NCAA Basketball: Is the Selection Committee ruining college basketball?
By Shaun Gordon
Fans love an underdog, especially in the NCAA Tournament. The Selection Committee doesn’t though, and they’re setting a dangerous precedent that could ruin college basketball.
March is the best month of the year for sports.
The NBA is hitting the home stretch, with teams battling for playoff berths and seeding. MLB is just getting started, a sign that spring is finally here. The NFL combine is the first football in a couple of months and begins the hype heading into the draft.
And of course there’s March Madness.
College basketball brings us the biggest month-long sporting spectacle that comes on a yearly basis. Millions of people fill out brackets on ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, or in their office pool.
People who haven’t watched a single game during the regular season will tune in with some form of rooting interest. They’ll pick their bracket based off of colors, or mascots, or a million other reasons besides on-court performance. Then they’ll watch the games to root for those teams they’ve picked.
College basketball survives, and even thrives, because they have the best postseason format in any sport on any level. Few people care about the regular season, but they sure pay attention as soon as the Big Dance tips off.
The NCAA Tournament keeps college hoops alive.
And the NCAA Selection Committee just might kill it.
They’re not doing it on purpose. They have every reason to keep the tournament popular and keep viewers tuned in and engaged.
But the decisions they’ve made in recent years, if the trends continue, will weaken the tournament and drive ratings down.