others of similar size, speed, and strength is that the NBA star caliber players are almost all elite scorers, players with unique skill sets to put up significant points nearly every night. ALL of those players are out of college by the end of March of their freshman year, before their game has been fully developed. That's one of the reasons why a team in the dance this year was only able to put up 40 points in a 40 minute game.
The lack of elite scorers evens the playing field enough in a "one loss and you go home tournament" that any freakish thing can happen, and as we have seen the past few years, it has. Some people think that this is great! Yeah, watching basketball with at best G-league players is SO much fun! Shoot, it's almost as fun as the choice I have in early June every year to either watch the Braves (with some of the best players in the world on both teams) or the CWS.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while College Football still has a broad appeal despite the multiple recent changes designed to destroy it, College Basketball has relegated itself to the level of other minor sports, where the interest is primarily on campus or friends and family. Sure, March Madness makes a lot of TV money because it's a reason to have parties and not watch most of the other crap on TV, but it's become really bad basketball.
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